Gather 'round the yuletide glow and unwrap the gift of self-care as we explore the festive challenge of managing binge eating during the holiday season. Your guide through this winter wonderland of well-being is me, Jo, your friendly neighborhood registered dietitian and intuitive eating counselor. Together, we'll construct a practical checklist, ensuring your Christmas is sprinkled with joy rather than sprinkles of stress. From navigating holiday feasts with ease to maintaining a serene slumber amidst the jingle bell rock, this episode stitches a quilt of comfort and support, tailored to keep your spirits bright and your healthy habits in sight.
This cozy episode is not just about the do's and don'ts—but about savoring the season with soul-nourishing activities and fostering conversations that celebrate more than what's on our plates. Should the occasional binge unwrapping happen, fret not; we're here to guide, not judge, as we sip on the cocoa of compassion and resilience. So, tuck in for a sleigh ride of insightful strategies, and remember, by the time the credits roll, you'll be equipped with a treasure trove of tools from my very own workshop, ready to make your well-being the shining star atop your holiday cheer.
Thank you for listening to the Binge Eating Dietitian Podcast! As well as over 130 episodes, what else do I have in store for you?
Take care of yourself, Jo x
Gather 'round the yuletide glow and unwrap the gift of self-care as we explore the festive challenge of managing binge eating during the holiday season. Your guide through this winter wonderland of well-being is me, Jo, your friendly neighborhood registered dietitian and intuitive eating counselor. Together, we'll construct a practical checklist, ensuring your Christmas is sprinkled with joy rather than sprinkles of stress. From navigating holiday feasts with ease to maintaining a serene slumber amidst the jingle bell rock, this episode stitches a quilt of comfort and support, tailored to keep your spirits bright and your healthy habits in sight.
This cozy episode is not just about the do's and don'ts—but about savoring the season with soul-nourishing activities and fostering conversations that celebrate more than what's on our plates. Should the occasional binge unwrapping happen, fret not; we're here to guide, not judge, as we sip on the cocoa of compassion and resilience. So, tuck in for a sleigh ride of insightful strategies, and remember, by the time the credits roll, you'll be equipped with a treasure trove of tools from my very own workshop, ready to make your well-being the shining star atop your holiday cheer.
Thank you for listening to the Binge Eating Dietitian Podcast! As well as over 130 episodes, what else do I have in store for you?
Take care of yourself, Jo x
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the binge eating dietitian. My name is Jo. I'm a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor here to smash the taboo of binge eating. How are you doing today? I hope that you're keeping well. If you celebrate Christmas, then happy Christmas Eve. I hope that, no matter what you're doing today, even if there is some work or study involved, whatever it is I hope that you are feeling even a little bit joyful today. Personally, I really feel like just slowing down and taking it handy. For the rest of the year.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love to talk about binge eating and I have no shortage of content for you guys, but considering it's Christmas Eve, I wanted to come at you with something a little bit lighter today, nothing too heavy. So I was racking my brains with ideas for what would be most helpful for you, that wouldn't be too much for you to take in today, and I came up with putting together a checklist for you to manage binge eating today, tomorrow and right up until the end of the year, and stay tuned until the end. I'm going to be reviewing a resource that I believe everybody should know about, regardless of if binge eating is a factor in their lives or not. So a couple of episodes ago, I spoke about how to handle binge eating over the festive period, and I focused on how the month of December can be a really challenging month when you struggle with binge eating. It can feel like December is just one long weekend and there's this pressure to eat as much as you possibly can because you know that January is coming and that usually brings with it some kind of quote unquote healthy eating or challenge where you give up animal products or alcohol, and a bid to quote unquote reset. So if you haven't checked out that episode, make sure to do so at the end of listening to today's one.
Speaker 1:Right now, in today's episode, I'm going to zoom in to how to reduce the risk of binge eating over the next couple of days or week. Now, I know that this year it's not the Christmas that you hoped for, and maybe you have absolutely no plans this year. Maybe your Christmas isn't going to be any different to any other day of the year, but even if that is the case for you and, by the way, there's lots of you in that position I do think that you will benefit from the tips in this episode. Now, before I get into it. Please don't misconstrue this to be another challenge where you test yourself to see if you can go a week without binge eating. I'd rather you didn't look at it like that, because and I think you know what I'm about to say what that does is it sets up this pass or fail type of situation, which echoes just lovely the black and white thinking that we know isn't helpful for overcoming binge eating. Instead, view this as a little guide to direct you through the next week, but don't worry too much about the outcome. If a binge does happen, it's totally fine. That doesn't mean failure. It just means it's another opportunity to learn. All right, so let's get cracking with a Christmas checklist to help you through this next week when you struggle with binge eating.
Speaker 1:Check box number one is avoid being overwhelmed with activities. If you are on duty to cook Christmas dinner, firstly, you are amazing and I want you to ask what else do you have to do that day? Is it possible that you could delegate other tasks to family members? Because, if you can, you have every right. To cook in Christmas dinner is stressful, even if you're not tasked with cooking or you are alone for Christmas and you don't have any cooking to do. Take a look at what obligations you have. Remember that you don't have to accept every Zoom call that you're invited to, and there's a limit to meeting other people outside for a social distance chat. You are allowed to only take part in what fills up your soul. I know it's tempting to say yes to everything, but be careful of what fills you up and what drains you. Remember that one of the primary triggers of binge eating is feeling anxious and another one is feeling tired. So just watch that you're not completely overwhelmed by activities and if you are cooking Christmas dinner, you have permission to not do anything else that day.
Speaker 1:Check box number two is to design a routine for the day or the week that's baggy enough to live in. Routine is a word that I personally still haven't made peace with yet. On one hand, it has so many associations with being on a diet plan and it has been hijacked to some extent by diet culture, but on the other hand, routine is a very valuable entity. When you struggle with binge eating, it can feel like the moment you wake up in the morning you are fighting the urges to binge and it can feel like you have nothing else even in your head for that day. It's just all about the thoughts of binge eating, and that still is the case on Christmas Day for many of you. It's havoc in your head and can literally take over your thoughts from the beginning of the day until the end. Having a routine over Christmas will be useful to decrease this havoc, to give you something that you have to guide you throughout the day.
Speaker 1:I say make it baggy enough to live in, because you don't want to be too confined to your plans on Christmas. Depending on where you're at, you could plan your routine in one to two hour slots and make sure you put in lots of fun activities like movies you want to watch in there. So say, for example 9am wake up, wash face, have breakfast. 10am have a zoom with Granny and help out by chopping vegetables. 11am have a snack and a fancy Christmas coffee, etc. Etc. Of course, don't be too hard on yourself if you don't stick rigidly to your routine, but it can be helpful as a place to come back to if you find yourself being a bit lost or a bit bored throughout the day or the week.
Speaker 1:Check box number three is if everything else goes out the window, prioritise quality sleep and rest. Okay, I said I wasn't going to come at you with anything too heavy today, but I do have a piece of research that I want to share. A study of about 3,500 women in Sweden found that women who reported not getting enough sleep, sleeping poorly, problems falling asleep, feeling sleepy during work or free time and disturbed sleep were significantly more likely to report binge eating After taking into consideration for their age, their living situation so either alone or living with somebody and their depression score. This is another chicken and egg type relationship. Sleep problems might lead to binge eating, but binge eating might lead to sleep problems, or both sleep problems and binge eating may be the result of a third variable or variables such as environmental stressors, depression or underlying biological mechanisms. It's thought that appetite hormones are at play here, with other studies showing that short term or long term sleep deprivation can reduce level of the fullness hormone, leptin, so it takes you more to make you feel full. And there's increased hunger hormone, ghrelin, so you feel hungry more. If things are going to be chaotic this week, if there's one thing you can prioritise, make it good quality sleep, and if you can't, and your sleep is all over the place and you feel extra urges to binge come on and it takes more food to make you feel full. Please offer yourself some serious self compassion, because there is a clear biological reason why this is the case. You are not broken Checklist.
Speaker 1:Item number four is to have some conversations planned that have nothing to do with food, weight bodies or calories, and it might be that you used to partake in this kind of conversation and maybe you used to enjoy it. Maybe it's the only kind of talk that actually brings you guys closer together. It's all that you have in common, so I can completely understand that this year might be a very different shift for you. If this resonates with you, I'd advise you to go back to the last episode, where I spoke about how to handle diet talk, when you used to partake in it. Depending on how you want to tackle this, it will probably be useful to have some conversation starters planned that have nothing to do with weight. If you have gained weight since you last saw this person, you may feel compelled to talk about it and to put it out there so that they don't have to secretly just think about it. It's out there and it's in the open, and it's okay if you do that, but please know that you don't have to justify your weight to anyone. Your body is no one else's business.
Speaker 1:Instead of talking about weight and shape and bodies, why not talk about the trip that you want to take as soon as the pandemic is over and we can travel again, or any new foods that you have discovered lately, and remember to talk about them neutrally. So use terms that describe the food rather than any kind of judgmental language, like the baked camembert bread wreath that you picked up in the supermarket, and when you cook it in the oven, the bread goes all gooey and the bread is all warm and toasty and crunchy and it just makes the perfect snack or movie watching food. There's a whole website dedicated to conversation starters, so I'm going to link that in the show notes below. It might be helpful for you to come up with some new ideas of conversations that you can have with family members or friends, ones that you're not used to seeing throughout the year. And remember there's no shame in having conversation starters planned. In fact, it's a very practical and useful way of avoiding the diet-weight conversation rabbit hole, which nobody wants to be involved in on Christmas Day. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1:Checklist item number five is consider a balanced approach to movement. If, and only if, this fits in with your plans, don't rule out a little bit of movement, even if it's just a couple of minutes stretching, walking around the estate or the block or playing with the kids. If it makes you feel good in any little way, it's worth considering. Remember, though, this is not about shitting all over yourself. Don't feel obliged to do any movement if you don't want to. It has to add enjoyment in some way, not take from the enjoyment of the day. And hey, if your motive to get out and move a little bit is because it gets you away from the chaos of your house and gives you some headspace, that is a good enough reason. It doesn't have to be related to the movement itself.
Speaker 1:Finally, checklist item number six is to banish the scales. This one I have saved for last, because it's the one that I really want to stick with you. Please don't let the scales dictate how your day and your week goes. Surprise, surprise. I'm a big advocate for banishing the scales completely and never weighing yourself at home. However, I understand that right now you might be in the position where you weigh yourself every day, or multiple times a day. So I know that to take the big leap of faith into never weighing yourself and getting rid of the scales completely might be too much of an ask, so let's meet in the middle. Please consider not weighing yourself over the next week or so, or maybe even just on Christmas Day. Remember, the scales can't tell you how healthy you are, it can't tell you how much you're enjoying the week and, of course, it can't tell you how is your relationship with food.
Speaker 1:Let's recap on some factors that affect the number on the scales. Over Christmas, if you increase your alcohol intake, that's going to cause a dramatic weight shift. If you increase your salt intake and you're having more salty foods, like the bread, camembert reed that I mentioned earlier, that's going to cause a shift in weight too, and both of those have nothing to do with actual fat gain. Please don't let an arbitrary number ruin your day. Alright, so just to recap on the checklist. Number one is to avoid being overwhelmed with activities. Number two is to design a routine that's baggy enough to live in. Number three is, if everything else goes out the window, prioritise quality sleep. Number four plan some conversation starters to avoid talking about food, weight and body. Number five is to consider a balanced approach to movement, and number six is to banish the scales well, as much as you can. So that is my checklist for managing binge eating throughout the Christmas period, and I can't reiterate enough that if you follow all of this and you still end up binging at some point, please know that that is okay.
Speaker 1:This isn't a pass or fail task. This is just something to help guide you through the week, and, of course, I could have added lots more things to this list. It's not exhaustive. I bet there are things that you do, that you have in your routine, that help to protect you against binge eating too. If there is anything that you do and that you plan on doing over this week to help to reduce binge eating, I would love to hear it. Let me know. Drop me a DM on Instagram. I'm at bingeeatingditition, and although I can't give any kind of individualised advice over Instagram, I do like to hear your stories, so feel free to drop in and let me know how your week is going in relation to binge eating.
Speaker 1:All right, so I'm going to finish up here, but thank you so much for listening, and I really want to wish you, from the bottom of my heart a very happy Christmas. I hope that it's peaceful, I hope that it's enjoyable and I hope that you can spend some time with family or friends. Thank you so much again for listening. I'm going to leave you now with a resource that, as I mentioned in the beginning, I feel that everybody needs to be aware of, and that is the Black Lives Matter website, and I'm not going to add any music to this or even try and keep it to 30 seconds.
Speaker 1:Did you know that the Black Lives Matter global movement wasn't created in 2020. It was created in 2013, when a 17 year old boy went out to buy a snack and never came home. He was perceived to be a threat and he was shot dead by a grown man who took it on himself to police his neighborhood and shoot dead an innocent and unarmed young boy. There is a resource, particularly for white people, to talk about his death on social media or in the digital space. It's called hashtag talk about Traven and in the resource there's given some sample language that you can use on Twitter, on Facebook, on Snapchat and Facebook live video and what the Black Lives Matter global movement demands from white people. And, to give an example, the Black Lives Matter movement demands a defunding of systems and institutions that criminalize and cage us. We demand economic justice and self determination. Hashtag Black Lives Matter.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in making a donation to the Black Lives Matter movement, you can do so straight from the website and if, like me, you want to learn a little bit more about the Black Lives Matter global campaign, then start with the Black Lives Matter website. I am so grateful that it exists. It's all there, it's all for free, it's all really accessible. It's a fantastic resource for white people to learn about this global movement that white people are such a big part of but oftentimes don't know enough about. Thank you so much for listening until the end. There won't be a new podcast episode on the 28th. I am just going to take some time just to read more resources about binge eating and about the Black Lives Matter movement, but I will see you next week. Thank you for listening to this repost episode of the binge eating dietitian podcast.
Speaker 1:If you didn't know already, I am taking some time away from the podcast in 2023 so I can focus on smashing binge eating in other ways. I am doing a doctorate degree. I'm doing a doctorate of education degree in the realm of binge eating. As you can imagine, it's taking some of my time and attention away from other pursuits like the podcast. I am keeping in touch with you on my mailing list, though.
Speaker 1:If you go to the link in the show notes now, you'll see a link there that says get your binge free week checklist. When you sign up to get the checklist, you will be added to my mailing list and I'll keep you posted on how things are going over there. I am sharing all of old episodes because they are full of wisdom about binge eating that I know that you need to hear. Please keep listening and I'll chat to you soon over on my mailing list. Make sure you head to the link in the show notes now and sign up to get your free checklist to have a binge free week, and then you'll get my regular emails after that. Until then, please take care of yourself. The podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice and it does not constitute a provider-patient relationship.