Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, but when I was struggling with my body and food it was by far my least favorite. I remember being stressed about all the food, stressed about gaining weight, and stressed about seeing people I hadn’t in a while.

I’m sure you can relate!

For most, Thanksgiving means food, and a lot of it. Below are a 11 helpful strategies that will provide you with freedom from food and weight obsession, and guide you to joy and happiness this holiday season!

Bonus: You can use these for any “outing” or eating situation that causes you stress, worry or fear.

Before the Celebration…

1) Get your Mind Right:  Be sure to do things that bring you peace and get your mind centered and emotions grounded when you start off your day. Some ideas would be meditation, a yoga class, a walk in nature, or some deep breathing exercises.

Visualization is also a great way to set yourself up for success. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between what’s actually happened, and what you vividly visualize in your mind. If you visualize yourself going through a successful Thanksgiving day with grace and ease, your brain will be able to recognize that as familiar, and be on your team when it comes down to the real situation. Things will feel easier because if you’re brain feels like the situation is familiar it’s less likely to sense danger in the environment, which means less stress response and anxiety, which also means less urges to binge.

2) Drop the “On” Verse “Off” Mentality: This all or nothing way of thinking stems from diet culture and with a 95% failure rate, we know that diets don’t work. You can’t “fall off the wagon” if there’s no wagon to fall off of so lets smash the hypothetical wagon to pieces. When you treat Thanksgiving like a “cheat day” or day off, you’re bound to over indulge because messages like these have a way of telling ourselves that it’s the last day on earth we’ll get this type of food, and that we have to eat everything now, and we can just start back over tomorrow.

Know that there’s nothing to start over with, that normal balanced eaters eat meals that aren’t always the most nourishing, and it doesn’t mean you have to diet away the next day. If you’re having trouble releasing this mentality, we are here for you!

3) Eat Balanced Breakfast: Skipping a meal in an effort to “make up” for calories later in the day is a surefire way to set yourself up for a binge. Instead, eat a nourishing and balanced breakfast in the morning so you can go into the rest of your day feeling strong and satisfied (this goes for your other meals too if you aren’t eating until later).

“Nourishing” does not mean restriction or low carb. It means giving your body fuel to feel great all day. This way, when you get to the big Thanksgiving meal time, you can treat it more like a meal where you can make a present moment choice around what you want to eat, versus coming to the table starving and setting yourself up for an all out feast.

Throughout the Day…

4) Focus on Presence and Connection: Family time and loved ones are wonderful but they have a way of pressing our buttons or triggering emotions inside of us at times. Combine that with the stress and worry about food and your weight, and it can make family time and holidays tough at times.

You can implement one of my favorite acronyms to combat this: FTL (fear to love)

Fear happens and it is our responsibility to choose the loving perspective moment by moment. No matter how hard it is, we always have the choice to view ourselves, others and any situation in a loving way.

Since you’re committed to flipping the fear as mentioned above, focussing on connecting with others should be much easier. Thanksgiving has a way of being totally focussed around food; it’s your job to shake things up a bit and focus on what really matters; connecting with those you love.

Truly being present and connecting will bring you so much joy. Really be in the moment, enjoy it, help out, do things that you love, play a game, relax. The only moment we have is the here and now; and the greatest gift we can give another and ourselves is our presence.

5) Focus on What Will Make You Feel the Best: This goes for food, who you connect with, and also activities you participate in. On the food front, be sure to have some foods on your plate that will make you feel really good and nourished, and don’t judge yourself if there are foods on the plate that might just taste really good and feel good in the moment (even if they aren’t nourishing). On the people front, connect with those that lift you up instead of bring you down. On the activity front, enjoy yourself (see strategy 8).

The holidays are a great time to practice compassion for both for yourself and others, flexibility, and freedom!

6) Focus on Adding Instead of Subtracting: This goes along with focussing on foods that make you feel the best. Truthfully, Thanksgiving is one day a year. Eating indulgences that you don’t normally have on the holiday isn’t going to hurt you, your life, or your progress. Allow yourself some freedom today and truly enjoy it.

On the other side of things, eating an abundance of foods that aren’t made of nourishing goodness might make you feel a little off the day of and next day.  To counteract this, be sure to fill your plate with some health-giving goodness that will give you energy and really balance things out. This will also leave a little less room for the things that might not make you feel the best.

7) Focus on Gratitude: Fear, stress and anxiety can not physically be experienced at the same time as gratitude. It’s proven scientifically that it’s impossible. A quick fix to calm any unwanted emotions that come up is to focus on what you’re grateful for. You don’t have to live in a million dollar home to be grateful; the art of true gratitude is learning to love and appreciate even the most ordinary things in life. If you’re feeling off, take a deep breathe and think of 5 things you’re grateful for that moment. Do it now and watch your entire energy shift!

8) Focus on Fun: Pleasure and fun are the opposite of what causes binge eating. Have as much fun as you can and focus on things that really light you up through out the day. Start a family game, play catch outside, play with the children or pets if they’re around, be silly, lose yourself in an activity, participate in anything that will bring you joy! This will also keep you present, out of your head, and your body out of stress response.

9) Focus on Love: My personal favorite. How can you give more love to others? How can you give more love to yourself? How can you give more love to the world?

10) Focus on Contribution: My second favorite. How can you show up fully and openly to the experience? How can you help? How can you support a loved one? How can you provide happiness for a complete stranger? How can you be there for someone? How can you contribute to society (volunteer / donate)?

To get out of your own head, oftentimes all it takes is a little giving and contribution.

During and After…

11) Focus on Compassion: You’re human. You’re going to overeat. You’re going to eat balanced and healthy. You’re going to gain weight. You’re going to lose weight. You’re going to struggle. You’re going to be free.

You can choose how you react to this…are you going to judge it, or are you going to accept it and love yourself through your humanness?

There are about 7 billion of us messy humans…feel free to come join the club 🙂

Thanksgiving is just one day, and you have the right to enjoy every bit of that, even if that means indulging in foods you normally wouldn’t.

Have compassion on yourself throughout this beautiful journey called life and shift your focus to what really matters; your freedom and happiness.

If you need support, we got you!

Click the image below where I’ve got a special gift for you! We call them, “Craving Cards”, and they’re one of our most popular tools!

If you ever feel night time cravings, sugar cravings, the urge to just say “screw it I’m going to start my diet over tomorrow”, or like you need a little body confidence pick me up… 

Just grab a card, go through the prompts, and shift it instantly!

Click the image above and let me know where to send them!

You’ll also get mini demo video training sessions for each card where I share how to use the cards and some of my best tips for food freedom forever!

With our Craving Cards and Demo Series… 

You’ll learn how to stop cravings in their tracks, feel confident, and get back your power, fast! 

Love,
Brittany

PS: Want the exact freedom and ease with our foods that myself and thousands of our clients get to experience?

In our Beating Binge Eating Blueprint (BBEB), I show you how to make this happen in just 8 weeks!

Many of our students have seen a DRASTIC difference in as little as a few days!

It’s our signature program, and up until recently, it was $3000 or more to join.

For now, you can get it as a part of our Food Freedom Collection for practically free by clicking the image below!

There is no catch…every resource I’ve created for food freedom and body confidence will land straight in your if you just click that image below and let me know where to send it!

Health & Love,

Brittany Brown