How To Deal With Rampant Body Talk Around The Holidays

Family members often feel licensed to make comments about your body or diet that other people outside your inner circle would never dare to say. But it's hard to brush off your grandparent's passive-aggressive comments about food, or your sibling's sneers about your body, because criticism from the people who you care about (and who care about you) often hurts the most.

During the marathon of cookie swaps and dinner parties throughout the holidays, there's a good chance someone will make a frustrating comment about food or body image that tests you, so it's important to have a plan. While you can't necessarily change what people say or do, you can control how you react to them, which is one way to challenge their somewhat problematic beliefs.

Given that, we asked Sheila Addison, PhD, LMFT, a therapist who specializes in size acceptance, to provide some helpful suggestions for how to pivot a conversation, based on a few body-centric scenarios that you may encounter this holiday season.