Thanksgiving is right around the corner to kick off the beginning of the holiday season, which is fun and exciting for the most part, but carries some challenges if you’re trying to lose weight. Try these tips to avoid unnecessary weight gain during the holiday season:
1. Fill up on veggies: Thanksgiving usually involves a lot of indulgent dishes. Make half your plate veggie based dishes (such as baked Brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, sautéed spinach, or cauliflower mash) and take smaller portions of the others.
2. Eat healthy food throughout the day leading up to your Thanksgiving Feast: Eating healthily throughout the day leading to up to Thanksgiving dinner will help in a few ways: first, it will make it so you aren’t starving by the time dinner rolls around and second, it will help you get in plenty of nutrient rich foods so that even if you do indulge a bit at dinner, it won’t completely derail your healthy diet.
3. Get your trot on: find a Turkey Trot for you and your family and friends to partake in! Getting in some exercise before eating a big meal will help increase your body’s fat burning ability which will help reduce weight gain.
4. Avoid drinking your calories: as tempting as it is to throw back a few glasses of beer or wine, these calories can catch up to you. Limit yourself to one drink, ideally one lower in calories like a white wine spritzer (3oz wine + 2oz club soda), and follow it up with plenty of plain or fruit infused water.
5. Make healthier versions of decadent dishes: Try decreasing your calorie intake while giving your dinner a nutritional boost with the following switches:
– Cauliflower mash instead of mashed potatoes
– Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream in recipes or as a dip
– Baked sweet potatoes instead of candied yams
– White meat (no skin) instead of dark meat turkey with the skin
– Homemade cranberry relish instead of canned cranberries
– Pumpkin pie instead of pecan pie
– Homemade whole wheat pie crust instead of store bought
6. Join the cleanup crew: standing and clearing the table and cleaning dishes for about an hour can help you burn around 100 calories! Plus, you’ll be helping the host out a lot, too, which I’m sure they’ll appreciate.
Follow these tips and you’ll have yourself a healthier Thanksgiving! However, at the end of the day, if you do over-indulge, be gentle with yourself. Take some extra time the following day to fit in a good sweat session and eat plenty of healthy fruits and veggies to help detox from the decadence of the night before.
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