For many, the festive period is a great time to spend quality time with family and catch up with friends. However, this time does open the door to uncomfortable conversations and hearing advice/comments that may be harmful to your relationship with your body, food and exercise. For some, it can be a time of anticipation, worry and stress over conversations and comments on their appearance, weight, habits and food intake. This blog is for you, to help support you through this period.

If you’re going to be socialising with other people this period, it is more than likely that the topic of health and food will come up at some point. You’ll definitely comes across naturopaths, conspiracist and fad diet pushers telling you to drink a bunch of loose leaf tea, the government is making you sick and all you need to do is fast and avoid gluten because it’s the devil’s spawn. You’ll also come across people commenting on your body, on how much is on your plate, and telling you the story of how they completely turned their life around by cleansing their liver (whatever that means).

As a nutritionist, whenever I’m at events and my job role comes up, it’s crazy to see how many people turn into experts! Advice and opinions flying left and right! So I know what it can be like.

So here are my practical tips on how to handle these situations and conversations so you can protect your peace.

• Have a buddy. Share your worries with someone you trust who’ll be at the event with you. Ask them to support you by agreeing they’ll slyly change the topic of conversation or give you an reason to excuse yourself from the situation.

• You aren’t there to win battles. You’re there to have fun. You don’t have to battle someone on their beliefs or try and win arguments. Sometimes to protect your peace, you have to zip it and let people believe what they choose to believe. (I use this tip A LOT)

• Helpful phrases to deflect comments directed at your body:

  • “I would really rather we didn’t speak about my body” - suggest a new topic or move away - have 3 topics in mind and prepared.

  • “Lets talk about something else?”

  • “Oh that’s not a very nice thing to say, let’s talk about a less personal topic” - if they comment on their body, your body or someone else’s.

• Helpful phrases to deflect comments directed at your food:

  • “I’m quite full right now, so will eat that at some other time".

  • “Of course I’m gonna get seconds! It’s delicious - hats off to the chef!”

  • “I’d really like to enjoy my plate in peace”

  • “I didn’t know the food/pudding police had arrived”

• Helpful phrases to deflect unsolicited advice:

  • “I have a great approach to movement that suits me, so I’m all good”

  • “I’m glad you’ve found that helpful, but I don’t think it’s for me”

  • “I’d rather concentrate on the taste than the calories”

Of course, you can always tell someone to just mind their business, but even I don’t have the courage to be so outright!

I hope you find this helpful. If you need further support, do not hesitate to book a Free 15 minute Discovery Call to discuss how I can help and how we can help prepare you for upcoming difficult situations.