How to avoid comfort eating this holiday season

The holiday season is a favorite for many. It’s a time to spend with family, friends, and loved ones, away from the chilly weather. It’s also a time when temptation can be tough to resist.

Comfort eating is a huge challenge for fitness enthusiasts to overcome – when you’re indoors with loved ones, it can be tough to reach for healthier snacks when there are so many delightful options on offer – particularly between meals.

There are a few things you can do to make avoiding them easier, though, but whether you’re a veteran of a million workouts or just getting started, it’s not going to be easy. Here are a few techniques, apps, and ideas to help you stay fit while at home with your favorite people.

Before we start:

It’s worth noting that, for all of the techniques we’re about to run through, there’s nothing wrong with treating yourself every now and again.

Whether it’s an extra portion, a takeout dinner, or anything else, you shouldn’t feel bad afterward – these things can (and should) be enjoyed in moderation, so try not to beat yourself up. Winter can be tough already!

Apps

Your smartphone can definitely help keep you fitter throughout the colder months. Here are some picks of ours:

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal has become a household name for the tracking of calories, and for good reason – it’s the easiest way to quickly log what you’ve eaten and parse that data for a fitter you.

The app prioritizes a balanced diet, with functions for macros. Users can scan barcodes to immediately log items, with nutritional values included. You can use it to track hydration, too (more on that later), and the free version is plenty powerful for hitting your weight loss goals – although the premium version adds even more.

Streaks

Streaks is a habit-forming app that totals up all the days in a row where you’ve completed an activity. That might be ensuring you drink at least 2 liters of water a day, or making sure you take the trash out each week.

The real power of Streaks is in its near endless flexibility, though. Users can track how long it’s been since they did a task, so you can invert the tracker to the amount of days since you’ve, say, smoked a cigarette or eaten “bad” food like a greasy burger.

It’s a simple concept, but you’d be surprised at how good it feels to see those numbers tick up over the course of a few weeks, months, and even longer.

‍Fitbod

We’ve already recommended Fitbod in our extensive review, but it really comes into its own when you’re visiting family, away from the gym, and it may be too cold to go outside.

With a few quick taps, you can set Fitbod to create a workout focused on the equipment you have available (or lack thereof), letting your focus on, say, kettlebells only. Even better, there are a huge number of bodyweight exercises that focus on all muscle groups, meaning you can find time for a brisk 15-minute lower body session wherever you are.

Keep the calories off

As noted above, there are apps to help you track food, keep streaks going, and work out without any equipment, but it’s OK to just want to take things slower.

Keeping calories off can be as simple as going for a walk with friends, family, or on your own and keeping your blood flowing. Personally, I like to put my earphones in with a podcast or two and see where my legs take me!

If it’s not too icy (and slippery), you can also go for a jog. There’s nothing quite like keeping your lungs full of cold air!

Stay hydrated 

This should apply all year round, but it’s particularly important to track during Thanksgiving and Christmas when there’s soda, wine, beer, and plenty more to enjoy.

Not only is water a great way to ensure you’re fighting fit (and you can use Streaks or MyFitnessPal to track your intake), but ensuring you’re drinking enough of it can help stave off the feeling of being hungry.

A final tip

This may seem obvious, but one tip I’ve used is asking myself if I was hungry before I spotted the food I’m tempted to eat. As an example, if I head into the kitchen to grab a drink of water and spot a snack on the counter, would I have looked for it if it wasn’t right there? Or would I have just left the kitchen without eating it had I not seen it?

It sounds more than a little daft, but you’d be surprised how many times you may walk past that tempting treat.

There are some of our ideas for avoiding comfort eating this holiday season. What are your favorites? Let me know on Twitter @lloydcoombes.

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