Happy Boxing Day! I hope you had the most wonderful Christmas.
If you’re like me, you might have woken up this morning feeling a bit over holiday eating—but with Christmas day behind us, in some ways, the extravagant eating has only just begun.
That’s because there are still the leftovers from entertaining and then there’s what’s been gifted: boxes of holiday chocolates, favourite snacks, and other once-a-year fun foods.
This is fine if you fall into one of the two categories that defines most people. On one side of the spectrum is the “moderator” (oh how I wish I were a moderator!). Moderators can walk by their favourite treat 20 times in a day and stop only once…or not at all. They’re adept at naturally regulating their food intake and respond very neutrally to tempting treats—they can have just a bit and easily move on.
The other category is the eater who does better in a food environment free of anything craveable. This person is called the “abstainer” because they do better choosing not to open the door to indulgence at all. If this describes you like it describes me, having just a taste of a delectable delight sparks something in your brain that drives you to want to eat it until it’s gone, gone, gone.
If this feels familiar, there’s no shame in it. Everyone’s food brain is wired a little bit differently. The key is to understand your behaviour cues, so you get to be in control of the choices you make.
When it comes to holiday leftovers and treats from Santa that might cause you to overeat in a way that doesn’t align with your goals, you have three options:
Keep ‘em and eat ‘em at whatever pace suits you—just make sure you ditch the guilt!
Remove them from your home. This could mean donating unopened packages to the food bank, sharing them with friends or family, or tossing them in the trash. The last one is a bold move, but it can be freeing.
Keep them but make them inconvenient to get to.
The latter is where I’m going to focus. To illustrate why this is important, a Cornell University study examined how Hershey Kisses placed in different locations of varying accessibility affected how many participants would eat. They found that participants averaged:
9 Kisses per day when they were kept in a bowl on their desk
6 Kisses per day when they were kept in the top drawer of their desk
4 Kisses per day when they were kept in a filing cabinet six feet away
This study does a great job of illustrating how simple barriers can help curb overeating. In that vein, here are some easy things you can do to leverage the power of inconvenience:
Option 1: Get them out of sight
Rather than leaving treats or tempting food out in plain view, get them out of sight. Just like in the Kisses experiment, if you can’t see them, you’re likely to reach for them less. It’s way easier to grab something that’s out in the open than it is to have to go to the cupboard, fridge, or another room to get it.
Option 2: Make them less accessible
If you want to ramp up the inconvenience further, consider putting tempting food on a shelf that you can’t reach without moving something into the room to stand on. You can also put things even farther out of reach, which could mean upstairs, downstairs, in the basement, in the garage, or even in the freezer! The freezer is a great option because you’ll also have to wait for the food to thaw before you eat it, which builds in another barrier.
Option 3: Turn them into single servings
You can also portion leftovers or treats into single-serving sealable bags or containers. Just by placing food into bags or containers, you’ll have to work a little harder if you want to eat more than what you’ve portioned. This works with chips, Cheezies, candy, chocolate, specialty cheeses, ooey-gooey butter drenched mashed potatoes, ice cream, pie, or anything else you find hard to resist.
Option 4: Amp up the mental resistance
Breaking tempting food up into single servings can also be a game-changer when it comes to preventing overeating, because not only does it take more effort to get to, but it also increases mindfulness. Instead of reaching into a large bag or container and losing track of how much you've eaten, you have a clear reminder of what makes up a serving size. This will influence your stopping point.
Holiday treats add to the season's joy, and with these simple strategies, you can enjoy them in portions that align with your goals. Whether you get things out of sight, make them harder to get to or into, create a mental barrier around serving sizes—or you do all of the above—these small adjustments to your environment will help you feel more in control of your food choices. You’ll move into 2025 feeling confident about your ability to implement small strategies that can stack up to create major wins!
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