176. Tactical Christmas Strategies for Healthy and Stress Free Holiday Eating

Do you worry about gaining the same 15 pounds over the holidays? Maybe 10, if you’re lucky. Well, don’t worry. I’ve got you. My name is Dara Thomason and I am the culture’s coach. This is podcast episode 1 76, Christmas eating 1 0 1. All right. I have a lot of strategies. For you and this episode, it’s going to be very exciting for you. Because as a coach, there’s a lot of times where we can go into the feelings, look at all of that. And then sometimes we just go straight into full-on strategy.

Do this, do that, do this, do that. Now I watch my boys being coached by their basketball coaches and. It’s really interesting to watch the different approaches. Sometimes the coach needs to just go over the play. No, this is how the play is going to go. This is how we do it. And we practice over and over and sometimes that’s appropriate.

Other times we have to kind of take the bigger picture. So there’s lots of different times for different strategies. And I will never forget a workshop I went to with Jody Moore, probably. Six years ago, maybe five. And she did some really cool strategy, um, ideas that have really stuck with me. And I’m going to share some of them with you in this episode. So I’m really excited to share it with you.

The worksheet is super helpful. So if you want to download it, go for it. If you’re watching YouTube, of course you see it right here. And if you’re listening. Um, you can just get that worksheet. No problem. Now, before we go into the meat of the episode, of course, I’m going to share a win because it’s so important to share the wins.

It’s also. Really important to know that it’s possible to change and that regular people. Who comes into my program? They become so different because they are finally giving themselves the opportunity to learn and to grow and to change. And it’s really, really fun for me to share with you what kinds of things they’re doing in their life, because. They’ve invested, they’ve invested in themselves.

So this one is from one of my clients. Uh, she’s fairly new in the program. And, uh, last year her and her husband were invited to a gala. So she was kind of stressed out and she went and bought a dress. And it didn’t fit her very well. This is before my program. And so she was watching everything she ate and it was super stressful and she wasn’t enjoying it at all. Eventually, when it was time to have the gala, she got sick.

And so she wasn’t able to go and the dress was not fitting her very well. She’s in my program for six weeks. And again, the gala is coming around and so she thought, oh, I already have that dress. I wonder what it will look like. And she put it on and it felt so good. And the thing that really impressed her was that her process of losing weight has been so different because she’s truly learning to eat food.

That feels good. She’s really changing the way she looks at food and how she eats it. And so it was very exciting for her to report. That she can wear that dress to the gala and just feel so good in it.

Okay. So I want to ask you. How. Much weight. Do you usually gain over the holidays? Now let’s just ask. I’m just thinking about my little drink here. Um,

Okay. How much weight do you tend to gain over the holidays? Now I want to know why. What makes it so that you are gaining this weight over the holidays?

So just take some guesses. Do you feel like you’re allowed? Like it’s just like time to indulge and you are, is it a lot of memories? And so you eat these things to bring back old memories. Um, You Avaya to more parties. And so you’re just eating more food that, um, you don’t normally get, or it just feels like you need to take advantage of all of this.

You feel like you. A better stock up because coming in January, you’re going to have less. Like, I really want you to dive into what. What do you think are your specific reasons why you gain weight over the holidays? Just, just give yourself that time to think. Oh, I wonder why. I remember when my husband and I would renovate our houses. And we’d go to the hardware store and it felt like. It was. Like open, open season, right?

It’s like, oh, I got to spend all this money. I’m at the hardware store. And it was crazy. Like we would spend $5,000 and so. Sometimes it’s the holidays. It feels like that. It feels like, well, it’s the holidays and I just need to just eat all the things because that’s expected. And so I’m, I would. I think. I know that you’ll get a lot of good information from yourself when you ask that question. And same thing with spending some time, some of us think, well, it’s the holidays.

Of course I have to spend all this money. Which is not even true. In fact, I’m recording this podcast on. October the fourth and yesterday I found a really unique gift for my husband on Facebook marketplace and I bought it. And so. You know, we don’t have to spend a whole bunch of money. Uh, on Christmas to make it amazing and wonderful if we don’t want to.

So. Just let yourself get curious. Okay. Now. I really like these suggestions. So this episode is very. Tactical. All right. And this is what I learned from Jody Moore. Like five or six years ago. It was awesome. I remember her teaching it and thinking. I wish I knew this before. I wish I had. And so it was just visually exciting. So she talked about the different ways that we can lose weight.

And one of them is snacking. So if you are someone that snacks a lot, in fact, I have one client right now.

And if it’s still not too late, you can still join. Uh, it ends on the 6th of December. And I have a very special offer for you. If you want to take advantage of it. But

Just her, not. Snacking has brought up so much awareness. Okay. Now another strategy we can use. Take better care of ourselves. And to have that connection is movement. And there are so many studies, especially as we go into our perimenopause and menopause days. The importance of walking and movement.

Now my, um, I have a fitness coach because I actually didn’t lose this 50 pounds and keep it off with exercise. Because I knew that that was not something I wanted to do. So then this may, when I decided to walk like five, six days a week, I didn’t really know what to do. My, I was so much more hungry.

I didn’t know how to handle that. And so I got a fitness coach to help me to understand what was going on.

So, what would it be like if you just said I’m going to move 15 minutes every day. So whether it’s me. Going up and down my stairs for 15 minutes. Uh, my sister gave me this watch. A few years ago and I’ve been resistant to where I am because, um, it reminded me of my school teacher days where the watch, I was like run by my watch. But it’s been really interesting, um, to see my circles. Right with my movement. And, um, and so just challenging myself to, to get those. Even. Close the circle or get it closer. So it’s just been helpful.

And it’s so yummy.

And you really want to enjoy it.

So I would plan to go to this party and I’m going to have one. Slice or two slices of Joyce’s bread and I’m going to enjoy every bite and I’m going to not feel guilty and it’s going to be amazing. And then when I want more, I can say, it’s okay. I want more, but I’m not going to have any more because I plan to have those two slices and I enjoyed every bite and it’s fine. So I would look ahead in the month of December and say, what are all the things that I want to eat in December?

Maybe you love licorice, all sorts. Maybe you love Christmas cake. Maybe you love it. Whatever that is, chocolate pudding or Christmas pudding. And then you plan it. And you eat it and you enjoy it and there’s no guilt, but you don’t overeat it. And you only eat what you’ve planned. I, it would be amazing to see what happens when you do that.

My recommendation is you have one of those planned. Eat a week. And then the other part of that is to, um,

Plan for success. So when you go to those parties, one of my suggestions would be bringing, like, making sure there’s a really nice veggie trait. I just learned to make, um, I just made hummus. Homemade hummus and that’s so delicious. And, uh, so maybe making a veggie tray with hummus. And then partaking of that or a fruit tray, or maybe there’s a really healthy dessert that you enjoy.

All right. The third, the fourth thing that you can do that will really help you over the holidays is just to prioritize your water. Now the recommendation is for you to take your weight and divide it in half. So if you weigh 150 pounds, then you divide that in half that’s. Um,

75. Lbs or 75 ounces. So your recommendation. Recommended water intake is 75 ounces a day. So you can be like me and you have your Mason jars and you can plan out, um, that water. Now I like to provide. Variety for myself. Now water. Um, herbal tea. Uh, the dandy blend that I like to drink. That is all.

Um,

Oh dehydrate. Yeah. So caffeinated drinks, they will dehydrate you. Whereas herbal teas, water, even dandy blend. Those are hydrating. Okay. So I would make sure that you have awesome options. So for my birthday last year, the year before I went shopping with my husband and I bought these really nice herbal teas. I think I spent like $70 on all of these really nice herbal teas that I enjoy.

And I even have a dresser here in my studio that has a whole drawer full of herbal teas. I also have my dandy blend. I have my Coco that I make my healthy cocoa. Um, I buy the bubbly water from I. My favorite is from our store called Superstore and they have a root beer and a ginger rail. They have a cranberry ginger ale. Like they have a variety of these healthy, bubbly waters.

And so I have those on hand all the time. And that feels very decadent to me. It feels. Really fun and loving to myself. And it’s a great way for me to, um, set myself up for success. So sometimes at the end of the day, there’s just, it’s so satisfying to just crack open. One of those bubbly waters. And, um, you can just enjoy it.

So this one, for example, is the cranberry ginger ale. It comes out seasonally. And they have a variety of flavors. So I remember being challenged when I first, uh, learned about life coaching and. Have you ever actually been, it was a one of Jody Mars podcasts. And she said, Her coach challenged her.

She said, if I gave you a million dollars for you to have healthy food in your house, like for an entire year, would you do it? And that really stuck with me. So I w I. Was, it was so good to direct my brain cause I thought, oh, I’m always going to make sure I have eggs. I’m always gonna make sure I have vegetables.

I’m always going to make sure I have some fruit. I’m going to have some tuna. Like I am always going to make sure that I have food that works well for me. And I do that for my own kids. Right. I always make sure my kids have food. I always make sure they have clean clothes. So why wouldn’t I do that for me?

Okay. So these are really strategic. Now. I want you to, you can pick and don’t overwhelm yourself. If you are already doing a pretty good job with water, then I would just say, yeah, I’m going to keep up with my water and I’m going to plan my joy eat, or I’m going to plan a movement. I’m going to wear a watch that will track it or whatever that is, or is this snacking? So that’s the first part I want to talk about now, the second part of the podcast is other ways to be helpful to yourself. Now, these are to be aware of.

So be aware of transitions. That’s a huge one. I see. Be aware of overwhelm. And the last one is being aware of being with yourself instead of by yourself. And I will explain that. So the first one is transitions. Now I have other podcasts of this, but this is a really helpful reminder. So it is tricky to transition.

This is awesome. And now we’re going to, um, Now we’re going to do something different. And so we’re going to switch gears. So here are some suggestions. I want you to make a list of what sounds good to you. So what about a transition of playing a Christmas song? Uh, or doing a little dance to a Christmas song, or what about texting a friend and just saying like, Hey, I love you.

Or I just saw this really funny Jeff or GIF or whatever you call them. Or even a love note, my husband and I are really good at that. It’s actually really sweet. We will write to each other just randomly like, Hey, I love you. Um, I appreciate all the stuff you do for me. You’re just so awesome. And that feels really nice.

So that’s a very simple, easy thing you can do to transition. Another one that you could do is to check your Christmas list. I have a very specific Christmas list. And a list. And one of the things that I do is I will check that Christmas list. And then I appreciate it. I say, I love that I am this kind of mom. And this kind of daughter or this kind of wife. And I will check that list and it will just kind of ground me and it’ll get me kind of excited. Um, the other thing I can do through a transition is making myself some nice herbal tea or crack open that bubbly that I love so much. Another thing you can do is you could even just draw a bath.

If you have a little bit more time. Um, or what about. Some cream, I just got some really nice gingerbread cream and it smells so nice. So putting it on your hands, um, or even lighting a candle this morning, as I walked into my studio. My office, it was really dark and kind of, uh, kind of an overcast day and I thought, Ooh, I have this really nice pumpkin candle.

I should light it. That would be nice for me to do that. So that’s another thing you could do. So, those are just some transition activities that you can plan ahead, and then you can just do them. Okay, the next one is to prepare. Be aware of being overwhelmed. So I want you to look at what the intention is for the holidays. Now back in episode, um,

A previous episode, I talked about. Um, preparing yourself for the holidays. And I asked you the questions. What are your favorite emotions during the holidays? And what are your least favorite emotions? And I basically want to ask you, what is your intention for the holiday? And I like to do this with my clients by saying, what is it that you want?

And then reverse engineer it. So, if you want to feel peace, if you want to feel calm, if you want to feel happy, if you want to feel excited. What are the things that you’re going to do to get that, and then let’s make a plan. And so my invitation to you is to set your intention. Now, and then put that. In a place that you see a lot.

So I would recommend on the cover of your, your screenshot of your phone. Right. And, or maybe you put it up, write a note. And if you have a clear cover, like me, put that on the back of your phone. Or do you put it on your mirror in your bathroom? If you don’t want it to be so public? I’m not sure what works best for you.

And you’re not probably sure how it works, what best works best for you. Until you try it. So my invitation is to go and try it. Um, another thing that when you’re feeling overwhelmed, just put your hand on your heart, just say, oh boy, I can feel it. I can feel the pressure, or maybe it’s on the back of your neck.

And maybe you just need to do a little bit of it. A neck roll at H and. And I’m a neck rub. Okay. Head roll on an escrow.

Um, another thing maybe you could do.

It is sitting in front of the tree or a holiday decoration and bringing back a memory. One of the things that I do. Uh, the holidays I have a huge Christmas book collection. I probably have at least. At least. 70 Christmas books, their kids’ books, and there’s some chapter books. And, um, I have, uh, I have 25 bags. The fabric bags with the numbers on them.

So I want to help encourage you to do that. Um, and then the third one I wanted to share was to be with yourself instead of by yourself.

And now, so this. It is a really big movement that I see in Sinai membership. So a lot of women don’t know how to really be with themselves. They’re so used to taking care of everybody else and doing everything for everyone else. So then they don’t really have. A very strong relationship with them. And so one of my clients was asking me, how can she be with herself instead of by herself? I said, do things with yourself that you would do with a friend, such as going for a walk or wrapping presents or doing an errand.

So how would you do that in a way that feels loving and fun and kind okay. Um, also make a list of all the things you love to do over the holidays and make a game to accomplish them. So in the summer we do a summer bucket list. Why not win? Uh, Christmas bucket list. And really set those intentions.

That’s why traditions feel really fun because they’re kind of like, oh, these are things that we love to do. Um, our family has created new traditions as our time evolves. So now that we live on Vancouver island we have this beautiful place called Tofino. And there’s a wonderful resort there that I love so much.

And we’ve had the opportunity. We’ve taken the opportunity to go before the holidays to kind of get into that gear, that thinking. And like that family connection time. And so we don’t just go from school and the craziness. We kind of give ourselves some time to just relax and to have fun as a family, get home, we have, um, We have what’s called Adams Eve and Christmas Eve.

So on Adams Eve, we had a sushi party. On the 23rd of December we invited a bunch of people. It’s really fun. And then we have our Christmas Eve so that we can invite people as well. And then we go into Christmas day and then we have an entire week. Where we can just chill and relax. It’s actually my oldest son’s birthday, so we will do something special for him in the middle of the week.

On the 25th, my eighth birthday’s 28th. And we S we create these new traditions and we evolve as time goes. So. As you think about what you want out of Christmas. Do you want peace of mind? You want the joy and we don’t want the eating. Stress to get in our way. So I really hope this very strategic tactical episode will help you.

I always love hearing back from you and I have to just invite you to come and talk to me about what your experience is with food. With your body. With your productivity and your relationships. Because weight loss is so much deeper than food. It’s about the relationship you have with yourself and how you take care of yourself. And in some of my membership, we really go deep into all of that. And I just think how wonderful a gift it would be to give yourself this membership, these tools, this community, to help you to truly, um, create the life that you really want to have. And so I love that you’re listening to my podcast.

I would love to have a breakthrough call with you. And talk about what it would mean to be a part of my membership and how that can truly change your life. All right. Take care everyone. Bye bye.