The Easter Holiday brings with it some quite strong beliefs about what we can and can’t do. Many of which we have carried from childhood. Some of these beliefs are beautiful and harmless like the annual Easter Egg hunt and eating fish on Good Friday, and others can get in the way of your weight loss goal or the way you feel about yourself. Think 2-for-1 Hot Cross Buns or Chocolate bunnies on steroids. You may think back over your long weekend and decide the only miracle that happened for you was the button on your trousers staying in place after eating the bucket of Easter Eggs.
So, this Easter I wanted to share some tips to help you manage your mind and support you through what may previously have been an opportunity for you to beat yourself up, call yourself a few names and resign yourself to the fact that weight loss is too hard.
Long-term weight loss is possible, and you are capable of taking the journey and achieving it! Easter is just another opportunity for you to practice taking care of yourself and building the relationship you have with yourself. It doesn’t mean completely refraining from having any chocolate eggs or hot cross buns, but it does mean being more intentional with the way you go about Easter. Have a read of the tips and have a go at applying those that resonate with you.
TIP 1 – Beware of a Scarcity Mindset
By scarcity mindset, I mean the sentences that run through your brain repeating… Easter is only once a year and I need to eat as much of it as I can while I can. While it is true that the Easter holiday does only happen once a year, you can get some chocolate eggs, including Cadbury Crème eggs and hot cross buns for most if not all of the year – Boom! End of scarcity.
Scarcity comes from your thinking. If you suffer from fear of missing out (I used to), then just notice that and work on practicing a different mindset. Easter can be an opportunity for you to practice taking care of yourself and watching your brain tell you all the reasons why you need to eat lots of sugar. It can be very persuasive.
TIP 2 – Decide If You Are Going to Maintain, Lose or Put On A Couple Of Pounds
This is an important decision and one I ask you to do for all major holidays where you have overeaten. You may recall me asking you the same question in my Christmas blog.
If you decide you want to eat a few hot cross buns and chocolate Easter eggs, then you may opt for putting on 1 or 2 pounds, and that’s OK (if it is planned). Making the decision ahead of time feels like giving yourself permission to eat the sugar without feeling out of control. Beating yourself up when you feel like you are out of control often leads to the sentence ‘Stuff it, I have already messed up, so I may as well eat more’. Sound familiar?
If you decide to lose weight this Easter, do this from a place of love for yourself. Not because you don’t like what you see in the mirror. If you are coming from a place of self-loathing, you may experience feelings of deprivation and shame. Deprivation uses willpower to prevent you from eating Easter treats, and willpower is finite. That means it doesn’t last and you may find your hand double-dipping into the Easter Egg bucket. It is a lot easier to change your mindset to recognise you are doing it FOR YOU not because you don’t like yourself.
TIP 3 – Plan
I know I keep harping on about planning, but as I mentioned planning stops you from beating yourself up. It will prevent you from having a chocolate binge and feeling like Violet from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Put your prefrontal cortex or smart brain in charge by planning. It is always looking out for your future wellbeing. Involving it in the planning stages is like providing some adult supervision. Your brain likes the direction and is likely to follow the plan. Write the plan down. In your phone is fine if you don’t want anyone else to see it. Check it at the beginning of the day to remind yourself what you have lovingly planned for yourself and follow it. Be curious to see what you liked about planning. Were you too strict? Was there too much sugar? Or was it just like Baby Bears Porridge Bowl and, just right? You have the best wisdom for you.
TIP 4 – Eat Your Sweet Food At The End Of One Of Your Main Meals
Grazing throughout the day with chocolate and hot cross buns will see your body go into fat storage mode. That means not using the fat on your body for fuel. If you are eating right throughout the day and your body is not using all the sugar it is consuming, this sugar will eventually turn to fat and join your existing fat stores. As you would agree this does not compute when trying to stop weight gain or when trying to lose existing fat on your body!
TIP 5 – Get Curious to When you Stop Enjoying the Taste of the Chocolate
In an era when we are mostly taught to finish all the food on our plate, you might find yourself pushing the last of the Ferrero Rocher bunny into your mouth. Instead, get conscious of when you stop enjoying it. Then stop eating it. Put it back in the fridge to have at the end of another meal or bin it. I know this may bring up some resistance for you because of your strong belief system. Beliefs are just thoughts that you have thought over and over. They can be changed.
TIP 6 – Question Your Beliefs About Easter
Don’t make Easter all about food! Easter in my family was about waking up to find Easter eggs on the table. It was about fish on Friday and Hot Cross Buns on Easter Sunday. Find some joy in Easter by creating new memories with your friends and family that are not based around food. By all accounts, have the Easter egg hunt and enjoy the surprise and excitement but see if you can find joy in other areas of the holiday aside from the food. Create something new to do with your family at Easter time that does not revolve around food. Can you play a new game, create a treasure hunt without chocolate eggs or engage in a new family physical activity? I would love to hear your idea’s so we can share them.
TIP 7 – Be prepared for an increase in your desire for chocolate after Easter
If you do plan for an increase in sugar these Easter Holidays, then be prepared for the increase in desire that will stick around for some time after the holiday. Your body will crave sugar and your brain will tell you if you don’t have sugar you might die. On some level you may believe this, or want to believe this to justify your actions of popping the last Lindt Easter egg bunny into your mouth, but it is not true. Instead come up with some strategies ahead of time that you are going to use to prevent you from that guilt, shame, or disappointed feeling you get when you are eating at what feels like against your will. Check out some of the strategies below that Healthline suggest to fight sugar cravings.
- Change out chocolate or the sweet treat for fruit like blueberries, grapes, or strawberries.
- Change normal chocolate for dark chocolate – the 70% or more of the cocoa kind. It is better for you and its bitter taste means you don’t feel like eating as much. 2 squares should do the trick!
- Mix some fruit with some yoghurt – I love full-fat Greek yoghurt as it fills me up for longer.
- Have a cup of herbal tea or I love peppermint or lemon and ginger.
- Try chewing some sugar-free gum. Although you may find that this creates a habit you may want to change later.
- Allow the feeling of desire to be there and don’t act on it. Name the emotion as desire. Pinpoint where you can feel it in your body and just breathe it in and out. This is possibly one of the best skills to use, but it is a skill and it takes time. I work with many of my clients to improve this skill.
TIP 8 – Do Not Beat Yourself Up if You Make a Mistake
If you make a mistake, remember you have a human brain. We are not perfect and that is ok. Be kind and curious as to why you overate, learn from it and then move forward. Don’t give up. Making mistakes is definitely where the learning and growth happens, and I don’t mean the growth of your midline.
I would love to hear how you created joy these holidays without using food. I am taking on new clients so if you are ready to commit to long term weight loss then send me an email and we can schedule a 20-minute no-obligation chat to see if coaching is the right fit for you.
Have a beautiful Easter.
