Tag Archive for: Passover

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.

A Mindful Passover

Passover - MindfulWhat comes to your mind when you think of the holidays?

 

For most people, the first thought is food. The second thought is “oh, no I am going to gain so much weight”.

 

Passover is just two days away and if you celebrate this holiday, you probably understand when I say that preparing for Passover is exhausting. Cleaning the house, planning the holiday menus, writing your shopping lists and finally “turning over the kitchen” so you can begin cooking even before the holiday begins can really take a toll on your energy level.

 

For those reading this who might not understand what “turning over the kitchen” means, let me take a moment to explain. It is required on Passover to use different dishes, silverware and pots than you use all year round. One has to clean out the refrigerator, oven, stovetop and microwave of all leavened bread and crumbs before using it for Passover food and cooking. So when someone says “I am turning over my kitchen tonight”, that means from that night forward until the end of Passover, only Passover dishes, pots and foods are in the kitchen.

 

Needless to say, this is a lot of work! And, cooking for the 8 days of Passover is a lot of cooking. Many of my clients tell me that by the time Passover begins, they are exhausted and they don’t make healthful food choices. Exhaustion is definitely a feeling/emotion for many people that triggers poor food choices.

 

But for the chronic dieter, this goes even deeper.

 

I see one of several scenarios in the chronic dieter and how they handle Passover. Here are just two that come to mind now:

 

Scenario #1:

She arrives at the Passover Seder exhausted and over hungry, having not eaten all day due to Passover preparation. She overeats on the appetizer and then says “I blew it already, so forget it. I’ll start again after Passover”.

 

Scenario #2:

She enters into the holiday with the mindset of “I am not going to eat anything I am not supposed to”. She says no to her favorite traditional holiday foods for the first 4 days of Passover, and then BAM, she can’t do it anymore. On day 5 she says: “I just want to taste a sliver”, which leads to a second sliver, a third sliver and so on until she says “Forget it, I’ll start again after Passover”.

 

So, what’s the best way to stay mindful and intuitive over the Passover holiday?

 

  • Banish the rules. Be rid of the “I won’t eat anything I’m not supposed to mentality”. That is a dieters thought and will keep you struggling.

 

  • Remember to eat! I know this sounds funny, but it is very important to be sure you are eating meals on Friday so that you don’t arrive at the Seder starving.

 

  • Take it slow. There is no need to rush the meal. Take your time and savor each bite of food, really exploring the taste and texture so you can have great pleasure in your meals. You will be less likely to be on the prowl looking for snacks later in the evening.

 

  • Forget about deprivation. If you have a favorite Passover food, enjoy it. Deprivation leads to overeating, keep that in mind. If you are interested in exploring traditional Passover foods with a healthy twist, check out my cookbook Passover the Healthy Way!

 

Your turn to take action: Which scenario above do you resonate with, or share a different scenario you have found yourself in. And, how will you stay mindful this Passover? Let me know in the comments below.