Tag Archive for: healthy eating on Passover

4 Tips to Cooking (and Eating) Intuitively During Passover and Easter

This weekend, people all over the world will be celebrating Passover and Easter. And as per usual, with the holidays comes an abundance of food. For some people, this is exciting and something they look forward to. After all, most holidays have traditional foods that only come around this time of year.

 

But for so many others, the holidays with all the food favorites cause quite a bit of worry, and maybe even fear. Why the fear, you might ask?

 

Unfortunately, the diet industry has taught you to not trust yourself with food. So you have so much doubt as to whether you will be able to enjoy eating without the guilt. This is magnified when there are so many options on the table, it gets downright overwhelming. Oftentimes, even one bite of a food you think is “forbidden” will lead to a “throwing in the towel” and “I’ll start again after the holiday” mentality.

 

Every year I tell myself that next year I will prepare less food, and yet that never seems to happen. As a hostess, I want to be sure everyone has the foods they love and look forward to. But as I begin cooking for this holiday, I am keeping 4 things in mind that I hope will be helpful for you as well.

 

  1. Listen to My “Gut” Instinct

 

I’m pretty good at “going with my gut”. And my gut tells me that I absolutely do not need 3 mains, 4 salads, 5 sides, and 3 desserts. So, I have written my initial menu, reviewed it, and asked myself which dishes my guests, and myself, will really love this holiday. And then I cut down the menu.

 

Items that I can make all year round don’t need to be on this holiday menu! Take roasted red potatoes for example. We love them, but we eat them all year round. So instead of potatoes as a side dish, we will have Matzo Farfel Ring (recipe on page 69 of my book Passover the Healthy Way) which is a traditional Passover recipe for my family (reminds me of my grandma. I can still picture her standing at my stove making the farfel).

 

  1. Trust My Family

 

I want my family and guests to enjoy the holiday food. But that doesn’t mean that they expect an entire smorgasbord. My son will often tell me “mom, there’s no room on the table anymore.” So, I am taking this to heart and will trust that whatever I make, will be enough.

 

  1. Trust Myself

 

A challenge for many people is staying fully present when eating socially, especially when there’s a lot of people and the meals stretch on and on. I get this!

 

My best suggestion is to set an intention before going into the holiday meal. Reminding yourself that you will check in with yourself and your hunger/fullness signals, without judgement.

 

Listen, there are times that I walk away from a holiday meal feeling a bit overfull. Yes, this happens to seasoned Intuitive Eaters as well. Sometimes it’s a conscious decision to want to eat a bit more, and sometimes it’s not.

 

At the end of the day, remember, there’s no perfection in Intuitive Eating. Trust that you will do the best that you can in the moment. I do.

 

  1. Make Intuitive Decisions Around Eating

 

While food is an important part of many celebrations, it’s not the reason for the celebration.

 

This year, the Passover Seder starts quite late (since we changed the clocks), which means by the time we get up to the “eating the meal” part of the Haggadah, it will be late. I have cut down my menu drastically because intuitively, I know that I (and the rest of my family) don’t prefer to eat heavy meals so late at night. It just doesn’t sit right in my/our gut.

 

This decision is allowing me to focus on the reason we are coming together for the Passover holiday. It’s not about the food at all.

 

Wishing you a wonderful Passover and Easter Holiday!

 

Please share with me your biggest takeaway in the comments below.

 

Enjoying Passover and Easter as an Intuitive Eater

This blog is sponsored by my book: Passover the Healthy Way: Light, Tasty and Easy Recipes Your Whole Family Will Enjoy, available on Amazon.

With Passover starting this evening and Easter arriving on Sunday, you might be wondering how you can continue your intuitive eating practice during the holidays (especially if you are new to this). I know it can be overwhelming. There’s eight days of Passover meals, a hearty Easter dinner and lots of sweets around the house.

A good place to start is to remember that you were born an intuitive eater. While it may have been buried under years of dieting, the work you’ve done thus far has brought that ability closer to the surface.

Below is a review of the Intuitive Eating principles and some tips to enjoy the holidays as an intuitive eater.

Principle #1: Reject the Diet Mentality

The first step to enjoying Passover or Easter as an intuitive eater is reject the diet mentality!

What is the “diet mentality”?

It’s when you have a list of food rules to guide your eating; you label foods as “good” and “bad, “legal” and “illegal”, “can have” and “can’t have”. It’s when you elevate certain foods above the others, and then when you “fall off track”, promise yourself to start again tomorrow.

As you are preparing for the holiday this year, let’s work on throwing away all of the food rules around the holiday foods because you don’t need them. The only things you need are your body, heart, and the food in front of you.

With practice you will begin to see food as food, rather than with the labels “good” or “bad”

Passover and Easter are enjoyable times of celebration and being with family, not a time of restriction. It’s about enjoying yummy foods and recipes handed down from generation to generation.

Listen to what your body is telling you and go from there.

What ONE step will you take to reject the diet mentality during Passover and Easter? Comment below!

Principle #2: Honor Your Hunger

When you sit down to eat during Passover and Easter, breathe for a moment to take stock.

Are you feeling hungry? How hungry are you? What does your body need? How will you nourish yourself?

These are some of many questions you can ask yourself to learn about your body and what foods will make you feel like your brightest self.

This is where you can really begin your journey to restore trust in the relationship between your body and food and begin to reacquaint yourself with the various signals of hunger.

Remember to not let yourself get too hungry! When primal hunger hits, it’s difficult to stop eating from a place of comfortable fullness (more on fullness later in this blog).

In what ways can you “honor your hunger” this Passover or Easter?

Principle #3: Make Peace with Food

Give yourself the unconditional permission to eat the food you love. When you restrict food, it leads to deprivation which leads to overeating and feelings of guilt when you indulge against your “food rules.”

When all food on the table is “emotionally equal”, you’ll be able to eat what you want to satisfy your hunger and to stop when you’re comfortably full. When you elevate certain foods, they are highly charged, and you battle with it.

So this Passover or Easter, call a truce in the war on food and enjoy!

What food(s) do you feel you need to make peace with? Comment below.

Principle #4: Challenge the Food Police

Don’t let diet culture control tell you how to eat this Passover and Easter…or ever for that matter!

Food isn’t “good” or “bad.” Food is food!

The purpose of eating is to nourish your body and enjoy the experience.

I recognize that the food police rules are screaming in your head “don’t eat this, don’t eat that”, “you can only have one of those” etc.

You can be louder than the food police. Challenge those voices that play in your head and bring up your ally voices, those kind, nurturing voice that sounds like your grandma, “it’s going to be okay, you’ve got this”.

Reach out to me if you need help challenging the food police as we head into the holiday!

Principle #5: Respect Your Fullness

Your body was created with built-in signals that work to tell you when you are hungry and when you are satisfied enough to stop eating. Whether you realize it or not, you were born an intuitive eater!

However, when you’ve been dieting for a while, you stop listening to those signals and they no longer guide you to begin eating or to stop eating. Most likely you finish eating when the plate is empty (“clean the plate club” anyone). Learning to arrive at the table in a gentle hungry state will enable to you stay tuned in to know when you’re comfortably full.

There are a lot of meals over the 8 days of Passover. Let’s try to pause mid-meal and pay attention to whether you are getting satiated. This is not a commitment to no longer eating the meal, it’s just a check in point to stay in conscious eating mode, versus autopilot mode.

Let me know how this works out for you! Comment below!

Principle #6: Discover the Satisfaction Factor

Do you enjoy your meals? Do you even know what foods you really like and want to eat? I’ve heard from many clients who’ve been dieting for years (and even decades) that they just don’t know what they like anymore.

Well, it’s time to discover your true food preferences. What tastes do you like? Textures? Temperature of food?

Explore these qualities of food over the next few weeks so you can reacquaint yourself with what gives you the most pleasure.

During Passover and Easter this year, really be with your food. Take a moment before the meal to breathe, put your phone away, and focus on the food in front of you. Try to eat slowly, putting your fork down in between bites so you can truly savor what is in your mouth. It will make the eating experience truly satisfying.

What’s your favorite Passover or Easter food? Comment below!

Principle #7: Cope with Your Emotions without Food

The holidays can stir up a lot of different emotions. From happiness to sadness, from excitement to anxiety; it can be a confusing time.

You may feel pressured to turn to food to deal with the stress of hosting or attending Passover Seder or Easter dinner with certain family members.

One of the intuitive eating principles is to cope with emotions without turning to food…rather use kindness! This means experiencing what you are feeling and accepting those feelings without judgement.

And, doing things for yourself in that moment that serves you best!

What ways can you be kind to yourself during moments of difficult emotions? Comment below!

Principle #8: Respect Your Body

It can be hard to love your body in today’s world. Everywhere you look you see images of skinny women and buff men.

It’s important to keep in mind that what you see on social media is usually not real – these are photoshopped images. People come in all different shapes and sizes; all of them are beautiful.

You may struggle with loving your body, I get it! Instead, work to reach a place where you can respect your body and accept yourself with neutrality and kindness.

I’m currently working with women in my The Body Image Healing Program™. If you’re interested in getting support on your body image healing journey, fill out this interest form, and I’ll be in touch.

Principle #9: Exercise – Feel the Difference

Our bodies were made to move!

Movement is important for a happy and healthy body that’s strong.

You don’t need to hit the gym 5 times a week or exercise until it hurts. Instead, consider what feels gentle to your body and what brings you joy!

That could be taking a walk around the block or doing some yoga moves in your living room.

Feel the difference when you’re moving. How does it impact your stress levels, your sleeping patterns, and your overall feeling of empowerment? Comment below!

Principle #10: Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

Now that we’ve discussed the other nine principles of intuitive eating, it’s time to address the tenth: Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

Eating well is not about perfection! “In matters of taste, consider nutrition, and in matters of nutrition, consider taste”.

That pretty much sums it up. Choose foods that you enjoy and taste great, and that also make you feel good. And be flexible! Your body has all the wisdom, now it’s time to trust it!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy Passover and Easter.