Holidays are awesome! Family + football + fun + feasting! Often times, holidays are filled with so many yummy foods that we tend to overeat. This is SO normal. However, there can be the consequential guilt that follows. Why are so many of you filled with feelings of guilt this week? Ashamed over what you ate? Stop it! It’s time to figure out what to do after overeating, minus the guilt!
Tara’s Tuesday Tips:
What To Do After Overeating
Maybe too much pie on Thanksgiving, cookies on Christmas, vegan dogs on 4th of July, or ice cream at the party. Who cares what the occasion, it happens to all of us. The important part is that we recognize it, and move on. Sometimes, we try so hard to undo what we did, we make matters worse. The headspace that we take up stressing about it certainly perpetuates the problem. Let’s swap the feeling of guilt with the feeling of control.
There are things we can do to make ourselves feel better. In fact, the first thing to do is swap the feeling of guilt with gratitude + appreciation. Food is a luxury. Food combined with family deserves even more gratitude. But yet somehow, opening my Instagram account the day after a food holiday, I am inundated with posts about what I should be doing to detox my body from my holiday. What I shouldn’t be eating, doing, or drinking. I’ve got news for you Instagram, it’s just another day. Another day I’m thankful for. So, what do we do now? Do we fast for 3 days, surviving only on green tea? How about 7 days of green smoothies? What about the 3-a-day 3000-calorie-burn punishment workout? Nope.
Let’s try my tips for what to do after overeating instead!
Nothing
Just like one meal (or one day) of super healthy eating doesn’t make you healthy. One meal or one day of splurging doesn’t make you unhealthy either. Works both ways. Do nothing + that’s ok. Remember the big picture is your overall health.
Acknowledge The Situation
Recognize that you overate. Understand the scenario. Remember the taste of the foods, if you were happy while enjoying good food with good people, or if you were mindlessly eating to the point of discomfort. There is a big difference. Spend a few moments (not a few hours) acknowledging the events leading up to the feeling of being beyond full so that you are better in tune to it next time, and next time you can choose to stop eating or enjoy being full! Sans guilt.
Drink Water, Lots + Lots Of Water
Helps get you rehydrated after perhaps some salty foods or alcohol. Flushes your body, giving your gastrointestinal system a little extra boost to get things going. Also helps with the lingering headache or fatigue you might have. Again, no extremes here. A few extra glasses will do.
Resume Your Normal Eating Patterns
Eat again when you are hungry. Yep, you heard me correctly. Your body will know. Don’t ignore your body’s cues, in either direction. Don’t eat because it is time to eat. Eat when your body tells you it needs food. Sometimes a little gut rest is super helpful to make you feel better. Fast if you like, but not as a punishment.
Go For A Walk
There is real science to support this. Taking even a 10 minute walk can help regulate your blood sugar.
Forget About it!
There is NO human being that eats only what their body needs every single meal of every single day. We all enjoy the taste of certain things, or the company we are enjoying the food with, and eating more than we need sometimes just happens. I don’t care how many perfect ‘what I eat in a day’ TikTok videos you watch, stop believing it. Balance is key, do the right thing most of the time and your overall health will not suffer.
No Matter How Much You Exercise, You Can’t Reverse What You Ate
Please don’t punish your body! You can’t undo it. You can, however, take a walk, resume your normal exercise schedule, do some yoga or stretching or meditation. These things help! NO form of punishment is helpful here. I am all about the calorie burn any time, any day. I love exercise but not as a form of punishment.
Don’t Take Extremes
If you enjoy green tea or ginger tea, then go for it. BUT that is not nutrition and shouldn’t be used as punishment. Same goes for fasting. Some level of gut rest is acceptable, fasting until you don’t feel well is not!
Drink Tea
Yes, I am recommending you enjoy a cup of tea. No, I am not suggesting you drink only tea as a detox. No laxative teas, metabolism boosting teas, or detox teas. However, some tea actually can help if you are trying to figure out what to do after overeating. Peppermint tea has been known to help with nausea, ginger tea can help with indigestion + bloating, chamomile tea might help calm you if you are anxious about it, and green tea is loaded with antioxidants. Try a cup and see if they help you feel better.
Overeating Is Part Of Life
You can’t uneat what you ate yesterday. Yes, it makes your pants a little tight, maybe you feel a little sleepy. But guess what? It goes away.
A Healthy Body Starts With A Healthy Mind
Don’t stress yourself out about worrying what you ate. Allowing all the worrying + guilt to crowd your thoughts will only make you feel worse. If this is a regular or ongoing problem for you, get help! There are therapists that specialize in this and they can give you useful tools such as meditation, journaling, and teach you mindful eating strategies if you need them.
Food For Thought
- Look at a picture from that day + remember how awesome your day was! If food was a part of you enjoying your day, then so be it. Stop beating yourself up about it, get a glass of water + take a walk!
- Remember, its just one day. It’s only a problem if one day turns into one month into one year.
- Be thankful for having enough food to overeat, appreciate that food is a luxury.
- It is normal to enjoy food + family on certain occasions, balance is key!
- The cycle of overeat / undereat / overeat / undereat is just going to make things worse. Eat again when you are hungry! No punishing yourself!
A Few Other Tuesday Tips You Might Enjoy:
- The Vegetarian’s Guide To Mindful Snacking
- Why Am I So Hungry At Night?
- Intermittent Fasting for Vegetarians
- Eat, Move, Live, Repeat
- Signs That You Should Go Plant-Based
- How I Got Here
⭐What Do You Do After Overeating?
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