Gratitude Keeps the Calories Away - Here's How

Did you know gratitude keeps the calories away? There is a science behind it, which we are jumping into along with practical tips to use at your next event!

As we move through the holiday season, many of us start feeling that familiar tug of old patterns – reaching for food when stressed, adding to cart when feeling empty, or scrolling endlessly when we should be resting.

When we don't know how to process our emotions, we distract ourselves. We shop, we eat, we scroll, we stay busy, trying to get our worth from other people. But there's another way.

The Thanksgiving Connection

Many of us approach holiday meals with an all-or-nothing mindset. We're either going to be perfect or forget it. We don't even realize we're doing it.

What if instead of focusing on restriction or indulgence, you focused on genuine appreciation?

Research from multiple universities shows that when people take time to truly appreciate their food – to smell it, savor it, be grateful for it – they naturally eat more slowly and feel satisfied with less.

It's not about portion control or willpower. It's about changing your relationship with the experience of eating.

How to Actually Use Gratitude

Let me give you specific examples:

1. Before You Eat, Pause for Appreciation

Not in a forced way. Notice something you can genuinely appreciate about the food, the company, or the fact that you have food.

What is your relationship with food? Do you have a connection like I do with my great-grandfathers who broke land in the Canadian prairies? What does that look like for you?

2. When You Feel a Stress Craving Coming On

Instead of reaching for food first, try writing down three things you're grateful for right now. Even if they're tiny. Even if you don't feel like it. Just see what happens to that craving.

For example: "Yeah, I really want that chocolate bar. But I'm grateful for taste buds. I'm grateful that I can reach for a chocolate bar. I'm grateful that I have a desire and I can react. I love that I have a brain that works that way."

See how those three little things get you into your higher brain? Now you're not just reacting.

3. Practice Savoring Moments

This is what researchers call taking time to really notice and appreciate good moments as they happen.

I have chia seeds in my water right now. I'm appreciating the look of them, how interesting they are, the support and health they give my body as I consume them.

Feel the warmth if you have hot water. Notice the bubbles playing down your throat with a bubbly drink. Just savor that moment.

When you finish a quilt block or do that last stitch on the binding, savor that feeling.

These aren't big, time-consuming practices. They're tiny shifts that create significant changes in how you feel.

Why This Works Better Than Willpower

This approach is so much more effective than trying to control yourself with willpower.

Willpower is a limited resource. If you've been working hard all day, managing stress, dealing with family dynamics, your willpower is empty – just like your cell phone battery.

But gratitude actually replenishes your emotional resources. It shifts you from a state of depletion into a state of abundance. And from that state, taking care of yourself feels natural.

Psychologist David DeSteno did fascinating research on this. He found that people who practice gratitude were significantly better at delaying gratification – not because they had more willpower, but because they were in a different emotional state.

The Ripple Effect

The benefits go way beyond food choices.

The same research shows that people who practice gratitude:

• Sleep better
• Have stronger immune systems
• Have better relationships
• Are more resilient in the face of stress

You're not just changing one behavior. You're changing the foundation that all your behaviors spring from.

It's like lifting weights. The more we lift weights, the more muscle we build. That muscle is actually working for us always, processing calories so much better than if we didn't have it. It's the same kind of idea.

Your Simple Challenge This Week

Try the "Three Before Three" practice.

Three times a day, before you eat anything, take 30 seconds to think of three things you're genuinely grateful for.

They can be tiny things:

• The fact that you have food
• That you have taste buds to enjoy it
• That you have people to share it with
• That you have a house
• That you have electricity
• Peace to enjoy it alone

Don't make it complicated. Don't make it perfect. Just try it and see what you notice.

Pay attention to how you feel when you eat from that state versus when you eat from stress, rush, or deprivation.

Some of you might have a praying practice. For me, I've taught my kids to pray, and taking that pause before we eat really does make a big difference.

Understanding vs. Living It

You can change your emotional state by changing your thoughts, and changing your state changes your actions. This is the heart of everything I teach.

But understanding this intellectually and actually living it are two different things.

You can read books on how to free motion quilt. You can watch videos on it. But that doesn't mean you know how to free motion quilt. You can be educated. You can even start spotting when people are making design errors.

But unless you start practicing the free motion quilting, that's when you actually master it.

Understanding concepts intellectually and actually living them are two different things – especially during the holiday season when emotions are high and old patterns feel so strong.

Moving Beyond One Episode

You can practice gratitude for Thanksgiving dinner and feel great about it. But what about the office party next week? The family stress in December? The New Year's pressure? The random Tuesday in February when life feels overwhelming?

That's where ongoing support makes all the difference. That's where you stop having to start over every few months and start building skills that actually last.

Inside my Love Yourself Thin lifetime membership, we work on these concepts together. You get:

• Lifetime access to my complete coaching program
• Personal coaching opportunities
• Ongoing support through every season

This is your chance to invest in yourself. One payment, lifetime access, ongoing support.

Don't wait until January to start taking care of yourself. Start now with support and make this the last time you ever have to start over.

Remember This

Gratitude isn't about pretending everything is perfect or forcing yourself to feel positive when you don't.

It's about training your brain to notice what's already working, what's already good, what you already have.

And from that place of noticing abundance instead of scarcity, everything else becomes easier. Your relationship with food, your stress levels, your ability to enjoy the holidays instead of just surviving them.

The research is clear: This stuff works – not because it's magic, but because it changes your brain chemistry in measurable ways.

Try the "Three Before Three" practice this week. See what you notice.

And remember: You don't have to be perfect at this. You just have to be willing to try something different.

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