A lot of friends and clients are already starting to feel super tense about the upcoming holidays. Emails and text messages about eating tips and tactics are flying into my inbox, and although there are great food and movement tools you can use around the holidays to stay sane, it’s starts with your mental and physical state.

No one wants to substitute spirulina-laced chia pudding for apple pie, so rather than throw you 10 tips to avoid all the delicious stuff, I’m going to guide you in engaging your relaxation response so that you actually feel calm and centered and naturally make great food choices for your beautiful body.

The best part? You get to spend invaluable time with your family and loved ones, 100% focused on connecting, rather than obsessing over how much cheese you had during cocktail hour.

Do these five practices daily, starting today, and watch your mental chatter around food melt away. When we obsess, we restrict then overeat, or some variation of those two extremes.

Let your body guide you in making the right choices – it has so much intelligence and it knows what you need much better than you do.

Click through for the only 5 tools you need this Thanksgiving.

After you’ve read it, I want to hear from you in the comments below: Which one of these tactics will you use today? Experiment with each, find what works best for you, and do what feels good in each moment. Let me know what’s helpful and fun.

Photos: Jake Freeman