Woohoo!! It's that time of the year again, with festive decorations in peoples' yards, colorful lights lining rooftops, early Christmas music you can't help but smile and sing along to (unless you're Scrooge)...and food. Lots and lots of food. For most people, the holidays are great excuses not only to get to be with loved ones, but to get to eat anything and everything without guilt, to enjoy it now and worry about it later.

For those of us in recovery from an eating disorder, though, holidays can be some of the most stressful times we face. We are all at different stages, in different situations, facing different struggles with our recovery, but we all tend to struggle around the holidays, nonetheless.

Our minds run rampant with anxieties: what am I going to eat? Am I going to eat too much? Are they going to make me eat that pecan pie again? Do I have to eat as much as everyone else does, even if it's way too much? What if someone says something about what/how much I'm eating again? And on, and on.

The best thing to do is obvious, but not always easy: PREPARE! Take a few steps beforehand to help reduce the anxiety when the holidays actually arrive.

1. FOOD.

The most basic part of this preparation is figuring out what you are going to eat. For me, I'm blessed because my mom always makes sure to ask what kinds of food she should make sure to include in the menu. That's not always the case though, either you're family isn't the one hosting, or perhaps they don't understand the anxiety that can come with not knowing what's on the menu.

The best thing to do then? Ask! Even if the host doesn't know about your eating disorder, it's very common for people to ask, "Hey, what's on the menu for Thanksgiving? What can I bring?"

Then you can at least get a basic rundown of what to expect, even if it isn't a detailed list of each ingredient of each dish. You can pretty much always count on the staples of turkey, mashed potatoes, and vegetables!

However, we have to remember that a goal of our recovery is to be able to eat in various situations, planned or unplanned. This means that it's OK to have a little spontaneity with what we eat, healthy even. Holidays are special occasions, and while we may not want to go completely overboard on the sweet treats or the leftovers from dinner, it's perfectly OK to decide to have a piece of pumpkin bread, even if it wasn't part of your plan!

2. Have your person.

Holidays, like I said, can be stressful for those in recovery, on top of the added stress/drama that can often arise during family gatherings. For me, I used to struggle when I had family members who would talk about their latest diet, prepping their own "clean" meal separate from what everyone else ate, when I would have obviously loved to do the same -- but knew I shouldn't, couldn't, for the sake of my recovery.

People would focus on what I was (or wasn't) eating, making comments that made me even more anxious and uncomfortable than I already was. That's where my mom came in.

We made a deal. I told her ways that she could help me: change the subject anytime people talked abut their weight or dieting, break the tension with joke and defer the attention away from me when someone made a comment about what I was eating, help me stick to a (flexible) schedule that included some sort of anxiety-reducing activity like a workout/yoga or a vent-session with her in another room.

Find your person, whoever that might be, and figure out a game plan! Both of you will feel better going into the unknown if you have ways to handle various situations.

3. Try to focus on the rest of the holiday -- not just the meal.

Yes, obviously a huge aspect of the holiday is the food. The more important part, though, is the time you are getting to spend with loved ones! That's the whole point of the gathering after all -- the time spent laughing over embarrassing memories your parents tell about you from when you were little, the late-night talks you have with your cousins, playing football out in the yard, and doing puzzles "for your grandma" (I am that nerd that actually totally loves doing puzzles...).

While you will inevitably face some struggles during the holidays, focus on why you are deciding to go ahead and power through those difficulties, on what makes it worth it.

On who makes it worth it.

Love on them, let them love on you, and remember that experiencing that love is only possible because of one thing:

You are winning.

You are beating ED.

You are in recovery.