Healthy Holiday Feasting: Tips for a Joyful and Balanced Season

Most Americans report gaining between 5 and 8 pounds over the holiday season. As we think about Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, it’s helpful to step back and reflect on God’s design for feasting.

God made food for several purposes:

• Health: To provide energy, health, and well-being for a life lived to His glory.

• Communion: To foster and nourish family, community, and spiritual union.

• Enjoyment: To provide pleasure, leading to thanksgiving and praise.

As God designed us to eat for these purposes, we should strive to pattern our eating according to His principles. You can explore more about aligning your eating with spiritual wellness here.

Practicing Healthy Feasting and Fasting

The holiday season offers a wonderful opportunity to balance healthy feasting with the moderation and humility of fasting. Whether or not your church tradition incorporates fasting during Advent, the rhythm of humility and moderation, punctuated by joyful celebration, promotes both physical and spiritual health. While our celebrations should be exuberant and filled with thanksgiving, they shouldn’t compromise our health or lead others to do so. When our normal days are oriented by humility and moderation, our feasting days can remain a source of joy rather than a cause for regret.

If every day is lived as if it is a celebration, the joy of those indulgences diminishes, leaving you feeling deprived during more normal patterns of eating. Developing daily discipline to care sustainably and reasonably for your body and soul—as well as for your family and neighbors—creates the freedom to enjoy food and festivities without guilt or shame.

Tips for a Healthy and Joyful Holiday Season

1. Stay the Course on Non-Celebration Days: Reserve Christmas cookies for Christmas Day and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. If you’re following a restrictive diet for health reasons, carefully weigh how much you want to deviate. Enjoying a treat on special occasions can be worth it, but it’s essential to consider your overall health.

2. Embrace Advent Fasting: Use the traditional Advent fasting period to tighten your diet on non-feast days. This practice can foster humility, prayer, and self-discipline.

3. Follow Shane’s Level One Dietary Principle—Eat foods God made: Ask yourself, “Did God make this?” Lean on whole foods at celebrations and when preparing meals for hospitality. This simple question can shift your diet in a healthy direction.

4. Carry Rescue Snacks: If you’re often surrounded by high-sugar, highly processed foods (the Standard American Diet), having healthy alternatives on hand can prevent poor choices. Eating like unhealthy people will eventually lead to the same health problems.

5. Don’t Fall into the Perfectionist Trap: One “bad meal” doesn’t ruin your entire day. A plateaued week or month is an opportunity to learn what supports your health and what derails it.

6. Start Meals with Protein and Fat: These promote satiety and prevent the insulin spikes caused by starting with carbohydrates.

7. Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water or zero-calorie teas and beverages.

8. Walk After Meals: A post-meal walk with family or friends is a powerful metabolism booster.

9. Give Thanks: Ensure that everything you eat and drink is something you can give thanks to God for.

A Season for Gratitude and Health

These tips can help you enjoy the Christmas season while maintaining your health and honoring God’s design for food and fellowship. May your holiday celebrations be filled with joy, gratitude, and wellness!