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It’s Thanksgiving — a time for family, gratitude and historical revision of an indigenous genocide. Unfortunately for many Americans, Thanksgiving has become a time for overeating, followed by weight gain and inevitable self-loathing.
But there’s an easy way to break the natural cycle of holiday contempt for yourself. And don’t worry. It’s not body positivity or detangling your worth from calorie intake — it’s something that’s actually possible!
I’m talking about intuitive eating. You probably know this diet method from those fitness Instagram accounts you follow that make you sad about your thigh girth. It’s a simple way to manage your food intake and be deserving of kindness and respect from others — and eventually even yourself. Maybe.
With intuitive eating, there are no restrictions and no limitations. Instead of focusing on the forbidden, this food system celebrates all the delish nutrients your body naturally needs, like phosphorus, chromium and folic acid. Yum!
The best part? This revolutionary nutrition concept has only one rule: Eat what you want when you’re hungry and don’t eat when you’re not hungry. Piece of cake, right? (If you’re hungry for cake, that is.)
To make sure you totally understand this straightforward food lifestyle in time for Thanksgiving, here are a few easy sub-rules that’ll help you apply that one super basic rule, which is so simple, it barely needs sub-rules!
Listen to you
Stop calorie counting. Just learn how to eat! You’re probably thinking: “But I know how to eat. That’s my problem!” No. 1, there are no problems with your body, only opportunities. Major opportunities. And No. 2, no, you don’t! You’re eating with your brain now. Well, with your mouth. But, your brain’s at the wheel. Instead, picture your appetite as a driverless car, but the driverless driver is your stomach. Don’t think about what you want to eat. Feel what you need to eat. Then enjoy whatever your stomach cues you to eat, as long as you’re sure it’s not what your brain’s telling you to eat. And that’s really it! Listen to your body — but not the brain part of your body, the rest of it — and you’ll have a healthful holiday.
Know true hunger
Before you take a bite of Thanksgiving dinner, ask yourself, “Why am I eating?” Is it because your stomach’s growling or because it’s “time” to eat? Is it because you feel hunger pangs or because refusing to eat Thanksgiving dinner would be “weird”? Is it because you have blurred vision from low blood sugar or because if you don’t eat, your mother will think no one likes her cooking, lock herself in the basement half-bath, and insist your Step-Aunt Brenda host next year? If your reasons for eating are anything aside from the early stages of malnutrition, put down your fork and wait until you’re truly grateful for even a small bite of food. That is the spirit of the holiday, after all.
Stop with labels
Forget “good” foods and “bad” foods. There’s only food your body wants and food it doesn’t. Some days, your body wants a kale salad. On Thanksgiving, your body might want pumpkin cheesecake. Both are 100 percent fine as long as you’re listening to your body’s needs and exclusively choosing food that’s labeled whole, organic and no sugar added, which pumpkin cheesecake would never be. So, bad example. If you find yourself craving that pumpkin cheesecake, which I accidentally said was fine before, step away from the table, head into the kitchen and whip up something your body actually wants — like a yummy bowl of brown rice. Garnish with a small sprinkle of cinnamon and voilà! But remember, portion control!
Focus on food
We all multitask when we eat, especially at the holidays. Those non-meal distractions make it hard to register our body’s cues of fullness. Don’t mindlessly graze as you tablescape or scarf down your dinner while explaining to friends and family why your boyfriend of three years refused to come home with you. Make food your singular focus while eating. Of course, there will be conversations at the Thanksgiving table. And that’s completely O.K. — as long as you stay out of them. Don’t speak and try not to listen. Earplugs are a good idea or, if you can, simply avoid all noise. Light is also hugely distracting. Think about a blindfold. The easiest way to dodge all the commotion is to take your plate away from the crowd entirely. Sneak into the basement half-bath after your mother uses it as a meltdown closet. Turn the lights off, lock the door and relish your dinner alone on the toilet.
