{"id":1278,"date":"2017-12-01T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2017-11-28T15:06:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T20:06:12","slug":"how-to-eat-for-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=1278","title":{"rendered":"How to Eat for the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staying Happy, Healthy and Sane Amidst the Chaos<\/h1>\n

By Holly Lowery<\/a> | Photography by Mary Grace Johnson<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Holly-1\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Holly-3\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Holly-5\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

You\u2019re likely reading this article during some form of holiday madness. There\u2019s always something to be doing \u2014 shopping, wrapping, planning, socializing with out-of-towners, baking, decorating \u2014 on top of your normal responsibilities. It would be easier if you knew exactly what to eat to keep your sanity intact.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m prescribing today isn\u2019t the typical holiday nutrition advice. I\u2019m not going to tell you to limit your dessert or wine intake or take one less helping of your favorite casserole. That may give you a sense of control when things seem like they\u2019re spiraling, but how often has the \u201ceat this, not that\u201d method really made you feel satisfied? If you were left thinking about how badly you wanted to eat whatever dessert Grandma brought to Thanksgiving, you weren\u2019t satisfied.<\/p>\n

The trouble with the \u201ceat this, not that\u201d method \u2014 or any diet, quite frankly \u2014 is it works against our biological instincts. We\u2019re wired to feel hunger, find food and feed ourselves. We\u2019re also wired to stop when we\u2019ve satisfied that hunger.<\/p>\n

However, the multi-billion dollar dieting industry has convinced us we do not have the ability to trust those biological instincts. We\u2019ve been made to believe that to be healthy, we have to work at maintaining or losing weight. The problem is there\u2019s no research to date that\u2019s proven dieting prolongs life or increases health in the long term. In fact, most of the long-term studies show just the opposite; dieting and weight cycling cause greater health problems, such as cardiovascular disease, muscle deterioration, metabolic damage, digestion issues and more.<\/p>\n

So, how will you make it through the holidays without feeling weighed down by too much ham, casserole and pie? How will you make your health a priority in the new year if dieting won\u2019t actually help?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the answer: Get back to your intuitive, instinctual relationship with food. Give yourself permission to eat the pie, to eat whatever Grandma is bringing, to eat exactly what you want. When you give yourself full permission to eat whatever it is you truly desire, the question becomes, \u201cWhat is it that you really want?\u201d You\u2019ll probably find the answer isn\u2019t that you want the whole pie. You just want a slice.<\/p>\n

The key is to remove the scarcity factor. Biologically speaking, when we think food is scarce \u2014 for example, during famine,\u00a0or back in our primal days when food was hunted and gathered to sustain a population \u2014 we\u2019re wired to stock up when we do have access to it. Your body wants you to hoard food, so you can survive when the scarcity next sets in.<\/p>\n

Even though we\u2019ve since evolved and no longer need to spend all our time finding food, the biological mechanisms that drive us to \u201cstock up\u201d during times of scarcity are still intact.<\/p>\n

So, when we grant ourselves permission, we\u2019re letting our bodies know food is not scarce; it doesn\u2019t have to hold onto every last calorie. With practice, our hunger hormones readjust. The desire to overeat melts away, allowing us to take on the holidays without fear of eating too much. Once our bodies know there\u2019s going to be an adequate amount of food coming, they can turn their focus to things like improving digestive function, assimilating vitamins and minerals, regulating our hormones and metabolism, building and repairing tissues \u2014 the things that do bring us more health!<\/p>\n

So, this holiday season, I suggest you let go of your diet. Let go of the urge to control, count and measure. Grant yourself permission to eat what you want and notice how your cravings shift. SWM <\/em><\/p>\n

Holly Lowery is a Syracuse-based health and wellness coach. For more information, visit hollylowery.com<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Special thanks to Caf\u00e9 at 407 in Liverpool for the photo shoot location.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staying Happy, Healthy and Sane Amidst the Chaos By Holly Lowery | Photography by Mary Grace Johnson\u00a0 You\u2019re likely reading this article during some form of holiday madness. There\u2019s always something to be doing \u2014 shopping, wrapping, planning, socializing with out-of-towners, baking, decorating \u2014 on top of your normal responsibilities. It would be easier if…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[460,443,135,160,461,262,444],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-cafe-at-407","tag-december-2017","tag-holly-lowery","tag-mary-grace-johnson","tag-ophelias-place","tag-syracuse-woman-magazine","tag-the-holiday-edition"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Holly-8.jpg?fit=5200%2C3472&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":853,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=853","url_meta":{"origin":1278,"position":0},"title":"Fun with Fermentation","author":"Staff","date":"June 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Power of Kombucha By Holly Lowery | Photography by Mary Grace Johnson\u00a0 \u201cKam-boocha.\u201d \u201cKom-booka.\u201d \u201cKoom-baka.\u201d Despite the fact that most people have a hard time pronouncing kombucha (come-booch-uh, for the record), that hasn\u2019t stopped the drink from making an appearance in an increasing number of households lately. 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