You're packing for your vacation but this time you're flying and have to bring a bag that's half the size of what you are used to toting.
You look at all of the clothes spread all over the bed (and maybe the floor) and suddenly have to decide, which things you want MOST with you on this trip.
You select your favorite items, the new ones you bought for the trip and also your favorite staple clothing items and then worry that you forgot something or that you won't have enough clothes.
On the trip, you realize that you didn't really need all that other stuff.
Those additional items were less about necessity and more about comfort and easing your anxiety.
Packing everything that you owned meant that you didn't have to make decisions before the trip and that's what you were used to.
Perhaps you travel SO RARELY that you have very little experience packing your bag efficiently.
So when you are about to embark on a trip you feel like you have to bring everything.
Choosing what to eat (and what not to eat) on a special occasion can be a lot like packing your bag for vacation, especially if you've recently begun to think about how much food your body actually needs vs. how much it can manage.
If you're not in the practice of making choices and or trusting yourself to make satisfying decisions, then you might find yourself over-packing your body with food.
So many of us are in the habit of showing up to a holiday occasion or celebration and we are like the person that rarely goes on vacation.
We are starved for a good time around food.
We are inexperienced.
And we have a tendency to overpack.
There is LITERALLY a limit to how much food we physically can eat, but there's also a mental and emotional limit to how much food we can happily eat today and still feel good about tomorrow.
People who travel all of the time learn which clothing items are tried and true, which things they are always happy to have with them.
They learn to be economic in their packing because in truth, it's less stressful and more comfortable to feel confident in your travel staples and have to tote less stuff with you.
Less to carry.
Less to keep track of.
Less to wash on the other end.
But it takes practice, mindfulness and trusting yourself to get to a place like that.
It's the same thing with eating.
We are better at making choices the more we practice making choices.
We are going to be much happier with our eating experience if rather than eating everything (and feeling sick or bad about it the next day) we choose the items that are MOST important to us, savor and enjoy them.
It's not wisdom to waste room in your bag on that beach sarong you got on sale that you've never worn and can't actually see yourself wearing.
And it's not wise to waste room on your plate or in your body on that dessert item that you didn't even really want or enjoy.
Give yourself the space and freedom to PRACTICE navigating these occasions.
Make this the year that you're not obsessive or restrictive, but rather intentional about what you choose to eat.
If you have a tendency to diet right up until the holiday, let yourself have a nice treat the day before and see how that effects your decision making.
If you tend to over-eat out of inexperience, anxiety (FOMO) then remind yourself that more isn't better. Better is better.
Choose the best foods.
Enjoy them.
Let this be a learning experience.
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