Thanksgiving Tips & Tricks
Mmmm….
Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving???—not just the break from school; I’m talking about the most important thing, the FOOD! What special Thanksgiving dish are you looking forward to? Are you a traditional turkey and stuffing kind of person or do you have some cool family traditions like sweet casseroles and pies? No matter what you’re looking forward to this week, I want you to be able to feel like you can enjoy it, without fear of weight gain or feeling uncomfortably full. Tips & Tricks If you’ve read our other articles, you already know what’s coming: if you don’t want to overeat at Thanksgiving dinner, don’t skip breakfast and lunch. I know your logic! “The food is sooo good I have to save up so I can eat as much as possible!” Do you really? Does that last bite—when you’re overfull and physically uncomfortable—taste as good as the first? Think about it…it doesn’t! Sometimes it might even feel laborious to finish what’s on your plate. Your intense hunger from waiting all day to eat, combined with the “special” quality of all these holiday-specific foods, essentially tricks you into overeating, and feeling not too great, when you should be feeling awesome and enjoying time with your friends and family. So let’s double back and figure out how to not get cornered by this typical holiday eating pattern. Consider the following steps on Thanksgiving: Step 1: Eat Breakfast Step 2: Eat snacks if necessary Step 3: Eat Lunch Step 4: Eat more snacks if necessary Step 5: Enjoy your dinner (mindfully!) You know how this goes by now: eating balanced meals and snacks consistently throughout the day can help curb hunger and cravings later in the day. Basically, if you’re not starving when you sit down to dinner, you will be less likely to overeat. So don’t feel like you have to save up for dinner! Yes, it’s true, the foods you eat at Thanksgiving may be somewhat special in that you don’t eat them very often. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get the maximum enjoyment from these foods by eating what you might consider a “normal”-size dinner amount of them. Consider eating your Thanksgiving foods mindfully. That means slowing down and savoring every bite, which is easier to do when you’re not starving, wouldn’t you agree? |