HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

I thought I’d do a quick blog post this week about ‘Christmas guilt’ when it comes to our healthy eating goals and plans.

I’ve been asked several times over the last few weeks about my approach to ‘Christmas Eating’ and over my 10+ years of healthy eating, I’ve approached the festive period in many different ways:
1) I’ve stuck strictly to my healthy eating plan with no deviation for any of the festive foods
2) I’ve completely abandoned any notion of healthy eating and gone all in on everything and anything remotely Christmassy demolishing mince pies and Quality Street with glee
3) I’ve found a balance, eating and enjoying my normal way of cooking and preparing food but also enjoying some of the festive goodies.

The key is – there is no right answer and how you handle Christmas and your healthy eating goals is completely up to you! The most important part of the next week is that you rid yourself of any guilt, enjoy your festive celebrations and remember, it’s only one, two or a few days, even if Christmas lasts a week for you – there’s another 51 weeks of the year where you can return to your healthy eating plan.

One thing that really works for me, whether its Christmas, birthdays, holidays or other celebrations is to give myself a ‘cut off’ point. Deciding in advance how many days I’m going to allow myself to be more flexible and knowing when I’m going to get back to my normal pattern. I also plan my meals for my ‘return to normal’ day so that I don’t have to think too much about what I’m going to be eating that day.

So how am I handling Christmas this year?

Our family tradition is to have a yummy bowl of spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread for dinner on Christmas Eve – so even though its going to be a quiet Christmas for us this year, I’ll be cooking up a vat of bolognese (some for the freezer too) and enjoying that with my homemade garlic bread (recipe on a previous post). I’ve bought some mince pies so will probably crack those open on Christmas Eve too.

Christmas Day
Breakfast will be smoked salmon, eggs, avocado and I’ll probably through some spinach on there too
Lunch will be a cheese, cracker and chutney snack plate
Christmas Dinner (we eat ours early evening) will be tempura prawns to start, a full on roast for main (though I will be cooking everything my normal way) and for dessert, I couldn’t resist picking up the Christmas chocolate yule log Viennetta and there may well be a mince pie in the mix too. I won’t be counting or weighing or measuring anything but enjoying a nice balance of yummy food throughout the day.

Boxing Day
I’ll pretty much be back to normal on Boxing Day – we’ll have loads of leftovers from Christmas Dinner (I purposefully cook enough to do at least another dinner for everyone to save me cooking again), another slice of Viennetta is likely to be enjoyed for dessert and before I go to bed, any remaining mince pies will be put in the freezer.

My ‘return to normal’ day is Monday 27th December, our meals are all planned and the shopping is all purchased. I’ve got a run planned in for the morning and routine will be back.

This is what works for me and I’m certainly not saying this is ‘the right way’ for anyone else. We are all unique and we all have different approaches – the most important message is to enjoy, let go of any guilt and remember, Christmas is just a few days of the year!

Finally, a big thank you to everyone for all the lovely support I’ve received this week in launching my new business ‘Meal Plans Made Easy’ – its a really exciting time for me and I really look forward to helping and supporting lots of people in 2022 with their healthy eating goals and lifestyles.