By Chidorom Ihechi Goodness
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Holidays are usually when we are at our happiest for the year. With holidays come family visits, long conversations, travel, celebrations, and food that tastes special just because it is different from what we normally eat. It is during these times when food becomes not a source to fill hunger, but something to use for bonding.
But holidays can quietly alter eating habits and physical activity without noticing it. The food becomes heavier, snacking becomes a regular practice, sodas and other sweets will appear in our diet, and our routine will fade away into oblivion.
That doesn’t mean holiday seasons are bad things or that any of us must avoid indulging in yummy food. It just means that those times of year are when we need to pay a little extra attention to our bodies. By watching our bodies change during those holiday seasons, we can enjoy our holidays to the fullest and pay attention to our diets at the same time.
2.1 Why Holidays Increase the Risk of Obesity
Obesity affects millions
Holidays have a way of subtly disturbing the rhythms we have come to expect and depend on with the regularity of a clock. Our mealtimes will change, times of sleep will differ, and exercise patterns will no longer be as predictable. The absence of patterns will lead to less careful eating and more responsive eating based on the options before us.
During celebrations, meals tend to consist of foods that, in most cases, are not strictly served during meals. The foods tend to be available throughout the day, such as when placed on the table, in the living room, when visiting, and when traveling. This manner makes it quite simple to overeat without really feeling the necessity to eat.
Overeating During Celebration
Holiday meals are also typically communal and plentiful. Plates are constantly being filled as people eat together from common dishes. In this kind of gathering, people eat freely, and their behavior is not scrutinized.
Many people are taking their seconds or thirds because they are not necessarily hungry but because the food is there and everybody is eating. In some cases, it is just a part of being there.
However, there is also a social side to this issue. It can be very embarrassing just to refuse food. More often than not, people will continue with their meals even when they are full just to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to themselves. This is because they will feel embarrassed just to be refusing food when the other person has actually taken the effort to cook.
High-Calorie Traditional and Festive Foods
The foods eaten during festive seasons tend to contain more nutrients compared to others. These foods tend to be prepared using more amounts of oil, sugar, and carbohydrates.
These foods also have cultural associations. They bring back memories of home. In addition, their consumption results in increased quantities of these foods being taken. As a result of their importance to individuals, these foods are eaten during the festive period.
When such diets are taken over a period of days or weeks, the excess calories add up, no matter how insignificant an individual meal appears.
Frequent Snacking and Sugary Beverages
Another underlying factor that takes place in holiday seasons is that people tend to eat snacks frequently. Food items are usually kept readily available for guests, making it an easy habit to eat in between meals without feeling hungry.
Desserts and sweets are always readily available, and it’s easy to see that small bites taken here and there can add up to quite a bit. At the same time, liquids such as sugar-laden drinks and soft drinks have increased as people turn away from drinking water.
Since these beverages do not promote a piling-up sensation in the body, it becomes quite simple to consume a lot of them without even realizing it.
Reduced Physical Activity
Traveling entails spending time sitting in automobiles, buses, or airplanes. In the home setting, days are slower with less structured activities for physical movement. Routines for exercise, if followed, are interrupted.
With reduced intentional physical activity, calorie burning in the body is reduced, hence contributing to gaining weight in cases where calorie consumption is high.
Social pressure to eat more
Most cultures view eating well during celebrations as a sign of enjoyment and appreciation. Saying no to food can sometimes be misconstrued to mean disinterest or disrespect.
Consequently, people eat more than they desire simply to please others or not appear ungrateful. This action, of course, becomes the norm, and overeating then becomes part of the holiday experience.
When these social habits repeat every festive season, they eventually make quiet contributions towards long-term weight gain.
2.2 The Health Impact of Holiday Weight Gain
Holiday weight gain often feels like a temporary condition. Most people anticipate that once the celebrations are over, everything will return to normal of its own accord. Sometimes that does happen. But in many cases, the changes that are introduced hang around longer than you’d like.
What might begin as a subtle shift in one celebratory season can gradually amass throughout the course of time, particularly since holidays recur each year under the same patterns.
Short-Term Weight Gain
Small weight gains commonly occur during holidays. They often develop over time, after days or weeks of heavier meals, more frequent snacking, and decreased movement.
The challenge comes once the holidays are over. It may not be easy reverting to normal eating and activity habits. Portions seem smaller than what the body has become accustomed to, and cravings for rich or sugary foods remain. As a result, some of the festive period weight stays on.
Long-term Weight Gain
When this extra weight gained during holidays becomes a recurring phenomenon over many years, the impact can be felt. Even slight weight gain, if it is not taken care of, can add up over time.
Over the years, the result of these fluctuations is what causes a gradual progression toward obesity. These fluctuations don’t always feel like much at the time, but the end result is noticeable in the changes in one’s clothes sizes, the lack of energy, or the difficulty in maintaining one’s weight.
Wider Health Risks
The greater the body mass, the greater the chances of acquiring some health issues. The steady increase in body weight has been connected with an increased risk of persons obtaining heart-related disorders and obtaining diabetes.
There is also an impact concerning metabolic health in general. This is because the body will become inefficient regarding sugar levels in the blood and related energy, which may end up influencing how an individual feels. This does not happen immediately, but it is impacted by patterns that may get created when holidays come.
3.1 Typical Holiday Eating pitfalls that People Overlook
A reason why holiday weight gain occurs so easily is because of the way many of the behaviors that cause it feel harmless. They feel normal, and they feel as though they are occurring with a reason that justifies them because of the holiday.
‘It’s Just Once’ Thinking
Holidays often find us convincing ourselves that one meal or one indulgence is not going to make any difference. Typically, it does not.
The problem with this type of thinking is that it becomes repetitive. One indulgence leads to multiple indulgences within a matter of days or weeks. When you look at each moment individually, you may feel as though you are doing things right.
Larger Portion Sizes
Meals during holidays tend to be bigger in portion compared to other times. The plates tend to be full, and it’s encouraged to have refills. In fact, to finish earlier might seem awkward.
With time, the body can adapt to such larger portions. What could have seemed very filling can become the new normal; it will be difficult to revert to smaller portions for daily intake.
Late-Night Eating
Parties often go late into the evening. Dinner is eaten late, and snacks will continue well after the dinners.
Eating nearer to bedtime increases. This occurs, especially where social functions are involved. If such practices continue, it may result in a number of changes in digestion, sleep patterns, and metabolism.
Alcohol and Sweetened Beverages
Drinks can be one big trap during holidays. Drinking, soft drinks, or sweetened juices can be taken together with either meal or snack.
These drinks aren’t exactly filling, and as such, the calorie contribution goes unnoticed. It becomes rather easy to overlook the contribution because the attention is focused on food and not on the drink.
4.1 How to Be Watchful Without Ruining the Holiday
It means remaining alert when faced with holidays without dictating your portions or making special occasions into stressful events. It is just connecting with your bodies while in the moment. Awareness enables joy and prevents indulgence.
Mindful Eating
Holidays move fast. Meals are rushed between conversations, laughter, and activities. Slowing down just a little can make a difference.
Portion Awareness
A smaller serving of festive food will allow you the opportunity to appreciate the flavours and uniqueness of each dish, rather than focusing on how much food is being served.
When you serve yourself smaller portions first, it becomes easier to determine if you really need more food, instead of eating just to eat.
Smarter Food Choices
You do not have to avoid the foods that you like. Rather, try to have a balance in your food choices and rather than limiting yourself, try to balance them out.
There are ways to enjoy eating less, while still getting pleasure from it. For example, combining heavier items with lighter items, and using water to dilute sugary drinks, or ordering an extravagant meal, and splitting it up over two days.
4.2 Practical Tips for Enjoying Holidays Without Gaining Excess Weight
Staying balanced during the holidays is not really about being super strict all the time. It is more about making choices that you think about carefully. You do not have to make choices for them to work. Staying balanced during the holidays is about these small thoughtful choices that you make every day.
Planning ahead is a thing. It helps to know when you will have meals. This way you can make other meals smaller. You will not feel like you are missing out. Planning ahead also helps you to not eat things just because they’re there. This stops you from eating much food when you do not really need to. Planning ahead is helpful because it makes you think about food and meals and when you will have food and small food.
Staying hydrated is necessary. Drinking water is simple. People often forget to do it. When you drink water all day you do not eat as much junk food when you are not really hungry. Drinking water helps you know when you are really hungry so you eat the food that the water does not give you which’s the food that the drinking water cannot give I mean the food that the water cannot give is the hunger that the food gives so staying hydrated I mean drinking enough water helps you know when you need to eat food, which is when you are really hungry and staying hydrated is the same, as drinking enough water.
Having fun with food does not have to stop just because we try to be balanced. We can have rich meals and then eat something lighter the next time. Desserts are okay to have but we do not have to eat them every day. Balance is good because it lets us make choices without doing much of anything. We can enjoy desserts and rich meals and balance helps us do that without overdoing it.
These small actions, repeated across the holiday period, help prevent gradual weight gain without interfering with celebration.
Conclusion
Holidays must be fully appreciated. Laughter, food, traditions, and relaxation each play their own importance, and they must not be suppressed due to health concerns.
Awareness is what matters. It is easier to enjoy holidays without any unexpected repercussions if one is mindful of what happens to patterns of eating and physical activities. Harmony occurs naturally instead of being forced if one keeps in mind movement activities, portion sizes, and bodily comfort.
