Turkey Day Tips
Brace yourself people… there are just a few more days until we are faced with the biggest feast of the year! But just because Thanksgiving naturally makes you think of eating a ton of food, it doesn’t mean you have to go overboard and feel awful later. One of my faithful readers posted a comment the other day that listed some great tips she found to be helpful for the big Thanksgiving meal. {Thanks, Krista!} Her comments got me thinking about some of the things I do, to ensure that my Thanksgiving Day is enjoyable as well as healthy.
1. Personally, I love to start Thanksgiving morning with a high intensity cardio workout. It gives me loads of energy and makes me feel so good that I don’t want to ruin that feeling by eating an enormous meal later on. If you are a guy, an easy way to get a great workout in on Thanksgiving morning is a good game of football! {And no, I don’t mean sitting on the couch and watching one on TV!} The important thing is to just get up and get active so you can burn the extra calories you’ll be consuming later on in the day.
2. I am totally a “planning” type of gal… and I’ll admit that sometimes I take my planning a bit too far. However, I never think it’s a bad idea to go into a social event with a plan in place about what you’ll put in your mouth. Making a wise decision as to what and how much food you will eat BEFORE you are AT your “food-filled event” will make it SO much easier to stick to your health goals during the festivities. If you are not armed with a plan before sitting down to the big meal, you may find yourself mindlessly reaching for seconds, thirds and, heaven forbid, fourths!
3. When we eat, it can take up to twenty minutes for our stomach to tell our brain that it’s full. Snarfing down food is a bad idea because by the time you’re done snarfing, {or inhaling, or chowing, or whatever you want to call it}, you’ll feel full, then a little fuller and eventually you’ll feel so full that you’ll feel SICK! To avoid feeling that awful regret of eating too much food, SLOW down and enjoy the tasty goodness of your meal!
4. I’d have to say that Pumpkin Pie is my all-time favorite holiday desert. I love it! I love it! I love it! And even though pumpkin pie doesn’t really fit into my idea of what healthy eating should be, enjoying a slice of it on Thanksgiving Day is a MUST! By depriving ourselves of our most favorite treat on this highly anticipated holiday, {in my opinion}, is just sad! Even though we may have high expectations to eat healthy all of the time, life is to be enjoyed. So I say, go ahead… indulge in your favorite desert. Just savor it and don’t overdo it.
If you have any wonderful tips or ideas on how YOU stick to your health goals during the holidays, please share them with us! It’s so fun to hear everyone’s ideas! Oh – and here’s some fun news… I have a few awesome product giveaways I’ll be doing on my blog very soon! Be sure to subscribe to my blog feed so you’ll know when and what they are!
Have a fabulous holiday!
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8 Responses to “Turkey Day Tips”
Super Healthy Kids
November 25th, 2008
I love idea # 3. I would get slightly annoyed when I would make dinner and FINALLY sit down and my kids would say, “Mom, I need this! I need that!” By the time I truly sat down my food was cold. But, I finally learned to change my way of thinking and to use this as an eating tool. If I just sat down and my kids asked for something I would take a bite of food first…THEN go and get what they needed. (If your kids are like mine they are always needing something) So, I used it as a tool to eat slowly. Not only did I not get mad anymore but I cherished the interruptions because it forced me to put my fork down, eat slow and learn that eating slower truly works. When I didn’t get interruptions (which was a YEAH moment) I had already learned how much time I needed to take in between bites. It’s worked out great. I plan to use these same techniques on Thanksgiving. I am also grateful I don’t have to have turkey day here at our home. So that means I don’t have left overs. So, to really cherish the feast I am going to eat slow and really show my appreciation to my Aunt who is taking all her time to prepare such a nice meal.
Good luck to everywhere.
Krista
November 25th, 2008
this is a common thing, but i will mention it any way:
my tip: I try and “fill up” on the salad and veggies offered. that way the tempting potatoes, yams, marsgmellows, etcetc.. are a super small portion. i don’t know about you all, but at OUR house, when you are in line to get food, you better get it, cause there is rarely enough for seconds! (a bunch of oinkers!)
so i make a super big salad, and fill up my plate with the other stuff, but there isn’t enough room left for TOO much. and i never WANT the salad once i get sat down, so i tell myself “oh, i’ll do extra workouts tonight” BUT, then i only have tiny tiny portions of the rest, and no seconds!
sheesh- a whole paragraph about salad! i’m insane……
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Annie
November 25th, 2008
Gum has been my best friend lately. I’ll have a piece in my pocket to pop in my mouth as soon as my first reasonable plate is finished so that I don’t keep eating all day long. (works great to keep out of the cookie dough when I’m baking with my kids too…)-Karmel
Karmel Larson
November 25th, 2008
Great ideas. I’m planning on a nice run tomorrow morning!
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Blake
November 26th, 2008
Although we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in Indonesia I’ll be sure to keep this advice for the up and coming Christmas hols!
Thanks Liz!
Take care,
Andrew
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Discipline or Regret
November 30th, 2008
At my in-laws, all the food is out on the kitchen table and kitchen counter. If I sit at the table to socialize after the meal, I’m eating the whole time I’m talking. When I sit at the couch/ living room area, I don’t even see the food. I have to sit myself away from the table while we are just socializing. There are tons of people in both areas, so I never feel left out if I’m not in the kitchen.
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