Healthy eating after the holidays: how to reboot good habits and avoid resorting to a fad diet

After you’ve been sitting a while, it feels good to stand. Eventually your body aches to unfurl from the chair, your muscles announce what they need loud and clear.

It works on the flip side, too; when you’ve been standing for hours, your feet bark for a break.

The same kind of internal cues can apply to eating. After weeks of holiday feasting it feels good – a relief, even – to eat lighter and more healthily again.

But complicating what might otherwise be a gentle shift toward healthier fare this time of year are the judgment and guilt we often shackle to our food choices.

We’ve been eating for pure pleasure (gasp!) and may have gone a bit overboard, so our impulse is to counter with a punishing, strict diet.