Thanksgiving

Stay away from trigger foods that you have a hard time stopping eating. First, go for protein, then fill your plate with veggies, then add some of the fun stuff like mashed potatoes, stuffing and sweet potato casserole. To eat slowly and not over eat. It's so hard, I am hoping I can stick to these tips!

Honestly? I'd advise you to ease up on yourself on Thanksgiving. Why must you restrict? It's one day. Enjoy it.
You aren't going to ruin the process over a single celebratory day.

Avoid overthinking and worrying. It's one day. Enjoy your friends and family, and have smaller portions of things you normally do. Some things aren't "worth" the calories to me, so I'll slip something I like less for a bigger portion of something I like more.

Don't buy into the idea that someone will be offended if you don't eat a particular thing. I've seen a lot of posts where people say "I don't want to be a downer for everyone else by not eating XYZ". Honestly, if anyone's paying that much attention to what you're eating, they have a problem. You're not going to ruin anyone's holiday by not eating a particular dish. Decide for yourself what YOU are comfortable eating, and stick to that.

For myself, I'm going to eat little bits of everything - I'm hosting and it's all food I like. But I'm serving lots of vegetable dishes that would be better for me to eat "too much" of, so I'm not tempted to eat "too much" of things I know I need to restrict. If you're hosting, make sure to have a "safe" food (mine is going to be celery and apple salad). If you're not hosting and you know the host well enough, see how they'd feel about you bringing a large green salad or a veggie platter for everyone.

Think about it, look at how many threads there are on here about trying to decide what to eat or not eat on Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure you won't be the only one at your gathering who's stressing over what (not) to eat. You may find a lot of people are very happy to have a salad along with whatever else is being served. When I started serving green salads at holiday meals, everyone in my family was really happy about it!

Still eat what you want, but just make it smaller portions! I had a 'Friendsgiving' last night, and found I was still completely content with what I had, and it was probably half the calories I would have normally ate. Don't worry too much, and just make sure to get back into the swing of it following the holidays!

LDyer1975 wrote: »

Any suggestions or tips on what to avoid on Thanksgiving? Or do you have portion tips? Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Okay, so my advice is a little different from everyone else's. Yes, it is just one day, BUT you don't want to sabotage yourself and end up bingeing. Go ahead and eat, but DO watch your portions. And I would only eat ONE dessert. I see a lot of people during Thanksgiving get like three different desserts because they all look so good and can't choose. Be strong and eat only one piece of pie or cake or whatever you have for dessert. Then weigh yourself the next day to see the damage done and that will motivate you to continue counting calories. I don't know about your body, but for me, one day of bad eating does mess me up a little. I usually gain a pound or two.

Hope this helps. Happy Thanksgiving!

My plan is to bank some extra calories each day until Thursday, that way I have a bit of a buffer. I'm also going to make sure I get at least one good walk in on the day of. Other than that, I plan on eating what I want and just enjoying the day with family.

I know it's just one day, but there are a lot of special days in the year so I do think it's worth going in having a plan. If nothing else so you don't feel bad the next day or the next week when you wonder why you're weight loss has stalled. Or if you know you can avoid feeling bad the next day, etc. more power to you. Enjoy it and get right back to your routine on Friday.

My best advice for any special days you know will challenging is to pre-log the things you know you are likely to encounter. That may help you decide what's worth it to you and what's not. For example, I know the food that is totally worth it to me is turkey breast, pretty much all veggies that aren't swimming in butter, some cranberry sauce and one healthy slice of pumpkin pie. The other stuff just doesn't seem worth it to me when I add it up so I will do my best to limit those and focus on I really want.

I agree that no one really cares what you eat or don't eat as long as you don't make a big show of it.