Thanksgiving

What is everyone doing to keep on track during the holiday?

I was going to "reward" myself with eating whatever I want for Thanksgiving, but I'm now rethinking this.

This will be the first Thanksgiving ever I'm on a diet! What to do?!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and my birthday are the three days a year where i eat as much as i want of whatever i want. no limits, no guilt. since i've been eating healthier i've noticed that i can't physically eat as much as i used to be able to on those days, but i still eat till i'm stuffed :)

i can't wait!

Original Post by crystal_320:

I'm cooking a huge dinner with all the trimmings for my family.  I'm gonna cook, and I'm gonna eat without counting calories that day.  Christmas eve and Christmas day will be the same way.  I figure there is no way to undo 362 days work in only 3.  I'm not gonna binge or stuff myself until I'm sick but I am gonna enjoy the meals, the punch, and dessert.  ;)

I totally agree!  If we diet to have a better life, but then don't allow ourselves to enjoy life, what's the point?  I have also found that I no longer even WANT to have as much food or gorge myself, so I am not worried that I will overeat.  But I am not going to take along a piece of deli turkey and baby carrots and pretend I am not missing anything.  Enjoy life, people!  Thanksgiving is once a year.  (What we DO need to watch out for is the continual Christmas parties from now until New Years!)

Feast!

Feast, I say!

*grabs shovel and heads for the Thanksgiving table which will be buckling under the food's weight*

First of all, let me start off by saying that I commend all of you who are choosing to do the right thing by controlling portions/carefully choosing what to eat/whatever else seems prudent. Miore power to you all!

Having said that, I will be following the same plan as jules817 (and others). After running an 8K race, I am heading to my cousin's house and will eat whatever I want, including turkey and stuffing, ham, potato salad, and so on and so forth. 

Granted, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I will be working out a little harder and eating a little bit less to give myself some extra leeway for the special day. Nevertheless, this will be a treat day, not much different than the one day I allow myself every week for treats and other food pleasures.  Once the day is over, things will return back to normal (I will not bring home any leftovers).

Some may believe that my plan is irresponsible, but after all of the work I have done in the last several months (including logging my caloric intake, following a consistent weight-training program, and running/training for various long-distance events), I refuse to believe that one day of over-indulgence will derail my efforts.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Hey, why is it that the only reward you can imagine is food?  I will reward myself with more time spent with the grandchildren.  I can because after losing 25 pounds, I have so much more energy.  I certainly won't take a step backward by pigging out on Thanksgiving day.  I will eat sensible portions of the healthiest foods available at our big Thanksgiving feast; a little white turkey meat, some of the steamed green beans one of my skinny daughers is bringing, a small scoop of mashed sweet potatoes, (MY contribution, made with splenda instead of brown sugar) and a small slice of pumpkin pie.  There are people all over the world who would count that as a huge feast, so I will not feel deprived.  I'll definitely have low calorie cerial with skim milk for breakfast and probably a huge salad with vinegrette dressing for lunch, so my overall calories for the day will be fine.  Enjoy the day, the friends and family, the game, the fire in the fireplace, whatever...but don't pig out - - ever.  It's not worth it.

 

"Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels."

hey i just found this site today and i love it. i am going to try a spoonful approach. if it's bad only a taste. good luck to all!!!1

We all bring a dish to the family gathering. I offered to make the green bean casserole. It will be lots of beans and red bell pepper.

I don't worry too much about diet, I'm thinking of eating fruit and nuts before we start. Otherwise, I just enjoy the holiday. If success of weight control depends on what I do(n't do) this one day diet wise, then I think something is definitely wrong.

What I mean by that is that I should do what I works for me: watch the portion size.

Ah, the holidays . . . you love them and you hate them, I guess. On Thanksgiving, I don't plan on being a saint, but I do have a few things I'm going to cut back on.

For instance, I've always made a volcano out of my mashed potatos and gravy (it's a tradition). But THIS year, I plan on taking it easy on the gravy and actually finding out what mashed potatoes taste like.

Also, don't eat just for the heck of it. If you always have turkey, but think something else would taste better, then have a few bites of turkey (it IS Thanksgiving, after all) but don't make a whole course out of it.

More than anything, remember this during the holidays- it's not about eating the same as a normal day, it's about eating less than you did during LAST year's holidays!

And stay out of the kitchen!

Good plan. Moderation is the key. If you deny yourself some of your favorite things, you are bound to over do it. Smaller portions, easy on the gravy, try to focus on the vegetables, but don't make yourself crazy. Oh, and watch out for the vino! That is a downfall for me....lots of wine flowing on the holidays, and that racks up the calories and the carbs in no time.

I'm with everyone else:  moderation's probably going to be your best bet.  This is my first Thanksgiving on a diet, too, so I'm taking in what other people are saying.

For me, I plan to eat as many greens and turkey as I wish, but I need to be careful about the roasted potatoes and the stuffing.  Eek!  Carbs are my favorite, so that's going to be a real battle for me.

Also, I plan on eating something before the big meal.  Afterwards, I plan on either taking my dog for a walk or getting on the treadmill....just something!  It may not do much, but it'll ease the guilt.

Good luck and happy Thanksgiving!

-Natasha

 

       I am going to have a little of everything other wise I would feel sorry for myself .  I am just being more aware of how much I am putting in my mouth.

 

Happy  Thanksgiving  Everyone. 

 

 

 

For me, it's not so much the "main meal" that affects my calories (after all, except for maybe a pecan pie, nothing has over 3,500 calories that would push me up a pound).  It's the nibbling before and after!

So I will eat what I want at dinner (in the "right" sizes, not the gut-busting sizes) of whatever looks good; I will not eat things "out of habit" but pick what I really enjoy (you don't HAVE to have stuffing AND sweet potatoes just because they are on the table), and I will concentrate on limiting the "social" calories - the ones you don't even remember eating/drinking and got no pleasure out of - especially if they are "boring" calories (the second handful of chips, the third deviled egg).

Same for X-mas and New Years.  Really, 1 day will not make a difference as long as it doesn't become an excuse to continue with the eat-a-thon.

What a great idea about buying a weight watchers dessert and taking it!  It's still great and a treat... but your not adding all the calories.  I would have never thought of that- I always see everything as an all or nothing extreme.  Thanks for such a great tip!

For Thanksgiving, I am going to eat Turkey (white meat, no gravy), salad with diet dressing, and fresh veggies.  I like all of that and won't miss the other stuff, so this is what I decided to do.  I don't ever eat dessert at Thanksgiving since I am not a pie kinda girl but this year I might treat myself with your idea of a weight watchers treat (if I get to the store tomorrow morning before we go to the in-laws).

Okay....here is the plan! So far I have had an egg beater omelet and one piece of lite wheat toast....135 calories total.
Around 10am or so I will have my Whole grain Oatmeal....150 calories. I have already walked 2 miles this morning. I plan to allow myself approx. 1800 cals for the day. Which means by "Big" meal time I will still have 1565 calories left.

I am making a GIANT crock pot of mixed steamed veggies. Half my plate will be filled with that, with the addition of small portions of all my other faves!
And of course, saving room for pie!

This plan, plus another walk tonight and the upper body weights I am getting ready to do should allow for a nice Turkey on Lite wheat sandwich later and still keep me right on track!!!!

Blessings to all today! Enjoy the day with a little commen sense and planning and all will be well!!!!

Hi all: Great thread and great question.  I'm still undecided about how I'm going to handle "the big meal" but I guess it depends on how I feel when I get to my sister's house.  My parents are still alive but she decided to host this year's Thanksgiving.  We each bring some stuff and she provides the turkey, ham, etc.  For every family meal, my job is mashed potatos because I have become famous for them in the family.  Now that my husband and I are on low fat diet (he had a stroke in July), my sister has informed me on several occasions, the latest being a couple of minutes ago, that they had better not be low fat mashed potatos.  This is kind of ticking me off.  Every single member of my extended family is overweight or has high BP or cholesterol or whatever.  The sister in question even had gastric bypass to lose weight instead of exercising or changing her eating habits.  When I told her my goal weight was 150 (I'm 5'6" and medium framed) she told me to get realistic...  I love my family, all of them and we are really very close but that has definitely burned a hole in me.  Actually, I told my husband that there is no better motivation for me than for someone to say "you can't do it".  Soooo, he suggested I make two batches of potatos, one high fat and one low fat and they can eat what they want.  I'm also making corn pudding and I think I'm going to do it with splenda, egg whites and non fat milk and then make a separate regular high fat one for everyone else.   We'll see if anyone can tell.

I've been fat all my life (108 pounds in the 5th grade!!!) and I'm turning 50 on Sat. so it's time to make a total life change.   And I can look closely at my total family and see where I got the mind set and the habits that  have encouraged my previous state of body and mind.  No more. 

This is Thanksgiving and I am wonderfully blessed with having a huge family, who are close both geographically and emotionally but I guess it's time to grow up and realize that you can change your habits  and don't have to follow the pack. 

I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving and luck in following whichever course they have decided on with respect to how they eat today.  See everyone at the gym tomorrow!!!  LOL.

I had heard earlier this week that the average person will eat over 4,000 calories on Thanksgiving. I added up what I ate (and even though it was high) I kept it at half as I want to do it this time. How did you do? Do you have any plans on how you are going to make it thru this holiday season without doing without as I have tried that before and that really does not work. I guess the best thing is to count our blessings with our friends and family and not with how much we can eat. I had a friend tell me that the only thing that should be stuffed after a holiday meal is the turkey. Take care and best of luck.

Basically all I did was....

I ate ALL day..But not a lot...I would only fill my plate up so much...Then wait a few hours and eat again...Very small portions and it worked.

I woke up this morning 2 lbs lighter. LOL

I had small portions of everything, ended up at about 1800 calories for the day. That's higher than normal but I exercised more in the morning before the dinner. Also I noticed my stomach gets full from much less food than I've probably eaten on Thanksgivings past.

Thank you all for your comments and Thanksgiving ideas. They helped. I decided to eat whatever I wanted, because otherwise I would just be miserable. Turns out, I didn't want much! I just couldn't eat as much as I used to. My body must be conditioned to a 1200 cal diet. I was worried that I would have no control... thanks for the support everyone. Hope you enjoyed the day!

I'm dreading thanksgiving... all those delicious foods. I am going to eat out of a small bowl and make sure I ate all my healthy foods before I go to moms house so I wont be as hungry.  One bowl and working out seven days a week that week.  I should be all right.  Pray for me lol.  We can do this!