November 25, 2025 • 17 mins
Take a listen if Thanksgiving is starting to feel like too much!
I name the pressure of a food-centered holiday and offer a practical way to feel steady without aiming for perfection. Breakfast, breath, micro resets, and one meaningful choice become anchors that make Thanksgiving calmer and more nourishing, rooted and rested.
• why Thanksgiving feels emotionally heavy
• the role of blood sugar in calm and clarity
• simple mindful eating that isn’t rigid
• permission to enjoy favorite foods
• micro moments to reset during chaos
• choosing one meaningful thing to prioritize
• boundaries for tricky conversations and roles
• creating a personal refill point you can use
I would love to hear from you! What did you think of the episode? Share it with me :)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Real Food
Stories Podcast.
It's the day beforeThanksgiving.
And if you're anything like me,you might be walking around with
this strange combination ofexcitement and overwhelm,
exhaustion, and a deep desire tocrawl under that weighted
(01:01):
blanket that you got last yearuntil about January.
Now, I'll just say thistruthfully.
I'm not going into this holidaysfloating two inches off the
ground in a cloud of grounded,mindful serenity, not even
close.
But that's exactly why I wantedto record this episode today.
(01:24):
Because you don't have to beperfectly rested to create these
rooted, grounded moments.
You don't need to be a Zenmaster to show up as a grounded
version of yourself.
And you definitely don't need aperfect Thanksgiving to feel
connected and nourished.
(01:44):
I know how much pressure goesinto making sure that the
holidays are just so, andeveryone else around you is
happy, and something ultimatelyalways goes awry, and it's okay.
So today I wanted to talk abouthow we can stay steady and
(02:05):
mindful during a holiday that isso centered around food, so
centered around our family andour expectations, which is a
combination sometimes that couldeven test the calmest person in
us.
So let's exhale together and getinto it.
(02:28):
Now let's talk about why theholidays feel so big.
Let's start with the obvious.
This week is a lot.
Even if you love Thanksgiving,the lead up carries its own kind
of emotional weight.
I mean, I have been thinkingabout Thanksgiving for probably
a month.
I host Thanksgiving almost everyyear.
(02:48):
And I have been thinking aboutthe menu.
I have been writing my grocerylist.
I have been doing all the thingsfor weeks, just either in my
head or talking to my daughter,or or just a million little
things that I need to do.
Now that can get emotional.
And not to also to throw in thatthe days are shorter, the to-do
(03:13):
lists feel long.
And whether or not you'rehosting, there's this pressure
to orchestrate some kind ofmoment that feels meaningful and
warm and connected.
Even though I'm having myimmediate family over some other
relatives, it's not like we'venever eaten a meal together, but
(03:36):
suddenly this feels just moreintense and a lot more pressure.
And then on top of it, there'sall the just emotional history,
family patterns, old stories,old memories of holidays gone
awry.
The version of yourself you usedto be, the version people still
(03:56):
expect you to be.
It all gets stirred up.
And layered on top of that, ofcourse, is the food.
This is the eating holiday ofthe year.
And not just food asnourishment, but food as
tradition, food as emotion, foodas memory, food as I shouldn't
(04:16):
be eating this, or should I eatthis?
Is it okay to eat this?
Or I shouldn't have eaten that.
Even women who have doneenormous healing work still feel
some of those little internaltugs on holidays.
It's normal.
It doesn't mean anything hasgone wrong.
It means you're human.
(04:38):
So before we even talk strategy,I want us all to just name the
truth.
This week just pulls up a lot.
And staying grounded is notabout eliminating the chaos.
It's about remembering you havethe ability to come back to
yourself even in the middle ofwhat might feel like a storm.
(05:03):
All right.
So let's talk about gettinggrounded and what grounded
really looks like and what Imean by that.
Grounded doesn't mean stayingcalm all day.
That's not the goal, right?
That's that's not even possible,I think.
It doesn't mean you never getannoyed or overstimulated or
(05:24):
hungry or tired.
Grounded means you know how toreturn to yourself.
It means you know the feeling ofthis is too much right now.
And you also know what helps youto shift out of that.
Now, for a lot of women, beinggrounded is also about feeding
(05:46):
themselves properly.
Because let's be honest, we donot make our best decisions,
emotional, physical, or foodrelated, when we're running on
empty.
Midlife physiology is very clearon this.
Your nervous system is steadierwhen your blood sugar is steady.
(06:08):
You think better, you'rebreathing better, you just cope
better.
So part of being grounded is inthe physical.
It's eating breakfast tomorrowmorning on Thanksgiving Day.
And even though there's a bigmeal later, it's okay.
We don't need to starveourselves for 12 hours.
(06:30):
It's about drinking water,enough water, hydrate yourself.
It's about having protein in themorning so you don't show up
starving at 4 p.m.
and then wonder why the tablesuddenly feels like a magnet for
all the food.
There's nothing mindful aboutarriving at Thanksgiving in a
(06:50):
biologically deprived state.
So let's try not to do that.
Eat your breakfast tomorrowmorning, please.
This is not about self-control,it's about self-support.
Now let's talk about whatmindful eating can be.
And is that even actuallypossible on a day like the
(07:12):
biggest eating day of the year?
So let's talk about the foodpiece in a way that actually
feels doable.
Thanksgiving is not the day totry to be perfect, right?
This is not the day.
This is one day out of the year,and it's not the day that we're
gonna just keep to our foodrules and rigid things.
(07:34):
It's also not the day to throwyourself into the quote, I'll
deal with this on Monday mindsetand eat everything so quickly
and so hungrily that you barelyeven taste it.
Mindfulness does not mean taking10 slow breaths before every
bite.
Mindfulness means being presentenough that you actually get to
(07:58):
enjoy your food instead ofinhaling it while dealing with
five conversations at once.
It just means slowing down justenough that you can hear your
body say, Hey, that wasdelicious, and I think I'm good
now.
It means staring at your plateor looking at your plate, you
(08:21):
don't have to stare at it, justgazing at your plate and just
noticing all the delicious foodthat's on it before you hit the
point where you need athree-hour nap.
Now, one of my favorite ways tobe mindful on holidays is to
simply take a pause, literallyone second, halfway through the
(08:44):
meal, put your fork down andtake a breath.
Check in with your body and askyourself quietly, how am I
doing?
And then I want you to listen.
How are you doing?
Are you feeling full?
Are you feeling like you'realmost there?
(09:06):
A good rule of thumb is to stopwhen you are 80% done with the
meal, physically, like when youare 80% full with the meal,
because it takes your brainabout 15 more minutes to catch
up with your fullness and justto pause.
Now you'd be amazed how mucheasier eating becomes when you
(09:27):
just give your brain a chance tocatch up with your stomach.
And then there's also thepermission piece.
Because if you go intoThanksgiving telling yourself
you can't have certain foods,you will spend the entire day
wanting them.
That's not mindful, that'storture.
(09:49):
Okay.
The whole point of these holidayfoods is joy and tradition and
to enjoy them.
So, yes, have the things youlove, taste them, have a bite,
have a bite or two of thepumpkin pie, savor them, sit
down while you eat them, letthem be part of the day, not
(10:11):
something you feel you have toearn or that you're gonna have
to undo later.
It's not the food that causesthe problem, it's the mindset we
bring to it.
Okay, now for some people,Thanksgiving is not that crazy.
For others, there's, you know,you're having 40 people over and
it's kind of chaotic.
(10:32):
So can we find those moments tolike just root ourselves down in
the middle of chaos?
Now, even if you have threepeople, there is always a little
bit of that the turkeys that arecoming out of the oven and
getting all the side dishes, andthere's a little bit of chaos.
I I know this because I havehosted Thanksgiving probably for
(10:54):
the last 20 years.
So let's talk about the actualday: the cooking, the people,
the noise, the seatingarrangements.
Nobody thought through, the auntwho comments on your weight, the
cousin who wants to talkpolitics, the small talk, the
sheer sensory overload.
(11:16):
Now, groundedness happens inmicro moments, not in huge grand
gestures.
It's stepping into the bathroom,possibly, and just taking a
breath.
Or it's going outside for aminute and letting the cold air
hit your face.
It's putting your hand on yourchest for one second in the
(11:36):
kitchen and just feeling yourfeet on the floor and just
feeling that physicalgroundedness.
For some of you, it might bethat quick, quiet moment before
the day starts.
Coffee in your hand, standing atthe sink, just asking yourself,
what do I actually need today?
This is grounded behavior andmindfulness.
(11:59):
Maybe it's patience that youneed today.
Maybe it's just space.
Maybe it's support.
Maybe you need help in thekitchen.
Ask for it.
Maybe it's just not skippingmeals while you cook for 12, 15
people.
And then we want to consider theemotional planning.
(12:22):
Okay, not just the physical.
I call this the refill point.
Pick a spot ahead of time.
Maybe it's your porch, maybeit's your car, maybe it's your
dog that you need to go take fora walk, maybe it's the guest
room.
That's the place you'll go whenyou just need to recalibrate.
(12:42):
You don't have to announce it.
You can just slip away for aminute, take a breath, and come
back.
This just helps you to staymindful and grounded.
And finally, I want you tochoose one thing that matters to
you tomorrow, just one.
It could be the moment you sitdown to eat.
(13:02):
It could be your morning walk.
It could be making a dish youlove that you wanted to share
with your family.
It could be a quiet conversationwith one of your children.
Maybe it's the pie that you loveto eat every year.
It could be your dog that'ssitting under the table.
(13:24):
Whatever you want, choosesomething that just matters to
you, that you're grateful forand you're thankful for.
You get to pick one thing thatcarries the meaning of the day.
Everything else can be goodenough, but focus on one thing
that really carries a lot ofweight for you in a good way.
(13:44):
Now, if you're not feelinggrounded, if all of what I'm
saying is like, yeah, right,okay, chaos ensues, or there's a
lot of drinking and there's alot of overeating, and we're
also, and it's just, you know,it's just inevitable that it's
going to be nutty.
Here's your permission.
Now, this is important.
(14:05):
You don't have to be theemotional thermostat for your
entire family.
You don't have to feel amazingto create small pockets of
peace.
And you don't have to pretend tohave it all together.
You don't have to take care ofeveryone's needs before your
own, right?
(14:25):
That's that's having boundariesand and being selfish in a good
way.
You are allowed to need supportand you are allowed to take
breaks, and you are allowed tofeed yourself first.
You are allowed to leave thetable if the conversation turns
into a circus.
Groundedness is not about beingunshakable.
(14:48):
It's about knowing how torecenter yourself when you get
knocked off balance.
And you're allowed to bepracticing this right alongside
everyone else, no matter howthey are acting in the world.
Okay, now this is a little justshort and sweet, and I wanted to
just pop in with you just for afew minutes because I know that
(15:13):
it's busy.
But before I close, I want tooffer you something you can take
into tomorrow.
Take one breath.
Let your shoulders drop, and youdon't have to make the day
perfect.
You don't have to anticipateeveryone's needs.
You don't have to ignore yourown hunger, your own tiredness,
(15:36):
or your own emotions.
You get to show up as yourself,for yourself, and you get to
nourish your body in ways thatsupport you.
You get to move slowly when youwant to.
You get to enjoy the foods youlove, and you get to create tiny
pockets of peace in a day thatcan sometimes feel very loud.
(16:03):
You are rooted in yourself, evenwhen the world gets chaotic.
And that is enough.
All right.
Thank you for spending thissmall moment with me today.
I hope Thanksgiving feels alittle more grounded, a little
more mindful, and a whole lotmore nourishing.
(16:23):
And you wake up the next dayfeeling rested and energized and
really good about the holiday.
Take good care of yourselftomorrow.
You deserve it.
And I'll see you next week.
Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Real Food
Stories Podcast.
It's the day beforeThanksgiving.
And if you're anything like me,you might be walking around with
this strange combination ofexcitement and overwhelm,
exhaustion, and a deep desire tocrawl under that weighted
(01:01):
blanket that you got last yearuntil about January.
Now, I'll just say thistruthfully.
I'm not going into this holidaysfloating two inches off the
ground in a cloud of grounded,mindful serenity, not even
close.
But that's exactly why I wantedto record this episode today.
(01:24):
Because you don't have to beperfectly rested to create these
rooted, grounded moments.
You don't need to be a Zenmaster to show up as a grounded
version of yourself.
And you definitely don't need aperfect Thanksgiving to feel
connected and nourished.
(01:44):
I know how much pressure goesinto making sure that the
holidays are just so, andeveryone else around you is
happy, and something ultimatelyalways goes awry, and it's okay.
So today I wanted to talk abouthow we can stay steady and
(02:05):
mindful during a holiday that isso centered around food, so
centered around our family andour expectations, which is a
combination sometimes that couldeven test the calmest person in
us.
So let's exhale together and getinto it.
(02:28):
Now let's talk about why theholidays feel so big.
Let's start with the obvious.
This week is a lot.
Even if you love Thanksgiving,the lead up carries its own kind
of emotional weight.
I mean, I have been thinkingabout Thanksgiving for probably
a month.
I host Thanksgiving almost everyyear.
(02:48):
And I have been thinking aboutthe menu.
I have been writing my grocerylist.
I have been doing all the thingsfor weeks, just either in my
head or talking to my daughter,or or just a million little
things that I need to do.
Now that can get emotional.
And not to also to throw in thatthe days are shorter, the to-do
(03:13):
lists feel long.
And whether or not you'rehosting, there's this pressure
to orchestrate some kind ofmoment that feels meaningful and
warm and connected.
Even though I'm having myimmediate family over some other
relatives, it's not like we'venever eaten a meal together, but
(03:36):
suddenly this feels just moreintense and a lot more pressure.
And then on top of it, there'sall the just emotional history,
family patterns, old stories,old memories of holidays gone
awry.
The version of yourself you usedto be, the version people still
(03:56):
expect you to be.
It all gets stirred up.
And layered on top of that, ofcourse, is the food.
This is the eating holiday ofthe year.
And not just food asnourishment, but food as
tradition, food as emotion, foodas memory, food as I shouldn't
(04:16):
be eating this, or should I eatthis?
Is it okay to eat this?
Or I shouldn't have eaten that.
Even women who have doneenormous healing work still feel
some of those little internaltugs on holidays.
It's normal.
It doesn't mean anything hasgone wrong.
It means you're human.
(04:38):
So before we even talk strategy,I want us all to just name the
truth.
This week just pulls up a lot.
And staying grounded is notabout eliminating the chaos.
It's about remembering you havethe ability to come back to
yourself even in the middle ofwhat might feel like a storm.
(05:03):
All right.
So let's talk about gettinggrounded and what grounded
really looks like and what Imean by that.
Grounded doesn't mean stayingcalm all day.
That's not the goal, right?
That's that's not even possible,I think.
It doesn't mean you never getannoyed or overstimulated or
(05:24):
hungry or tired.
Grounded means you know how toreturn to yourself.
It means you know the feeling ofthis is too much right now.
And you also know what helps youto shift out of that.
Now, for a lot of women, beinggrounded is also about feeding
(05:46):
themselves properly.
Because let's be honest, we donot make our best decisions,
emotional, physical, or foodrelated, when we're running on
empty.
Midlife physiology is very clearon this.
Your nervous system is steadierwhen your blood sugar is steady.
(06:08):
You think better, you'rebreathing better, you just cope
better.
So part of being grounded is inthe physical.
It's eating breakfast tomorrowmorning on Thanksgiving Day.
And even though there's a bigmeal later, it's okay.
We don't need to starveourselves for 12 hours.
(06:30):
It's about drinking water,enough water, hydrate yourself.
It's about having protein in themorning so you don't show up
starving at 4 p.m.
and then wonder why the tablesuddenly feels like a magnet for
all the food.
There's nothing mindful aboutarriving at Thanksgiving in a
(06:50):
biologically deprived state.
So let's try not to do that.
Eat your breakfast tomorrowmorning, please.
This is not about self-control,it's about self-support.
Now let's talk about whatmindful eating can be.
And is that even actuallypossible on a day like the
(07:12):
biggest eating day of the year?
So let's talk about the foodpiece in a way that actually
feels doable.
Thanksgiving is not the day totry to be perfect, right?
This is not the day.
This is one day out of the year,and it's not the day that we're
gonna just keep to our foodrules and rigid things.
(07:34):
It's also not the day to throwyourself into the quote, I'll
deal with this on Monday mindsetand eat everything so quickly
and so hungrily that you barelyeven taste it.
Mindfulness does not mean taking10 slow breaths before every
bite.
Mindfulness means being presentenough that you actually get to
(07:58):
enjoy your food instead ofinhaling it while dealing with
five conversations at once.
It just means slowing down justenough that you can hear your
body say, Hey, that wasdelicious, and I think I'm good
now.
It means staring at your plateor looking at your plate, you
(08:21):
don't have to stare at it, justgazing at your plate and just
noticing all the delicious foodthat's on it before you hit the
point where you need athree-hour nap.
Now, one of my favorite ways tobe mindful on holidays is to
simply take a pause, literallyone second, halfway through the
(08:44):
meal, put your fork down andtake a breath.
Check in with your body and askyourself quietly, how am I
doing?
And then I want you to listen.
How are you doing?
Are you feeling full?
Are you feeling like you'realmost there?
(09:06):
A good rule of thumb is to stopwhen you are 80% done with the
meal, physically, like when youare 80% full with the meal,
because it takes your brainabout 15 more minutes to catch
up with your fullness and justto pause.
Now you'd be amazed how mucheasier eating becomes when you
(09:27):
just give your brain a chance tocatch up with your stomach.
And then there's also thepermission piece.
Because if you go intoThanksgiving telling yourself
you can't have certain foods,you will spend the entire day
wanting them.
That's not mindful, that'storture.
(09:49):
Okay.
The whole point of these holidayfoods is joy and tradition and
to enjoy them.
So, yes, have the things youlove, taste them, have a bite,
have a bite or two of thepumpkin pie, savor them, sit
down while you eat them, letthem be part of the day, not
(10:11):
something you feel you have toearn or that you're gonna have
to undo later.
It's not the food that causesthe problem, it's the mindset we
bring to it.
Okay, now for some people,Thanksgiving is not that crazy.
For others, there's, you know,you're having 40 people over and
it's kind of chaotic.
(10:32):
So can we find those moments tolike just root ourselves down in
the middle of chaos?
Now, even if you have threepeople, there is always a little
bit of that the turkeys that arecoming out of the oven and
getting all the side dishes, andthere's a little bit of chaos.
I I know this because I havehosted Thanksgiving probably for
(10:54):
the last 20 years.
So let's talk about the actualday: the cooking, the people,
the noise, the seatingarrangements.
Nobody thought through, the auntwho comments on your weight, the
cousin who wants to talkpolitics, the small talk, the
sheer sensory overload.
(11:16):
Now, groundedness happens inmicro moments, not in huge grand
gestures.
It's stepping into the bathroom,possibly, and just taking a
breath.
Or it's going outside for aminute and letting the cold air
hit your face.
It's putting your hand on yourchest for one second in the
(11:36):
kitchen and just feeling yourfeet on the floor and just
feeling that physicalgroundedness.
For some of you, it might bethat quick, quiet moment before
the day starts.
Coffee in your hand, standing atthe sink, just asking yourself,
what do I actually need today?
This is grounded behavior andmindfulness.
(11:59):
Maybe it's patience that youneed today.
Maybe it's just space.
Maybe it's support.
Maybe you need help in thekitchen.
Ask for it.
Maybe it's just not skippingmeals while you cook for 12, 15
people.
And then we want to consider theemotional planning.
(12:22):
Okay, not just the physical.
I call this the refill point.
Pick a spot ahead of time.
Maybe it's your porch, maybeit's your car, maybe it's your
dog that you need to go take fora walk, maybe it's the guest
room.
That's the place you'll go whenyou just need to recalibrate.
(12:42):
You don't have to announce it.
You can just slip away for aminute, take a breath, and come
back.
This just helps you to staymindful and grounded.
And finally, I want you tochoose one thing that matters to
you tomorrow, just one.
It could be the moment you sitdown to eat.
(13:02):
It could be your morning walk.
It could be making a dish youlove that you wanted to share
with your family.
It could be a quiet conversationwith one of your children.
Maybe it's the pie that you loveto eat every year.
It could be your dog that'ssitting under the table.
(13:24):
Whatever you want, choosesomething that just matters to
you, that you're grateful forand you're thankful for.
You get to pick one thing thatcarries the meaning of the day.
Everything else can be goodenough, but focus on one thing
that really carries a lot ofweight for you in a good way.
(13:44):
Now, if you're not feelinggrounded, if all of what I'm
saying is like, yeah, right,okay, chaos ensues, or there's a
lot of drinking and there's alot of overeating, and we're
also, and it's just, you know,it's just inevitable that it's
going to be nutty.
Here's your permission.
Now, this is important.
(14:05):
You don't have to be theemotional thermostat for your
entire family.
You don't have to feel amazingto create small pockets of
peace.
And you don't have to pretend tohave it all together.
You don't have to take care ofeveryone's needs before your
own, right?
(14:25):
That's that's having boundariesand and being selfish in a good
way.
You are allowed to need supportand you are allowed to take
breaks, and you are allowed tofeed yourself first.
You are allowed to leave thetable if the conversation turns
into a circus.
Groundedness is not about beingunshakable.
(14:48):
It's about knowing how torecenter yourself when you get
knocked off balance.
And you're allowed to bepracticing this right alongside
everyone else, no matter howthey are acting in the world.
Okay, now this is a little justshort and sweet, and I wanted to
just pop in with you just for afew minutes because I know that
(15:13):
it's busy.
But before I close, I want tooffer you something you can take
into tomorrow.
Take one breath.
Let your shoulders drop, and youdon't have to make the day
perfect.
You don't have to anticipateeveryone's needs.
You don't have to ignore yourown hunger, your own tiredness,
(15:36):
or your own emotions.
You get to show up as yourself,for yourself, and you get to
nourish your body in ways thatsupport you.
You get to move slowly when youwant to.
You get to enjoy the foods youlove, and you get to create tiny
pockets of peace in a day thatcan sometimes feel very loud.
(16:03):
You are rooted in yourself, evenwhen the world gets chaotic.
And that is enough.
All right.
Thank you for spending thissmall moment with me today.
I hope Thanksgiving feels alittle more grounded, a little
more mindful, and a whole lotmore nourishing.
(16:23):
And you wake up the next dayfeeling rested and energized and
really good about the holiday.
Take good care of yourselftomorrow.
You deserve it.
And I'll see you next week.
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