Goals


November 24, 2010

Trim down your waistline even on Thanksgiving

We eat a lot on Thanksgiving, and if you are trying to maintain a level of a healthy lifestyle, then that eating can really take you off course. I don’t except anyone to attempt to count the calories they digest tomorrow, but maybe we can keep a good perspective on what we are eating and trim down the extra with these quick tips I have for you.

1. Have a healthy breakfast: continue to eat oatmeal with fruit, or egg whites on whole wheat toast, whatever it is you are eating for your usual breakfast keep that up. Don’t have homemade cinnamon rolls and certainly don’t go buy a dozen doughnuts, because you want to save all those calories for the wonderful meal you will eat later on.
2. Eat a balanced meal: Have smaller portions of the carb loaded side dishes, include the vegetables, the salad, and a healthy portion of turkey.
3. Choose your favorites over store bought: If you can’t wait to eat some of those homemade rolls, or pumpkin pie, don’t sit down and eat store bought brands at the first meal you have. Homemade is usually easier on your digestion, and most likely made with healthier ingredients (not always), so stick to the family recipe this year!
4. Ignore the peer pressure: Your bottomless pit brother-in-law is eating everything, has had seconds, and now is eyeing your plate. Don’t feel pressured to try each item at the table, if you miss out on the yams, gravy, or any other dish its ok and don’t make up for it by having more of another dish. There’s always something that you’d prefer not to try I’m sure.
5. Skip the seconds: I have a hard time with this one myself, so the trick is to allow your body to tell your brain you are full. Once you finished eating, wait 10-15 minutes before eyeing another plate of food. You might find that you are already stuffed and need to hold off. This way, you can make room for dessert.
6. Taste all your favorites: Taking a bite of your favorite desserts instead of a full slice can help you really feel satisfied and not pack on the weight. Same goes with appetizers and side dishes – 1 taste or just a bite.
7. Dessert as a snack: So, instead of adding on that turkey sandwich while watching the game skip on over to dessert and have a whole slice of pie.
8. Don’t graze: I’m the worst at this, especially if I’m doing the cooking, so watch what’s popping in your mouth as your sitting around watching the parades and football games. Just because it’s in front of you does not mean in needs to be in your mouth!

Have a safe holiday everyone, and if you are doing Black Friday Shopping – remember get a skinny Latte instead of a mocha and save about 300 calories! All that walking/shopping’s going to burn a lot of calories too!

1 comment:

  1. great ideas! I am a big "graze while i cook" person. It's so bad too! I read somewhere that cooking grazers often eat the same amount of calories by grazing that they will eat in the whole meal! ugh I need to stop!

    ReplyDelete