How about that for a title?
Now that I got your attention, forget that title immediately.
Truth is, one day – in this case being Thanksgiving – should not be looked at as a peril, or a day that will completely ruin your hard work and everything you have done up to that point.
Thanksgiving is supposed to be a happy day, spent with family and or friends, where we come together and ENJOY our favorite holiday foods.
It should not be a day where we demonize food, or feel like we need to EARN food, or work off food. Don’t get me started on those posts about “It takes X amount of burpees to burn off a piece of pumpkin pie” – stop it. Enjoy the pie.
On the flip side, if you have been working at creating consistency and positive, healthy eating habits, it should also not be seen as a day to completely forgot about everything you have been working on and just pig out to the point of feeling sick or so bloated that you look like a tick ready to pop.
We need to get away from this “all or nothing” mentality.
Thanksgiving can easily be enjoyed without stressing about our diet, or the scale.
Here are some simple things to keep in mind when it comes to ENJOYING Thanksgiving responsibly.
1) It is ONE day. Enjoy that ONE day.
Where people tend to get into trouble is when they start celebrating the feast at the start of the week because “who cares, I will be pigging out on Thursday, so why not just start now?”
Or allowing the feasting to continue past Friday (because leftovers happen) and the rest of the weekend.
This is the mindset that can easily snowball back into old habits that you have worked hard to break. Leading up to Thursday, you should continue your week as you normally would. Eat responsibly, eat when physically hungry, get your workouts in, and maintain a slight caloric deficit (assuming your current goal is fat loss). Simple – IF you have been working on these habits up until now.
Give yourself a day, but nothing extra before or after. It is ONE day out of 365.
2) Enjoy Your Favorite Foods – responsibly
I use this with my clients all the time. Do you enjoy (insert favorite holiday food here)? Then eat one serving/slice/portion/scoop/etc – not the entire thing.
Yes, it can even be a super-rich, sugary, fatty dessert. One-piece will not destroy all of your progress and ruin everything. However, if you know you have certain trigger foods, it may take some extra precaution before indulging. Plan to have just the ONE piece – and move on.
Also – pick the foods that hold a special place in your heart. You moms excellent stuffing, Grandma’s pie, or your aunt’s world-renowned cheesy potato casserole. If your lazy uncle shows up with a bag of Doritos – which you can eat any day of the year – skip em.
The truth is, food does not carry morals, nor does eating a certain food make YOU a bad person. It is food – that is all.
Thou Shall Not allow guilt to be felt on Thanksgiving Day!
Enjoy it, clean up your dishes like your mother taught you, and move on back to your regularly scheduled life.
3) Plan Accordingly the Day Of
If you are like me you KNOW that you will go a little crazy with the food choices at the feast. These are probably foods you don’t regularly eat, so why not?
This being said, if you normally eat an early Thanksgiving dinner, then maybe have a lighter breakfast, or pass on lunch – knowing all too well that you will definitely get those calories in later.
Focus on protein and veggies early in the day, saving all those rich, carb and fat-filled foods for later.
Even if you have the best of intentions and you do overeat, oh well. It’s OKAY!
Side note: I know I said you don’t need to feel like you need to earn your food, however, if you want to make the most of it, hit a nice heavy weight-training session the morning of the feast.
The bigger picture is that you get right back on track to your nutrition and training starting Friday morning – even if you are raging at some awesome Black Friday deals (that can easily count as a workout I’m sure)
When you create a long term healthy relationship with food, it will be so easy to get right back on track you won’t even know that you missed it for a day.
The moral of the story here is short and sweet – enjoy the holiday, enjoy your family, enjoy the foods, and get right back to it Friday morning and through the rest of the weekend -and all will be good – I promise!
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Stay healthy my friends,