Today I wanted to share some tips on how to truly savor Thanksgiving this year. Now, I am going to walk you through an exercise on how to increase your satisfaction this Thanksgiving and I’ve created a FREEBIE to walk you through how to do this. The Freebie is at the end of the email.
The holidays are a mixed bag of emotions for a lot of people. They’re a time to spend with family and host a lot nostalgia. But there’s also a lot of anxiety that comes with them because we’re exposed to food that might not normally be around.
If you find yourself nervous for the holidays, I want you to practice this new approach to enjoy Thanksgiving like you never have before.
Prefer to listen? Listen to the video instead.
One key mistake people make when approaching Thanksgiving is putting Thanksgiving food on a pedestal and think something like, “Oh my gosh, I’m not going to have mom’s stuffing for 365 more days. I need to get it in me while I can.”
This mindset creates urgency around food, making you want it more, making you eat MORE of it. What happens to a kid when you tell them not to touch something. What happens? They immediately want it 1000x more than they did before. Yeah, you’re no different than a 2 year old.
Now, stuffing is one of my favorites on the Thanksgiving menu, so I of course want you to have some. But I want you to squeeze all of the goodness out of it when you do have it.
Here’s how you’re going to do that.
I want you to pick out your favorite food at Thanksgiving. Then, I want you to involve all 5 of your senses as you sit down to eat it. Using all 5 senses makes the eating experience more satisfying. The more satisfied you feel afterward, the more enjoyment you will get out of the experience and the better you will be able to stop at a comfortable level of fullness.
Take a good look at the food on your plate during Thanksgiving. Be dramatic. Notice how the pretty colors compliment each other- the green salad, orange sweet potato casserole and cream white turkey (sorry dark meat lovers.)
I want you to smell it. Do you anticipate it tasting as good as it smells? Can you hear it still sizzling out of the oven, is it crunchy when you bite into it? What sound does it make? What does it feel like in your mouth prior to munching on it, is it smooth or rough? When you do bite in, I want you to pick out each individual flavor and taste the underlying spices and profiles of the food.
Involving all 5 senses allows your brain and your gut to connect and work at the same pace, since it can take 20-30 minutes for your fullness hormones, leptin and cholecystokinin to be recognized by the brain that your stomach is full.
Engaging all 5 senses will help you hit the 2 key components to fullness: physical and mental. You can be physically full all day, but if you’re not mentally satisfied, you’ll keep eating.
To help you Follow these steps intentionally I’ve created a free Satisfaction Exercise. The link to this is at the bottom of the email. This exercise is adapted from Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch’s principles found in their Intuitive Eating Framework, so it'll be a good refresher if you've looked into their content.
Be on the lookout later this week for further tips on how to be unaffected by people’s food comments made during Thanksgiving. It will contain another invaluable freebie because I want to make sure your holidays are the best they can be and food anxiety free.
Until next time,
Mikyah, RDN, LDN, CD
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