‘Tis the season for family, friends, food, and pumpkin everything. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and while it’s a fun time with family, the overwhelming amounts of food can be scary. Scary as in, “Oh dear god I’m going to gain 10 pounds tonight.” In fact, the spirit of Thanksgiving is practically summed up in this picture:
We’ve all been there: staring at all of the scrumptious pies, steaming turkey and stuffing, and accepting your fate. There is no possible way that you aren’t going to indulge in all of it and end up with an enormous food baby. What I’m about to say may surprise you, but take my advice… INDULGE! There is no sin in enjoying good food and good company one night a year. That being said, don’t eat your weight in food.
This is the night that you shouldn’t feel guilty for eating sweets or lots of carbs, but you always need to be mindful of how MUCH of it you are putting into your body. Monitoring your portion sizes will be the key to surviving this Thanksgiving. You don’t want to eat too much of any one thing, because chances are there’s a lot of food you want to try.
Here’s an example: in my house, we have stuffing AND mashed potatoes as sides for the turkey. I’m going to break this main-course situation down for you and tell you how to avoid the dreaded food baby:
· Since I wanted both the stuffing and the mashed potatoes, I had to control myself and not take heaping spoonfuls of both.
· To accompany my turkey, I took a half of a normal serving of stuffing, and a half of a normal serving of mashed potatoes.
· That way, the two carbs counted as only one serving and I got the best of both worlds!
Utilizing self control is more easily said than done, especially when it comes to the dessert table. If you’ve done well and monitored your portion sizes for the main course, keep it going! It may be hard, especially since dessert is the best part of Thanksgiving and there’s usually always more than one delicious pie, cake, or pudding to choose from. You can still implement the strategy you used for the main course, but it might be harder. Speaking from experience, I have no problems not overeating during the main course, but my pesky sweet tooth flips a switch as soon as I see the first cupcake and I tear the dessert table up, always feeling guilty afterwards.
I’ve come up with a new strategy that will save us all big time when it comes to the desserts:
· Pick one dessert on Thanksgiving evening, and have as much of it as you want.
· When it’s time to leave or clean up, ask for a Tupperware container or a paper plate.
· Place whatever desserts you didn’t get to try on it and save it for another day during the week.
· This way, you don’t need to eat large amounts of every dessert on Thanksgiving, and you can enjoy the rest of it as a treat on another day!
Conquering Thanksgiving may be a challenge at first because of the amount of self control it requires, but just remember that it is okay to indulge and not feel guilty about it! Enjoy yourselves but also take care of your body. One night a year will not kill you, but monitoring your portion sizes and taking home leftover desserts will save you from overeating and not feeling like you’ve gained 10 pounds!
HCXO,
Alli