This time of the year marks the onset of winter and also planning for the upcoming holidays, vacations and celebrations.

Each Diwali, I sit down to decide how I am going to show up.

This is because, in my younger years, around Diwali, I would feel stressed about food.

The joy of the family get-togethers meant a chance to eat the best of foods, in plenty.

There was so much to love and be excited about.

Yet, I would find myself stressed around food, feeling pangs of guilt with each bite of the sweets, and the fear of putting on weight dictating my mood throughout the festivities.

I would try hard not to think about any of these, but my mind would play these thoughts in a loop.

Why?

Because… I had vivid memories of having put on 5 to 6 Kg weight in a short span of two weeks of the Navaratri and Diwali seasons year after year.

The newly bought clothes felt tight within weeks, and the frustration of overeating till I felt sick kept pumping my stress levels.

And the worst part was not looking my happiest self in the photographs.

The result was, that I would overeat all of my favourite sweets while promising myself to do something serious about my weight once the festival season was over.

The only catch was, that I never fulfilled my promise.

Until, one day, five years ago, I decided to change that.

I was getting started on my weight loss journey and was determined to make this festival season different from any other I had had to date.

I sat down with my journal and started writing what my expectations were from these holidays.

• Do I want to pause my weight loss journey?
• Do I want to keep losing weight through the holiday season?
• Do I want to maintain the weight I was at and get back to the weight loss efforts once the holiday season ends?

I’ll be honest, it wasn’t a comfortable moment. That’s why I decided to go all in, be brutally honest with myself and end the discomfort with this ONE IMPORTANT DECISION.

I had to make a choice and once I was sure what I wanted, I did not stop at that.

I went ahead and wrote down three simple rules to follow during the holidays, festivals and celebrations.

My three simple food rules to help me put on my ‘Healthy Life’ journey:

1. Eat only when I’m hungry.
2. To stop eating once I was satisfied.
3. To eat only the 3 things I LOVED the most from the whole spread.

That’s it.

My mind was at war with my decision from the get-go.

But the number of times I successfully stuck to my three rules, my mind got the proof that I could trust myself around food.

I could feel a surge in my confidence.

It got easier to enjoy food guilt-free.

Why?

Making a decision and taking full responsibility for our actions is what makes the real difference.

With time, I have refined these three rules to adapt to every situation life puts me into.

I now have a set of 11 simple guidelines that I implement throughout the year (especially the festival season) to eat the foods I love and to enjoy them guilt-free.

I have crafted a simple, printable cheat sheet to help you enjoy food you love, guilt-free.

 11 Tips To Enjoy The Holiday Season Without Feeling Guilty Around Food. You can download your free copy here.

These 11 tips aren’t a miracle diet or how to restrict the calorie-dense, traditional foods in favour of diet food.

Instead, these are simple steps to help you make smart, healthier choices every step of the way to enjoy the festivities, celebrations and holidays while feeling free around your favourite foods.

Making your health a priority in every moment of life, is an act of gratitude towards the universe that gifted us this precious life. Don’t let it ever feel ‘selfish’ or ‘vain’ or ‘unimportant’.

It is when we take care of our health, well-being and energy in times of celebration that we can show up as our best selves for the people who matter most in our lives.

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You’ll master the skills to make peace with food and your body to lose weight in a way they can comfortably maintain for a lifetime.

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