“Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.”
—Hippocrates
Thanksgiving Day right is around the corner and you may have begun planning for the big feast.
Thanksgiving dinner is famous for its indulgences and overeating, which can present a challenge for highly health conscious individuals.
Truthfully, overeating one day out of the year won’t sabotage your diet plans, but continuing this eating behaviour throughout the holiday season will lead to unwanted weight to lose heading into next year.
We live in a land of abundance where delicious food is available year round. So why eat until we’re uncomfortable?
Below are some changes you can make to your Thanksgiving dinner plans this year that will save you some guilt, calories and keep you from feeling sluggish
Prevent over-stuffing yourself by fitting your meal all on one plate.
Sample small portions and avoid seconds.
Thanksgiving foods are typically richer and more filling, so eat slowly and savour every bite.
The more socializing you do at the dinner table, the less you’ll eat, so enjoy the company of your family and friends.
The break after the big meal is done but before pie is served is the perfect time to get some exercise and let your food digest.
Get the family all bundled up and go for a walk around the block. Make exercise part of the annual tradition.
Below are some easy meal substitutions.
Eat the white meat without the skin instead of the dark meat with skin and shave off 190 calories.
Turkey—white meat, no skin (6 oz): 180 calories, 3g fat.
Turkey—dark meat, with skin (6 oz): 370 calories, 20g fat.
Make your own cranberries rather than the jellied stuff and save 120 calories.
Cranberries (boiled in sugar, 1/2 cup): 100 calories, 1g fat.
Jellied cranberry sauce (1/2 cup): 220 calories, 1g fat.
Cut the marshmallows on your sweet potatoes and instead add a little bit of spice to save 100 calories.
Sweet potatoes, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg (2/3c): 200 calories, 3g fat.
Candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows (2/3c): 300 calories, 3g fat.
Skip the green bean casserole and instead just steam some green beans and cut 110 calories.
Steamed green beans (1/2 c): 20 calories, 1g fat.
Green bean casserole (1/2 c): 130 calories, 7 g fat.
Choose pumpkin pie over the pecan pie for dessert and decrease your caloric intake by 160 calories.
Pumpkin pie (1/8 pie): 340 calories, 15g fat
Pecan pie (1/8 pie): 500 calories, 25g fat.
Add it all up and by choosing the healthier options, you have saved yourself 650 calories:
More healthy 850 calories, 23g fat
Less healthy 1500 calories, 56g fat.
