How Not to Blow Your Diet on Thanksgiving
Yum -- how can you resist Thanksgiving eats and treats? Luckily, you don't have to blo your diet this weekend -- you can eat healthy and enjoy your turkey with all the trimmings.
The first way to stay true to your diet is to figure out your diet pitfalls...
"With men, there's a preference toward comfort food that's a little more healthy, like meat, pasta and potatoes," says food psychologist and author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. "Women choose things like chips, cookies, chocolate and cake."
If you know your diet downfalls, you're more likely to eat healthy. For instance, if you're a meat and potatos person, find ways to control your portion sizes. If you're a dessert nut, learn how to indulge without overeating.
And, here are a few tips for not gaining 10 pounds over the Thanksgiving weekend...
Eat foods full of water and fiber before eating Thanksgiving dinner. This one of the best tips for keeping your heart healthy and your weigh low. Dr John La Puma calls it volumizing: "If you eat a food that is full of water, you will eat fewer calories and lose weight," he writes in ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine. Eat foods that take longer to digest, contain fewer calories, and help you feel full without overeating. Before you indulge in Thanksgiving dinner, eat broth-based soups, smoothies, fruits, and veggies.
Involve your family and friends in your exercise schedule. Instead of sacrificing your social time to work out or neglecting your exercise to visit with family and friends, invite them to join your exercise routine. Or, try a new way to exercise over the holiday season. Activities you can do together include snowshoeing, hiking, ice skating, skiing, tobogganing, and even just walking. After all, the best weight loss tips aren't just about holiday dinners -- they're about exercise, too.
Snack every 2-3 hours on healthy foods. To keep your metabolism burning, don't let yourself get too hungry. Eat low-fat, low-cholesterol snacks such as cheese, crackers, nuts, and dried fruit. Since it takes a long time for the fat in nuts and cheese to metabolize, it lasts longer in your stomach. You'll feel full longer, which will prevent you from overeating at Thanksgiving dinner. Make sure your snacks are heart healthy, and remember that a snack portion is about ¼ cup - a small handful.
Eat Thanksgiving dinner off a small plate. Dr Brian Wansink is a food psychologist and author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. His research shows that holiday weight gain can be stopped not by dieting, but by doing things such as eating off smaller plates (because small plates make food look bigger) and eating two vegetables with every meal (because the more variety you have, the more you'll eat). Remember that there's a link between heart health and obesity, so you need to be strategic about how you eat and where you eat - not just what you eat.
Follow healthy diet tips most of the time. A dietitian I recently interviewed said that if healthy people choose nutritious foods and healthy physical activity 80% of the time, they can indulge themselves 20% of the time. If you have serious heart health issues, talk to your doctor before applying this "80/20" rule to your Thanksgiving dinner and holiday season eating habits. But, most people can let themselves indulge in seasonal treats 20% of the time without suffering ill effects (such as weight gain).
Plan your meals and snacks in advance. Another dietitian I talked to said that planning is the number one step towards weight control - which affects your heart health. Planning your snacks and meals isn't just a diet tip for Thanksgiving it's a great way to lose weight and stay healthy. Planning your food intake reduces your unhealthy food choices and binge eating that leads to weight gain.
A natural, organic Thanksgiving dinner can be a great way to stick to your diet over the holiday season. Experiment with natural turkey recipes, and eat as locally as possible.
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is a full-time writer and blogger who created five "Quips and Tips" blogs:
