Holiday Food Anxiety: It’s Totally Normal

2020 has been nothing short of a dumpster fire, I'm sure you will agree.

Stress, stress, and more stress will be what comes to mind when I look back on all that I've experienced this year. While most of it stems from the pandemic and the uncertainties that have accompanied it, some of the stress actually can be traced to what's happened post the lockdown mandates. Case-in-point: my diet.

Not that my diet's looking brighter anytime soon considering the holidays are right around the corner. Now, we all say we'll be on our best behavior come the next holiday season but we all know that's a big fat lie. There's nothing wrong with moderation, of course not. However, that one little snickerdoodle almost always turns into five way more quickly than most of us feel comfortable admitting. What happens after that? Oh, not much. Just us haaaating ourselves for not being strong enough to resist the temptations of sweet treats and delicious adult beverages.

Translation: Holiday food guilt.

Holiday food guilt - it's a thing. OnePoll championed a survey on behalf of the Premier Protein shake brand and discovered that almost half of those polled say they really do experience some sort of anxiety surrounding holiday snacks and meals. It's easy to see why: all diets and macros pretty much fly out the window from mid-November through the first of the New Year. For the majority of the year prior, you'd even try to cook pretty healthy. Then, come holiday time you're trying to figure out how all this sugar, flour, and any non-calorie cutting/healthy cooking materials found their way back into your pantry.

The three common holiday foods people worry about the indulging to much in the most are desserts, hot chocolate, and egg nog. To be fair though, these delicacies kind of come with the territory that is the holiday season, wouldn't you say? It's not like you're suddenly ordering five pizzas a week and scarfing them down at record speeds.

So, go ahead and indulge in your holiday sweets. Just make sure you run up and down the steps a few more times a day if you're really that worried about putting on some more lbs in addition to the COVID weight we're all currently dealing with.

Sources: The-Sun.com, PremierProtein.com