Take A Mindful Approach To Enjoy Holiday Cravings

Hanker­ing for sea­sonal treats? Respond with internal curi­os­ity instead of self-cri­ti­cism

This article expands on ideas first shared in the Calgary Herald in Eat with ease: A mindful approach to holiday cravings (December 13, 2025).

The hol­i­day sea­son brings lights, cel­eb­ra­tions and, for many people, a notice­able rise in food crav­ings. From short­bread cook­ies to tur­key stuff­ing and once-a-year ginger­bread, Decem­ber has a way of pulling us toward foods we rarely think about at other times of year.

Many inter­pret these crav­ings as a lack of dis­cip­line or a need for more will­power. In real­ity, crav­ings are not a flaw; they are sig­nals from your body, emo­tions and even your memor­ies.

Crav­ings often appear when an under­ly­ing need is going unmet. Some­times that need is bio­lo­gical: a skipped lunch while rush­ing through errands, a day spent trav­el­ling between gath­er­ings or simply not eat­ing enough to keep up with a busy sched­ule. Other crav­ings sur­face in response to emo­tional needs such as stress, fatigue, grief or loneli­ness. And some reflect sens­ory or nos­tal­gic desires, such as the com­fort of a but­ter tart tied to warm memor­ies. The issue isn't that crav­ings hap­pen; it's learn­ing how to under­stand and respond to them with curi­os­ity rather than cri­ti­cism.

Judging ourselves for want­ing cer­tain foods can set off all-ornoth­ing think­ing, sound­ing like “I shouldn't eat this … well, I've blown it now, so I may as well keep going.” This pat­tern can feel chaotic, but it doesn't need to be. Intu­it­ive eat­ing offers a more sup­port­ive approach by invit­ing us to pause, notice what's hap­pen­ing and explore the need behind the crav­ing.

Start by Nourishing Physical Hunger

One of the most effect­ive ways to pre­vent out-of-con­trol crav­ings is also the most over­looked dur­ing the hol­i­days: meet­ing your basic hun­ger needs. Eat­ing every three to five hours helps reg­u­late energy levels and reduces the urgency that drives fast react­ive eat­ing. Skip­ping meals or snacks is one of the quick­est ways to intensify crav­ings, espe­cially in the even­ing when the day's busy­n­ess finally settles.

Mindful Eating During the Holiday Season

The hol­i­days bring end­less oppor­tun­it­ies to enjoy spe­cial foods, yet many of these moments hap­pen while mul­ti­task­ing, social­iz­ing or feel­ing over­stim­u­lated. Mind­ful eat­ing offers a way to recon­nect with the exper­i­ence.

Before tak­ing the first bite of a hol­i­day food you love, pause. Take a breath and tune into your senses. What do you notice about the aroma, tex­ture or tem­per­at­ure? As you eat, slow your pace. Put down your fork or cookie between bites. Savour the fla­vours. Redu­cing dis­trac­tions can trans­form the exper­i­ence from rushed to sat­is­fy­ing.

Mind­ful eat­ing is about feel­ing more present so you can fully enjoy the foods you choose. Many people find that when they savour a favour­ite hol­i­day treat with atten­tion, they feel sat­is­fied sooner and enjoy the exper­i­ence more deeply.

Caring for Emotional Needs

The hol­i­day sea­son is emo­tion­ally com­plex. Joy and con­nec­tion often sit along­side exhaus­tion, grief or stress. Food can become a com­fort­ing response, and emo­tional eat­ing is a nor­mal part of being human. Still, paus­ing to name the feel­ing can help cla­rify what you truly need. Maybe it's rest, sup­port, fresh air or a break from stim­u­la­tion. When you identify the under­ly­ing emo­tion, it becomes easier to choose a response that genu­inely cares for you.

Responding With Intention

Whether a crav­ing stems from hun­ger, emo­tion or the desire for a nos­tal­gic fla­vour, respond­ing inten­tion­ally makes the exper­i­ence feel calmer and more groun­ded. Ask your­self: What is this crav­ing ask­ing for? Energy? Com­fort? Con­nec­tion? Pleas­ure? Once you under­stand the need, you can meet it in a way that feels sup­port­ive.

The goal dur­ing the hol­i­days isn't to sup­press crav­ings or avoid fest­ive foods; it's to approach them with pres­ence and self-com­pas­sion. When guilt is removed from eat­ing, crav­ings nat­ur­ally soften. You can enjoy short­bread simply because it's sat­is­fy­ing and mean­ing­ful in the moment, not because you feel driven by depriva­tion or restraint.

Crav­ings are not a sign of weak­ness. They are inform­a­tion. And when we listen to them with kind­ness, we bring ease, not pres­sure, back to hol­i­day eat­ing.