Thanksgiving
LDyer1975
Posts: 1 Member
Any suggestions or tips on what to avoid on Thanksgiving? Or do you have portion tips? Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.
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Replies
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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!0
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I would suggest not avoiding anything that you like. As far as portions go, try to pay attention to when you feel satisfied. Savor your favorites and have a lovely day!0
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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.0 -
Eat the pie. Friday, go back to counting.0
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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.0
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I suggest avoiding aunt Edna. Seriously, she'll bring the whole mood down talking about her bunions and bursitis. Not to mention she's got something lit 10 cats at home so she'll be sure to trigger allergies.
Aunt Edna, avoid aunt Edna.
And Uncle Roy, for other reasons.0 -
it is one day out of 365 ..eat the food, enjoy the time with family and friends, and then get back on track the day after. yes, I will log on Thanksgiving but it will in no way be accurate, and I plan on shooting for 5000 + calories.0
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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!
or, just eat what you like, don't stress out over it, and get back on track the day after.0 -
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!0 -
My mom is on MFP and we are making all the food, so lucky enough to be weighing and logging ALL of our recipes together. I am planning to eat like I normally would on Thanksgiving (everything in sight) and am truly excited to see what the exact count will be. She, on the other hand, plans to stay within her goals for the most part because she has started more recently than me and does not want to get off track. She may go over a little, but plans on getting back on track the next day if necessary. I'm also going on a long run that morning to offset some of the damage, while she will take a leisurely walk. Do what works for you. If taking one day off track (but still logging, ideally!) is going to completely derail you at this point, don't go overboard or follow some of the advice about filling up on protein and veggies and watching portion size very carefully. If not, log it, and move on!0
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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!0
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Only have one glass of wine! Alcohol makes me throw caution to the wind....so to speak.0
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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!
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I suggest avoiding aunt Edna. Seriously, she'll bring the whole mood down talking about her bunions and bursitis. Not to mention she's got something lit 10 cats at home so she'll be sure to trigger allergies.
Aunt Edna, avoid aunt Edna.
And Uncle Roy, for other reasons.
Uncle Roy. <shudders>
OP, enjoy your meal! Try eating it a bit more slowly. Hopefully that way your "I'm full!" signal will kick in well before you've omnomed your way through your third helping.
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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.0
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justrollme wrote: »I would suggest not avoiding anything that you like. As far as portions go, try to pay attention to when you feel satisfied. Savor your favorites and have a lovely day!
That0 -
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.0 -
Don't be afraid to try everything, but don't be afraid to leave food on your plate. Eat slowly, protein first, small bites, savor it, try it all. When you get to the point of being full, get rid of your plate, grab a glass of water or wine or a diet coke, and stop eating. If nothing else, set a timer on your phone. If in 90 minutes it goes off and you still want a bite of something, then go have another bite. Or even two bites. But pace yourself.
Oh, and take a picture of your plate when it's loaded and just before you dump it. That way, you can log the food you ate, accept that the numbers are what they are, and Friday you can move on knowing what you did, knowing you enjoyed it, and without guilt.0 -
brittneydyess 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!
how can one day of overeating sabotage yourself?0 -
PinkPixiexox wrote: »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.
^^Great advice. It is one day. Eat it. Enjoy it. Log it. Just don't let it lead to just one more day ( I did that and it turned into decades). Get back to your normal routine on Friday.
This is my 4th Thanksgiving on MFP and my 2nd on maintenance. Really, one day will not make a difference, and you have to have a sustainable plan for life in order to keep the weight off once you are at your goal.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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I plan on eating small portions and not skipping anything.0
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I just eat light a day or two before and skip breakfast the day of. That way I can just pound all the delicious food into my facehole!!! Oh my god I am so excited for stuffing and gravy!!!!0
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Eat all the yummy foods.0
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how can one day of overeating sabotage yourself?
If that one day is the rock that starts the slide of your slippery slope. Several years ago I lost around 84 pounds doing a liquid diet plan. 7 shakes/replacements per day at around 100 cals/15g protein each and one "Lean & Green" meal (up to 8oz lean meat and up to 2 cups of green veggies). I'd done fantastically adhering to the plan and felt great. Was actually jogging (have always hated jogging). I had decided I'd eat an actual meal on Thanksgiving that year because I'd done so well. I figured it was easy enough to start the plan, surely getting back on plan would be a breeze! Oh how wrong I was. I couldn't go a full-day on plan after that to save my life and ended up giving up. Since I hadn't gone through the transition phase yet that would teach me how to eat to not gain, I went back to my original eating habits. I gained that 84 plus an additional 30 on top of it!
This year I know that if I go over my calories for the day it won't be a big deal. I've done it already, though I don't think I've ever gotten above maintenance cals. I've been over my planned deficit cals at least once a month in the past 7 months, but I can't think of a single day where it was more than my body burned just existing and moving that day.
My plan for the day is to enjoy the bits that I really like and just not take any of the bits that are just "meh." I'm not really a stuffing person, so I won't have any stuffing. While I do like mashed potatoes, I MUCH prefer sweet potatoes, so I'm going to skip the MP and have the SP. Not sure which dessert I'll have. There will be pumpkin and apple pies, but I'm sure they'll both be store-bought and neither one is catching my, "Ooooo, that sounds good!" interest.0 -
Same response as in the last 114 Thanksgiving posts:
I plan to eat double portions of turkey, potatoes, bread, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and eat at least 3 pieces of pie and have a minimum of 3 glasses of wine. I then plan to sit on the couch and fall asleep watching football - probably while having a couple of beers.
I then plan to get up the next morning, dust myself off, and get back to my regular schedule.
Because 1 day does not make or ruin progress, and because Thanksgiving.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »Same response as in the last 114 Thanksgiving posts:
I plan to eat double portions of turkey, potatoes, bread, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and eat at least 3 pieces of pie and have a minimum of 3 glasses of wine. I then plan to sit on the couch and fall asleep watching football - probably while having a couple of beers.
I then plan to get up the next morning, dust myself off, and get back to my regular schedule.
Because 1 day does not make or ruin progress, and because Thanksgiving.
yes to all of this!!!!!0 -
Most of the food on the table on Thanksgiving is stuff that I can have anytime. The foods that I don't get often--sweet potato casserole, homemade dinner rolls, turkey--will be eaten in large quantity. Everything else, I'll probably ignore.0
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My plan is to eat whatever I want Thanksgiving weekend, and eat less calories/carbs the previous Sunday-Wednesday to keep my weekly net calories at a maximum maintenance and at best a deficit. I will log everything to the best of my ability but I won't weigh/measure. I'll use the eyeball method (I.e. A cup is the size of my fist).
I also plan to still get 10,000+ steps every day this week to help out my weekly net
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I'm going to enjoy ALL the food. Yum!0
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