7 Weight-Busting Strategies to Guiltless Thanksgiving Feasting
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Tis the season to celebrate and eat… and eat and eat. It’s Thanksgiving, and that’s what most of us do on Thanksgiving - eat. Not only that, we continue to eat our way through the entire holiday season, adding pounds to our pounds and frustration to our frustration. And the scariest part - those extra pounds often don’t come off by the time the next holiday season sneaks up and sabotages our well-meaning, yearlong, weight loss intentions with another fat attack!
Shock yourself this year. Follow these 7 simple strategies and celebrate Thanksgiving without a moment of guilt or an extra ounce of fat. In fact, stick to these guidelines all year long and you’ll shed those extra layers, freeing you from the holiday weight-gain blues.
1. Instead of “saving yourself” for the celebration dinner, eat a calorie-low, nutrient-high breakfast, and even lunch (if dinnertime is 4 to 5 o’clock or later).
How many Thanksgiving days have you skimped on food or starved yourself all day so you could stuff yourself with as much turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and pie as your stomach could possibly hold? New holiday, weight-loss tactic: graze on good-for-you, fresh fruits all morning long, enough to keep you full and satisfied. If dinner is later, eat a large, green-leafy vegetable salad for lunch - plenty to fill you up. The more calorie-low, nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables you eat during the day, the less fat and fewer calories you will pack away at the big dinner.
2. Think outside the traditional Thanksgiving box and fill up on the best-for-you, calorie-low foods first, and then eat your Thanksgiving faves.
Vegetables contain very few calories but are power-packed with all necessary nutrients. As the Thanksgiving chef, be sure to include vegetables in your meal. It makes perfect sense to load your plate with green-leafy, vegetable salad, steamed broccoli (no cheese sauce please), and uncandied yams, for instance, and eat them first. Then enjoy the rest of your meal. No test of wills. No deprivation. No guilt. No self-beatings. Just sensible eating. Filling up first on calorie-low, body-best foods will automatically keep those pounds off by leaving less room for turkey (skinless breast meat 38% fat; thighs 55% fat) and all the super fat-rich, calorie-loaded trimmings.
Hint: stuffing has more saturated fat than turkey. Skip the stuffing to sidestep a lot of artery-clogging fat and a bunch of calories.
3. If you’re invited to another home for Thanksgiving, graciously offer to bring a green-leafy, vegetable salad and steamed vegetables of choice.
Your goal is two-fold: to help out the hostess and to be assured that calorie-low vegetables will be available to fill you up, thwarting the temptation to overeat the traditional Thanksgiving fixings. If the hostess will not accept your offer, that’s okay. Simply eat a salad and vegetables an hour or so before you go. You will still partake in the festivities, but you will naturally and easily eat a reasonable amount of turkey and trimmings without falling into the trap of overindulgence. Shhhhh - mum’s the word. Your hostess will never know.
4. Prepare only enough food for Thanksgiving dinner and one meal of leftovers, and that’s all.
Most of us go food crazy with the quantity of food we prepare for holiday meals. Once we sit down and look at the food-spread on the table, how often do we comment, “This is enough food to feed an army.”? Too many leftovers give us too many meals of too many calories. Be vigilant this year and prepare enough food for one feast and one leftover dinner. If you invite guests and end up with extra food, by all means surprise them with to-go packets of food as they head for home. They will be thrilled, but the big winner will be you when that number on the scale doesn’t hop up the next day.
5. STOP eating when your brain says, “Enough. I’m full.”
This sounds like a no-brainer, but as we all can attest to, it’s easy to ignore that flashing neon-light in your brain, “Stop Eating!”, when that turkey dinner is tasting so good. Remember, this is not your last meal (hopefully). More food will come your way to satisfy those demanding taste buds. So do yourself a favor - pay attention and stop eating when your brain tells you to, even if you have food left on your plate. Garbage disposals don’t gain weight, you do. As for the pie, why not save it for the next day when you won’t be seduced into overindulging. And one piece should do you.
6. Walk!
First thing in the morning, before the busy-ness of your holiday steals your entire day, take a long walk or engage in some kind of heart-pumping exercise to burn some calories. However, this walk shouldn’t give you the free pass to pig out at dinner. It takes at least eleven miles to walk off one pound of body fat, so no matter how hard you exercise, extra cals are not your pals and are tough to burn off, especially after they turn into your body’s fat.
7. Trump the above six strategies by following the 80/20 Rule all year long.
By far, the 80/20 Rule is the most powerful, weight-busting strategy of all. If permanent weight loss and boosting health are your goals, center your meals around and fill up on the best-for-you foods 80% of the time. Eat your favorite, not-so-good-for-you foods no more than 20% of the time. If you follow this weight-loss, body-best strategy most of the year, there’s no reason why you can’t feast worry-free on holidays and special occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries. Indulge on whatever foods you’d like and forget the other six strategies!
Take heed! If feasting expands beyond one special meal to several days of meals before and after, there will be disappointing, body-show-all consequences.
And what are the best-for-you foods that offer the most nutrition for the calorie buck? Whole, plant foods of course, as in fresh, whole fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, your weight warriors and health heroes.
Fill up on your weight-loss, body-best heroes all year long to earn the freedom to feast with family and friends with no restrictions, sacrifice, or guilt. But remember - get back to the 80/20 Rule the very next day. 80/20 is the key to stepping into your body-dream-come-true, and staying there.
By Dr. Leslie Van Romer
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Dr. Leslie Van Romer is the author of “Getting Into Your Pants,” chiropractor, weight loss cheerleader, and feel-good-about-you motivational health speaker. For more inspiration, visit http://www.DrLeslieVanRomer.com |