Thanksgiving help!

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trdepalo
trdepalo Posts: 106
in Health and Weight Loss
I know its a bit early for this, but I am trying to plan a strategy for Thanksgiving. If last year was anything like this year, it's going to be hard. Breakfast I have a Thanksgiving meal with my father and my grandmother, lunch is with my boyfriend and his grandmother/cousins, and dinner is with my mother and my cousins. That is three full thanksgiving meals in one day! Luckily, I don't live with any of them so I don't have to worry about leftovers, but how am I supposed to get through the one day? Any advice?

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  • mallorycutting
    mallorycutting Posts: 18
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    Load up on the fresh veggies and the white meat from the turkey with no sauce. Those two don't have a ton of calories themselves. All the other lovely sides just take small portions and eat slowly and enjoy them.

    We recently had thanksgiving and that's what I did minus the turkey.
  • RBXChas
    RBXChas Posts: 2,708 Member
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    I know its a bit early for this, but I am trying to plan a strategy for Thanksgiving. If last year was anything like this year, it's going to be hard. Breakfast I have a Thanksgiving meal with my father and my grandmother, lunch is with my boyfriend and his grandmother/cousins, and dinner is with my mother and my cousins. That is three full thanksgiving meals in one day! Luckily, I don't live with any of them so I don't have to worry about leftovers, but how am I supposed to get through the one day? Any advice?

    I only had one Thanksgiving meal last year, but I just took it easy, loaded up on the "good" stuff, and had a little bit of the "bad" stuff. I also have relatives who are health nuts, so my SIL made a pumpkin pie substitute with Greek yogurt that was AWESOME. It was really like eating pumpkin pie without the crust (which is my least favorite part anyway). She has yet to send me the recipe despite repeated requests for it! I also had a small piece of pecan pie because it is my absolute favorite. The scale did not notice, and I went to Spinning on Black Friday because I hate Black Friday shopping.

    So, in short, my advice is to eat as well as you can, and if you get to meal #3 and are stuffed, your family should understand, since you'll have essentially had two Thanksgiving dinners already!

    Oh, and I had one glass of wine, too (red). I was never a big drinker to begin with, but it was a holiday, and I wanted to enjoy one glass.
  • TCondor
    TCondor Posts: 88
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    There are a lot of Turkey Day standards but I've found that each family has their own take on many of the side dishes. Maybe you could focus on different foods at each meal so each one is unique. And keeping the portions on the small side will keep away that "stuffed turkey" feeling.
  • jonesey65244
    jonesey65244 Posts: 16
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    My take on this will probably be a bit different than most.

    Go ahead and eat. It's a special family day. Enjoy it.

    It's the other 364 days or 362, if you count a couple other "family" days in the year, that you should concentrate on. That's not to say you should go berserk, but if you sit there nitpicking about the food, you simply defeat the get-together.

    Take a smaller piece of pie, smaller portions of the other good stuff, but enjoy, and above all...Give Thanks for the abundance we have.

    jonesey65244
  • lisamariepickering
    lisamariepickering Posts: 110
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    My take on this will probably be a bit different than most.

    Go ahead and eat. It's a special family day. Enjoy it.

    It's the other 364 days or 362, if you count a couple other "family" days in the year, that you should concentrate on. That's not to say you should go berserk, but if you sit there nitpicking about the food, you simply defeat the get-together.

    Take a smaller piece of pie, smaller portions of the other good stuff, but enjoy, and above all...Give Thanks for the abundance we have.

    jonesey65244

    ^^^This, definitely. Enjoy the day. And if you're constantly stressing all day about what you're eating, you won't be able to enjoy it. Chances are you've been eating so well that you'll make some good decisions out of habit. And if you're like me, you're so used to eating smaller amounts of food, that you won't be able to stuff yourself silly. But in the event you just go hogwild, don't beat yourself up about it. One day does won't derail you if you don't let it. Just get back to eating healthy and exercising the next day.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    I've got two different approaches to this...

    One, like jonesy said, it's one day out of the year - go ahead and indulge.

    Two, while you may still go over your calorie goal for the day a bit, you can make smart choices. As others have suggested, stick with the healthier options and if you really can't pass up that pie or Grandma's stuffing, just have a little. You could even bring your own healthy dish and have that be your main food choice. I do this in the summer when I go to BBQs. I make a healthy low cal/low fat pasta salad and fill most of my plate with that then just have bites of the other dishes. Encourage everyone to go for an after dinner walk around the block instead of having a group nap. :)
  • Iready
    Iready Posts: 22 Member
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    Going to visit family and have 2, yes 2 thanksgiving dinners!! Just figured I'd boycott MFP on that day :)
  • Just_Ceci
    Just_Ceci Posts: 5,926 Member
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    My plan is to let Thanksgiving be my high calorie day for the week! I've definitely changed my eating habits since last Thanksgiving, but plan to enjoy the things I want (in moderation) and not worry about it!
  • bradphil87
    bradphil87 Posts: 617 Member
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    My take on this will probably be a bit different than most.

    Go ahead and eat. It's a special family day. Enjoy it.

    It's the other 364 days or 362, if you count a couple other "family" days in the year, that you should concentrate on. That's not to say you should go berserk, but if you sit there nitpicking about the food, you simply defeat the get-together.

    Take a smaller piece of pie, smaller portions of the other good stuff, but enjoy, and above all...Give Thanks for the abundance we have.

    jonesey65244

    100% correct!!!! I won't be counting on thanksgiving. I also will stop when I'm full tho lol. I'm not going to deny myself my moms amazing stuffing that literally takes her 3 days to prepaire or mashed potatoes and gravy, and I always get one of the legs :) they're my fav!!!! (The rest of my family mostly likes white meat) not going to tone down my thanksgiving because I'm afrade of some water weight that'll be off the next week anyway.... I'm also going to have a huge lift day that morning, put those extra cals to good use haha
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    I plan to eat and enjoy. But only after running a 5k Thanksgiving morning.
  • trdepalo
    trdepalo Posts: 106
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    Thanks, those are all good ideas! I especially like the notion of eating certain sides only for one meal, which really works for me because at the dinner there is the BEST stuffing, but at breakfast is the best veggies. Small portions too, okay, I'm feeling better about this THANKS EVERYONE!

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