Bayside Dietetics
Sarah Smith, APD, Bayside Dietetics
What if less was more this Christmas? What if this festive season, you felt more satisfaction with having “just enough” than you did from having “more”?
In the Australian culture, excess is sold to us as the Christmas tradition. What is Christmas, if not for excess presents, stress, alcohol, and food? What is your genuine experience of the excess that surrounds Christmas however? Does an alternative approach interest you, one in which contentment that can be found in just enough?
Let me introduce you to the Swedish concept of lagom. Lagom is the modern version of an ancient Swedish idea that looks for not too much, not too little, but the right amount. It is a philosophy that aims to find balance in every aspect of everyday life; from spending money, exercising, resting, socialising, and eating.
The key of finding lagom around food is to find contentment and satisfaction in just enough. A key pillar of lagom is to firstly find the ability to counter the diet culture and have permission to eat. To notice that not involving yourself from the social eating of the festive season does not lead to joy. Withholding or counting calories at Christmas events can act to isolate, something now widely accepted as harmful to our health. So achieving contentment from just enough, requires the identification and removal of any restriction, and instead to embracing genuine freedom to engage with the foods on offer this festive season.
Alongside permisson to eat, lagom suggests you notice and respond to the satisfaction cues your body provides as you eat. While social eating is enjoyable and tastes good, having more does not necessarily feel better. Enjoying a smaller amount may feel more energising and satisfactory than eating more. Hitting a pause button while you eat to ask “is this food or drink still tasting as good as when I started?”. If you can truly engage and feast on each mouthful, you will notice at some point, eating no longer brings you the same joy, and you will notice that you have reached lagom: satisfaction in just enough.
Lagom is not a new diet rule. It is not a way to restrict your intake or a new rule to eat moderately. But it does offer an opportunity to feel both involved and energised as you navigate the festive period.
Perhaps lagom may even provide an opportunity to manage the cost of living this Christmas.
Lagom is a lifestyle choice that encourages learning to live with and appreciate what you have.
Not too little. Not too much. Just right. What if Goldilocks was our role model all along?
Merry Christmas.
Sarah
Addit: As Lagom inspires me professionally, I have joined with my esteemed colleague Ingrid Hilton, and set up www.lagomnutrition.com.au (alongside Bayside Dietetics that continues to support the community). Feel free to check it out, and come and see us for any support you need.
