Holiday Leftovers and Weight Loss (Top Tips to Stay on Track)

Learn my tips to go from feeling powerless and out of control around leftovers, like if you keep them you HAVE TO eat them – to being able to enjoy them mindfully, if and when you choose. Use these tips to help you stay on track around the Holidays or anytime!

The Leftover Dilemma

We’ve all been there, you went out to eat, did some baking, made a fave dip or meal that isn’t exactly “healthy,” had a party, have an enormous bowl of Halloween candy (do any of us REALLY even want ALL that Halloween candy? Lol) Or it’s the Holiday Season. Enough said there.

Related: How to Stay On Track with Weight Loss over the Holidays (10 Tips!)

If your family is anything like mine, we always make way too much food, leaving us with lots of leftovers. And while we’ve gotten a lot better over the years (at one point we used to joke we felt like all we were eating was butter, cheese and cream cheese) some of the foods aren’t exactly “healthy” or ones we want to be nibbling on for breakfast. 

It can feel like they’re impossible to avoid, like every time you walk into your kitchen, open your pantry, fridge or freezer, these foods are staring you in the face. And while they may taste great, sometimes, especially if you have a health or weight loss goal – you don’t always necessarily want to be eating them, especially mindlessly or because you feel like you have to. So many times we think we have to get rid of them or we’ll eat them. And while that’s one option – there is another way 🙂

This used to be me. Every Christmas for years since I moved out of Buffalo where my family is we stay at my sisters. The day after the counters and fridge are jam packed with leftovers. I used to wake up, and mindlessly wander in and find myself with a cookie, chip and dip, or sometimes even a piece of pizza in my mouth. It wasn’t ideal, but I felt like if I saw the food, got the temptation, what else was I supposed to do but eat it? And once I started I just couldn’t stop….

Or maybe you’re really great at sticking to your healthy eating plan normally, but when this food is around all bets are off.

Then I started practicing the tips below – and now I can be around any food or drink (and be tempted) but feel like I have full control over whether I eat/drink it or not. I can check in with myself and and am able to make an intentional decision. This helps me to maintain my weight and feel more empowered and in control around Holiday (or any food) versus the opposite. And you can too!

Taking back our power over food

So how do we eat the leftovers (if you want to), stay on track with our health and weight loss goals, while feeling more in control? 

Here are a few potential options:

• Solution 1: Eat so much the first time you don’t want anymore (not my recommendation)
• Solution 2: Never cook or be around anything unhealthy and forbid others to either (nearly impossible, not my recommendation)
• Solution 3: Develop a healthy lifestyle, habits and mindset around food that includes the skills you need to have leftovers around, be tempted, but not eat them when you don’t want to – WINNER!

Holiday Leftovers and Weight Loss (Top Tips to Stay on Track)

Step 1: Make a plan

Have a plan – ask yourself:

• What’s the ideal? What do I really want here?
• When the day/night/event is over – what do you ACTUALLY WANT to do with the leftovers? 
• Do you want to eat them at all another time?

Make sure to take into consideration not only what you want in the moment – but what you want most – your goals etc. Beforehand – is the ideal time to make this decision, because you’re using your prefrontal cortex – the logical decision making part of your brain vs. the primal/survival brain in the moment that ALWAYS wants to eat sweets, snacks and rest (anything to conserve energy, seek pleasure, avoid pain!)

Potential Plan Options:

Get Rid of It

Decide you don’t want to eat anymore of it and give it to family members, co-workers or throw it out. Yes, throw it out! Our bodies and health are worth WAY more than the value of the food that we keep just because we “don’t want to waste it.” 

Intentionally Decide What, When and How Much You Want to Eat the Following Days/Weeks

You decide you want to have a little more of it throughout the week – so you save it. Before eating, intentionally decide what and how much you want to have. Examples:

• A piece of cake after dinner 2 nights
• A couple tablespoons of dip with lunch until it’s gone
• A piece of Halloween candy 3x this week.

You get to decide – but make sure you do, or the food, and your primal brain will decide for you, and it usually won’t be what leaves you feeling your best!

Freeze and Save for later

Freeze it and take it out later when you want to indulge again. I do this all the time. This is helpful partially because you’re not looking at it constantly, but it also preserved something you love so you can have it later when you’ve made the decision to do so.

Step 2: Follow the plan

Start Practicing Mindful Eating

Pay attention, be aware and present. Have you ever walked into your kitchen and put something into your mouth and realized it after you started chewing..like what am I doing? I know have! I also always have snacks in my pantry, and sometimes if I’m not paying attention I’ll find myself opening a bag of one in the middle of the day – just because I’m bored or procrastinating. The practice of mindful eating and the questions below help you break out of that!

Watch your brain. We don’t have to believe or act on everything we think.

The second you wake up the next day, or maybe when you walk down to the kitchen for breakfast, or open the freezer to grab something to make dinner and see the leftovers – your brain is going to give you every single reason under the sun to eat the food.

• It’s so good
• Just eat it
• One bite won’t hurt
• It’s the Holidays (you’re on a trip, it’s Tuesday)

It will feel urgent, important, like you have no choice but to oblige.

But guess what? You don’t!

Desire can’t drive action without a decision. And we can handle any emotion without reacting to it – even though it may feel like we can’t – see below process to handle urges and temptations.

Learn how to process urges and temptations without action

• PAUSE – our power is in the pause
• Acknowledge the craving/urge for what it is – a thought in your mind telling you if you eat/drink a certain thing you will feel a certain way. This is completely separate from the ACTION that we choose to take. Become the watcher of your brain and just watch the thoughts buzzing around creating the feeling of desire to eat the food.
• Ask yourself – are you hungry? If so, eat! (ideally, actual food)
• If not, acknowledge and accept the urge/craving and just let it BE there for a few minutes, doing nothing. This will be UNCOMFORTABLE and that’s OK. Let it pass. Don’t fight it or try to resist it (what we resist persists). Allow it. 
• Acknowledge that you do not NEED a food/drink to improve your life, or to take away an emotion, feeling or circumstance, or to create one. YOU have the power to do that with your brain, thoughts and body. It won’t be better once you have it (it may be worse, because you may regret it)
• Remember the commitment you made to yourself, and honor that commitment, remind yourself of all the reasoning you do not want to eat the food. Related: 12 Positive and Powerful Affirmations for Weight Loss
• I like to remind myself that I can handle hard things, and envision my mental muscles getting stronger, and a new nueropathway being built (one that doesn’t give in to cravings/temptations vs. the one that does)
• Repeat this process, until it becomes a habit. 
  • Every time we give in to an urge or craving, we are training our brains to think and remember – when they ask for it – we will give it to them (like a screaming toddler for candy). Perpetuating the cycle and causing us to have MORE cravings and urges. We want to become people who “don’t give in to urges and cravings” more often than we do. Either way your creating a habit – which one do you want to create?

Lastly, remember if you don’t follow the process exactly, catch yourself snacking on leftovers that you said you wouldn’t  – remember we’re human and embracing imperfection and having curiosity and self compassion is how we grow and learn.

Related: How to Get Back on Track with Weight Loss and Healthy Eating (9 Tips!)

If eating (Holiday) leftovers mindlessly or when you don’t really want to be is something you struggle with, and feel like it’s keeping you from your health and weight loss goals – try these tips out and let me know what you think!

P.S. Make sure to grab my Free Handling Temptations Checklist below to save in your phone for whenever you find yourself in a challenging situation.