Gobble your way to a healthier holiday
Thanksgiving is one of the few days in which your diet can spiral out of control and plummet. How can one resist the vast array of delectable foods and desserts served, especially in large quantities? It can be difficult to remember your healthy habits when a large bowl of stuffing is sitting in front of you or the smell of warm moist turkey straight from the oven. Holiday eating doesn’t have to be a complete disaster to your diet, you can still enjoy the food while staying in the confinements of your diet by employing these simple rules.
- Eat Breakfast: I don’t know how I can stress this enough, breakfast is the most important meal of any day not just for holidays! Don’t skip out on breakfast because you are “saving your calories” for later. By doing this you are actually putting your body into starvation mode
which in the long run harms you because your body will recognize that it’s not being fed, so it will store anything you consume later on as fat energy. Your body will thank you later for
fueling it throughout the day. - Participate in the turkey trot: Many towns and counties across America hold a road race the morning of Thanksgiving. Many road races are no longer than 5k so don’t dismiss this race just because you can’t run. It’s not about the running, all I ask you to do is dress up, walk, frolic, skip, I don’t care just have fun and move! Get those extra steps in before you get those extra calories in.
- Drink Water: Hydration is key, you’ll end up eating less and keeping hydrated will improve your digestive system. Try to avoid empty calories from alcohol and sugary juices, these type of beverages will do nothing for you except grow that spare tire around your waist. Try
drinking some hot tea as a substitute. - Eat like any other day: Treat the day as if it were a normal work day with a family gathering for dinner. Eat your normal meals throughout the day, snacks and all, this will keep your metabolism working throughout the day and by the time dinner is served you won’t be as hungry and stuff yourself to the point where you can’t move.
- Stick to the basics: If you still want to save your calories for dinner then make sure your breakfast is a hardy one and your two snacks and lunch consist of salads and other raw veggies. Let’s be honest once that turkey comes out the last thing you will be grabbing is the salad so get your veggies outta the way
beforehand. - Portion control: This is the biggest issue on Thanksgiving Day, people tend to have eyes bigger than their stomach and fill their plates up with food. If you took ¼th of a cup of each dish I guarantee you that not only will this fill your plate up but you will be completely satisfied. Try to cut out the casseroles, most casseroles are just fat filled dishes from all the creams being used.
- Remember to have fun: No matter what remember that this is only one day, so try not to restrict yourself too much from fun. Throw a football around and have some dessert, one bad meal wont ruin your diet but neither would one good meal. It’s a life long journey to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving Everyone! Try not to shop on black Friday, it requires people to cut their holiday and time spent with their families short just because you want to save a couple extra bucks. Shop small local businesses on Saturday and promote a growing community.