“Other people’s opinions of you are none of your business” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Chances are, if you eat anything other than the Standard American Diet, your family & friends will have some kind of opinion on how you eat, & never is this more prevalent than when we come together at the holidays.
Whilst no-one has any right to pass judgement on how you look after your physical and mental health, we want to keep our holidays joy-filled and drama-free! Here are my top tips on dealing with those who have opinions on your diet & health choices over the holidays:
1. Educate: sometimes it’s easier to lean on experts in the field to help explain your choices. Some of my top author recommendations for whole foods based, low carb, ancestral heath diets are Mark Hyman MD, Mark Sisson, JJ Virgin and Sara Gottfried MD.
2. Find common ground: I’m pretty sure that no-one will argue that we should all be eating more veggies, moving our bodies more & drinking more water! Steer the conversation to these healthy habits, rather than the minutiae of each other’s diets-you may even find some new ideas!
3. Don’t preach: it’s so hard as this comes from a place of wanting your loved ones to be happy & healthy, and to share the joy, energy & strength your healthy eating habits have given you, but you should never criticize other’s choices, or try & force them around to yours. If they are genuinely interested share some resources or easy to implement habits, or direct them to a nutritionist/health coach/trainer that you love.
4. Share the love: bring your favorite healthy dishes to share at the holidays, be it a great veggie side dish (I love Lexi’s Clean Kitchen and fellow Brit Madeline Shaw for these), some delicious dark chocolate, or even some clean wine (we bring FitVine Wine with us at the holidays). This is a really great way to show how eating healthily can be delicious & fun, without criticizing anyone else’s choices.
5. Walk away: if all else fails, change the subject, or walk away. If someone is coming down hard on your about your health choices, this is about their challenges and nothing about you.