Cheers to getting through Christmas without blowing healthy habits. Photo: Artem Kniaz / Unsplash
With end of year parties, work drinks, sweet treats and family feasts on the horizon, maintaining good health and nutrition over the festive season can feel like an impossible (and sometimes joyless) task.
Nutritionist Claire Turnbull. Photo: Supplied
Nutritionist Claire Turnbull says making good choices in the face of constant Christmas temptations can be done, but it requires planning, preparation and a bit of pattern-breaking.
“It’s just about making it easier to make the right choices without it feeling boring and difficult and hard,” she tells Mark Leishman.
About 40 percent of the choices we make about eating and drinking are subconscious, Turnbull says.
“When you're actually interacting or with food or drink you're often not consciously thinking about it. So what you actually need to do at this time, next year, every year, is make it easier for yourself to make the healthier choices and harder to make the unhealthy ones so that when you're in this kind of haze, which most of us actually really are when we're when we're making food choices, particularly in the social scene, that you're making choices that are actually better for you.”
Listen to the full interview with Mark Leishman
Identify your weak spots
Can you ignore the siren call of a packet of crisps? Photo: The Organic Crave / Unsplash
If you’ve fallen into a pattern of sitting on the sofa and snacking late at night, your brain will happily keep you in that pattern until you actively choose to break it, Turnbull says.
“I think what's really helpful is to notice what your patterns are… you might think, ‘oh, I really need to eat better’ but it's probably only three or four things that are tripping you up.”
That also means identifying the time of day when you’re most likely to fall into bad habits, like “nighttime nibbling” or going to the drive-thru that you pass every day on your way home.
“You see your brain sees these patterns… you're standing in the cafe buying the donut and it's almost like you haven't realised you're doing it.
“So if we can break these patterns, it makes it a lot easier to make the choices that deep down on a Monday morning you want to be making.”
Make it easier to eat the good stuff…
Turnbull chops up fresh vegetables and stores them in the fridge to give grazers some healthier options. Photo: Nadine Primeau / Unsplash
Turnbull keeps a clear plastic container of cut-up vegetables in her fridge (which is regularly topped up every night during dinner prep) for any household grazers.
“It’s not just for me, the nutritionist, it’s because I’ve got two kids and a husband, and if my husband gets a break from his desk and comes out, even though he knows about nutrition and whatever else, he'll eat the biscuits… but if the vegetables are at the front of the fridge and easy to access in a clear container, that's really important, then he'll do that.”
- Related: Claire Turnbull on how to sort out your sleep for better mental health
- Related: Claire Turnbull on how to eat well on a tight budget
… and make it harder to access the ‘bad’
Step away from the open fridge... Photo: NRD / Unsplash
The flip side is making it harder to get to the things you want to have less of, Turnbull says.
In her own household, this means they keep any alcohol in an old fridge in the garage rather than in the kitchen.
“It’s actually only a 27 second walk to get there, but you’ve got to go through a couple of doors and downstairs… it just feels a bit too much [to go and get it].
If you’re the sort of person who might open a big bottle of tonic to go with some gin and then think, ‘it would be a shame to waste it, I might as well drink it’, Turnbull suggests buying individual cans instead.
Plan for success
If you can remember to write yourself a note, you're halfway there. Photo: Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash
Turnbull used to try to plan her family’s eating a week in advance, but now she does it a day at a time, factoring in any hurdles as she goes.
“It's just going through the process of the day, so you can kind of see the slip-ups that might happen before they happen.”
Factoring good habits into your daily routine is also useful at this busy time of year, Turnbull says. That could mean setting reminders on your phone to drink more water, for example, or use sticky dots or Post-It notes to remind yourself to eat or drink, or take deep breaths.
“We know we want to eat well (and we know we want to eat cake sometimes) but we need to remind ourselves.”
Don’t go to a party hungry – or tired
You don't have to overdo it at Christmas because everyone else is, Turnbull says. Photo: Helena Yankovska / Unsplash
Just because everyone else at a party is eating and drinking a lot doesn’t mean you have to follow suit, Turnbull says.
“I tend to make sure that I don't arrive starving because if I arrive starving, I'm the first person to be eating the entire packet of chips. I've been in nutrition for 20 years, but if those are nice salt and vinegar crisps and I'm really hungry… but if you’re you're not starving, you can have a handful and go you know what, I don't need to eat the entire bowl.”
If you haven’t slept properly, you’re guaranteed to eat more because tiredness increases appetite, Turnbull says.
“And if you are really, really hungry it's much more difficult to control yourself. So, pre-hydrate, eat something healthy before you go, and then enjoy yourself while you’re there.”