5 Tips for Mindful Eating During the Holidays

The holidays can bring joy, connection, tradition, and also a lot of pressure around food and bodies. Many people tell me they want to practice mindful or intuitive eating during the holidays, but feel like it all goes out the window once schedules change, routines disappear, and food becomes more visible and abundant.

Mindful eating during the holidays does not mean eating perfectly, eating lightly, or being hyper-aware of every bite. It means staying connected to your body, honoring your needs, and approaching food with curiosity instead of judgment, even in the midst of celebration.

Here are five gentle, grounding tips to support mindful eating during the holidays.

1. Eat Consistently

This tip holds true whether you are brand new to intuitive eating or have been practicing for years. We must take care of our body’s physical needs.

When we do not eat consistently, we begin to break trust in the relationship we have with our bodies. I often relate this back to our history as hunter-gatherers. There is enormous value in a body that can recognize scarcity and adapt quickly. That adaptability is part of why humans have survived for so long.

When your body senses that food is not reliably available, it essentially goes, “Oh no. I need to conserve.” This is when compensation mechanisms turn on, such as slower digestion, cold hands and feet, brain fog, difficulty regulating emotions, increased food noise, and a stronger pull toward food later.

This is why eating meals and snacks every 2–4 hours is so important, even on holidays. Consistency helps your body feel safe enough to relax, tune in, and self-regulate.

Let’s also address something that commonly gets in the way here, often called the Last Supper Effect. This can look like “saving up” for a holiday meal or overeating because tomorrow you plan to be “back on track.” Placing future restriction, whether physical or mental, affects how we approach food right now.

Consider asking yourself:

• Does this pattern feel good?

• Does it truly allow me to enjoy holiday food?

• Or does it build a home for guilt, urgency, or discomfort?

This cycle begins to soften when you fuel consistently throughout the day and remind yourself that a holiday is just another day for your body. Food will still be allowed tomorrow.

2. Give Yourself Permission to Enjoy Holiday Foods

Mindful eating is not about avoiding foods or making them “fit” into a set of rules. In fact, restriction is one of the biggest barriers to mindfulness.

When certain foods feel scarce, forbidden, or “special,” they tend to take up more mental space. You may notice urgency, overeating, or difficulty stopping not because you lack willpower, but because your body is responding to perceived restriction.

Giving yourself permission to enjoy holiday foods can look like:

• Allowing yourself to eat favorite seasonal foods without needing to justify them

• Letting pleasure be a valid reason to eat

• Reminding yourself that enjoyment does not need to be earned

When food feels allowed, it often becomes easier to slow down, notice flavors, and check in with fullness. Permission is not a free-for-all; it is a foundation for trust.

3. Slow Down Without Forcing It

Mindful eating often gets misunderstood as needing to eat slowly at all times. During the holidays, this can feel unrealistic or even stressful.

Instead of forcing slowness, try inviting moments of pause when they are available. This might look like:

• Taking a breath before starting your meal

• Putting your fork down once or twice during the meal

• Checking in halfway through to see how your body feels

You do not need to eat slowly for the entire meal for mindfulness to be present. Even brief moments of awareness can help you reconnect with your body and the experience of eating.

And if a meal is fast, loud, or distracted, that is okay too. Mindful eating is flexible, not fragile.

4. Separate Food from Morality

The holidays can amplify food judgment. Words like “good,” “bad,” “clean,” or “indulgent” tend to show up more loudly this time of year, both internally and externally.

Mindful eating becomes much harder when food is tied to morality. If a food feels “bad,” it is difficult to enjoy it fully or listen to your body’s cues without guilt interfering.

A gentle practice during the holidays is noticing when moral language shows up and intentionally neutralizing it. Food is food. Eating is eating. Your worth is not impacted by what or how much you eat.

When morality is removed, your body’s signals become clearer and more accessible.

5. Practice Compassionate Curiosity, Not Perfection

There will be moments during the holidays when eating feels messy, rushed, emotional, or disconnected. That does not mean you have failed at mindful eating.

Mindful eating is not about doing it “right.” It is about noticing what is happening with kindness.

If you find yourself eating past fullness, skipping meals, or feeling uncomfortable afterward, try approaching that experience with curiosity instead of criticism:

• What was going on around me?

• Was I hungry, tired, stressed, or overwhelmed?

• What might I need next?

Compassionate curiosity keeps the door open to learning and self-trust. Perfection shuts it.

A Final Reminder

Mindful eating during the holidays is not about control. It is about care.

You are allowed to enjoy food. You are allowed to eat consistently. You are allowed to change your mind, eat differently than others, and prioritize your well-being in ways that feel supportive to you.

The holidays do not require you to shrink yourself, your needs, or your joy.

Written by Alison Swiggard, MS, RDN, LD, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at CV Wellbeing

510 Main Street, Suite 103, Gorham, ME 04038

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