With Halloween on Thursday and Thanksgiving right around the corner, a Wisconsin weight loss coach is sharing four tips for sleighing the stressful holiday eating season.
Amber Clemens — a self-described “former lifelong binge eater” who says she shed 160 pounds from 2018 to 2020 and kept it off — recommends focusing on moderation in your daily life, slowing down when eating, de-emphasizing holiday foods and forgiving yourself for slipups.
Focus on moderation
“When I was trying to heal my relationship with food and get over binge eating, I thought I just couldn’t have the things that were triggers for me around me, otherwise it would just automatically lead to a binge,” Clemens said in a TikTok last week.
She revealed that one of her biggest triggers is sweets — and she’s not alone. The average American is believed to consume about 3.4 pounds of candy on Halloween.
“Ultimately, the biggest thing that helped me,” Clemens continued, “was starting to incorporate those things daily, or at least on a regular basis.”
Instead of denying herself, she started planning sweets into her day until the “food noise” in her head dissipated.
Slow down when eating
“I used to eat so fast because I felt ashamed about almost every single thing that I would eat,” Clemens shared. “What would happen is, I wasn’t giving my body time to recognize that I was getting full, or at least comfortable, and I would just overeat before even recognizing it.”
Health experts also suggest eating more attentively.
A 2013 study reported that average caloric intake declined by 9.5% when pizza eaters chewed 1.5 times more than usual and 14.8% when they chewed twice as much.
Research out of China found 40 chews per bite of 10 grams of food to be optimal.
“The food is not going anywhere,” Clemens reminded her 922,300 TikTok followers. “Slow down. Try and listen to your body and try and stop before you get overly full.”
De-emphasize holiday foods
“I want you to remember that these foods are nothing special, and in reality, we could probably have any of these foods that we really wanted any time of year,” Clemens emphasized.
“So yes, enjoy them,” she said about holiday recipes. “But remember, you can have them again.”
Forgive yourself
“Progress is not linear,” Clemens declared. “It’s OK if you make mistakes — forgive yourself, move on and we try again tomorrow.”
In a different video this month, Clemens noted that overeating on one day, like Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, is not going to derail weight loss goals.
“These few and far between days are not where all of your progress is made or broken,” she reiterated.
Read More: I’m a weight loss coach — here are 4 tips for healthy holiday eating
