The Everyday Athlete: Sports Dietitian Tips for Holiday Eating

Maintain Fitness Goals AND Eat your Favorite Treats

The holidays can be a fast paced, fun time of year. For the everyday athlete this could also mean a lot of stress. We get it, you workout hard, you strive for a high level of fitness, you want to perform your best in the gym or the sport you play. The holiday season can feel like an obstacle to get through. 

Everywhere you go there is tasty food and drinks. Maybe you’ve considered skipping out on some parties or meals just to ensure you don’t break your routine. Let’s talk about how to navigate this time of year by honoring your body AND enjoying all the great food the holidays have to offer. 

Intuitive Eating to Manage Holiday Parties and Treats:

Holiday parties can feel like an obstacle. You may feel as though you’ll undo all the work you put in over the past year. Let’s go over some of our go to tips as intuitive eating Dietitians.

Know Before You Go

Check with the host of the party and see if a meal is planned or just snacks. If only snacks will be provided, have a small meal before you head out. This can help you to prevent overeating and feelings of guilt. Some examples are below:

1. 1. • Greek yogurt with granola and a banana
      • A turkey sandwich with carrots and hummus
      • Chicken breast with half a baked potato

Eat The Rainbow

Most parties have some amount of fruit and vegetables as snacks. Fill up a third or half of a plate with some of your favorite fruits and vegetables (don’t forget the tasty dips!) then grab some of those treats you look forward to every year. 

Prioritize Protein

While enjoying all the holiday fun, don’t forget that your body is still recovering from your training sessions. Be sure to include some protein foods into your snacks/meals. 

Shift your sports and fitness goals

Chasing high levels of fitness requires us to set goals all throughout the year. The holiday season might make achieving these goals feel far too difficult. Rather than make the season fit your goals, let’s make your goals fit the season. We know that the holiday season comes with plenty of great food, so let’s put that food to work building strength and muscle! Set realistic strength and performance goals that you can achieve come February. 

Do not skip meals

You may wake up on the day of a holiday party and think you should skip meals to save room for the food you’ll eat later. This is a big no-no. Believe it or not your body still requires a lot of nutrients to enable you to recover from prior training. Instead, eat your regular meals and snacks exactly the way you would on any other day. Doing this will ensure that your body is ready to go should you have a hard training session the next day. There is no need to intentionally stall your recovery to save calories.

The diet stress of the holidays is a battle each year. You may feel that the extra piece of Halloween candy, second helping at Thanksgiving, or those awesome Christmas cookies will completely throw your progress away. These negative thoughts can lead us to turn down the holiday fun and fall deeper into dieting culture. By eating intuitively, setting realistic strength goals, and saying no to skipped meals you can fight back against these negative thoughts and end the holiday season feeling nourished, strong, and happy knowing you lived to your fullest.