Navigating the Holidays in Recovery

The holidays, although meant to be a joyous and exciting season, can be extremely challenging for individuals with an eating disorder. A lot of the season, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, are food-centric and can be overwhelming. Whether you are healing from an eating disorder or helping a loved one on their recovery, here are some important tips on navigating the holidays:

Identify Your Triggers

This is one of the main things I talk about with my clients in helping them feel confident going into the holiday season. Triggers are situations that feel unsafe or uncomfortable and can lead to using eating disorder behaviors to cope with emotions that come up. By knowing what factors may be more difficult to cope with, you are able to come up with ways to eliminate the trigger or adaptive strategies to deal with the emotions that arise. It will be helpful to talk with a family member, close friend or member of your treatment team about what your triggers are around the holidays and come up with realistic ways to manage them.

Come up with an eating and coping plan

After we know what may trigger the eating disorder during the holidays, come up with a flexible eating plan that meets your nutrition needs and a coping plan with skills to use when ED urges show up. Talk with your team about what the holidays look like for you, what foods may be present and what supports can be put in place to help you navigate the more difficult situations.

Set challenging, but attainable goals with food and your meal plan

Talk with your dietitian about the foods that are the most challenging to you with the holidays and how to work these foods into your meal plan in a gentle way. The holidays can be extremely challenging to maintain the routine that you usually do with an eating schedule; be flexible and discuss realistic goals to set around staying consistent through the season.

Communicate and Set Boundaries

Being with family can be pleasant and stressful! Remember: no one can read your mind, so be sure to communicate with trusted others that the holidays may be difficult for you. Share specific concerns you may have around meals, family members, routine, etc. and how they can encourage and support you.

Boundaries are a form of self-care

Within communicating your concerns, remember it’s okay (and necessary!) to set boundaries. Boundaries are a form of self-care. Share any topics or comments that are not okay. They may not get it the first time, but remember that progress has to start from somewhere.

Continue to follow up with your team

The holidays can be a very busy time of year and it is tempting to put recovery on the back burner. It is important that even during this busy season you are staying consistent with your appointments for accountability and extra support to prevent relapse.

Practice Self care & Enjoy the season

Whether it’s taking a break, calling a friend, dancing it out, playing a game or watching a silly movie, give yourself the space and grace to celebrate the season and how hard you have worked to get here in your recovery journey.

Wherever you are in your recovery journey, the holidays with added festive meals and free time can be stressful on top of managing everyday ED challenges. I hope the above tips can provide guidance on navigating the season.

As always reach out if you are needing extra support from one of us here at The Tasty Balance. Wishing you all so much warmth, joy and self-kindness this holiday season.