How to stay healthy on Thanksgiving....

Today's post: Tuesday, 11-25-2008

There are two ways to a healthier Thanksgiving Dinner.

Yesterday’s post was about ways to prepare a healthier Thanksgiving Dinner.

This post today is on how to stay healthier eating a Thanksgiving Dinner no matter how it’s fixed.

There’s no perfect way to do either. The focus at Thanksgiving & at Thanksgiving Dinner must be on enjoying the day. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the company. And, enjoy the time off work!

My Brother in Law once said at Thanksgiving Dinner that he did NOT want to hear anything about what he shouldn’t eat for Thanksgiving Dinner just in case I had any ideas of doing so.

I didn’t then; & I won’t this year. I agree with him. I believe as he does that the focus at Thanksgiving & at Thanksgiving Dinner must be on enjoying the day. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the company. And, do nothing to distract from that focus. If anything, help make it happen instead!

That said, here are some ways to stay a bit healthier and leaner and still enjoy the food.

1. Focus on the people. Find out what people have been doing and catch up with what’s been happening with them. Enjoy the people you enjoy; and be mellow, courteous, gracious, and if necessary, a bit forgiving with the rest.

2. Practice the strategic sandwich method. Eat a bit less food and make virtually all of it be the healthiest you know how – and, keep up your exercise routine to the very best of your ability before and particularly for the two weeks AFTER Thanksgiving. If necessary, do some kind of workout in your room if you are away from home or cut the intensity a bit; but do your very best to exercise several days a week the two weeks after Thanksgiving (& before Thanksgiving next year.).

This method works. Once when I was getting the amount of exercise each week that I should be before and after Thanksgiving and eating right otherwise, I ate very well at Thanksgiving to the point of being very slightly stuffed. And, I gained ZERO pounds for November and December both.

3. Eat strategically. Eat well from the healthiest foods; eat a small portion for one serving only of the less healthy foods that you enjoy; but have them and enjoy them; and do your best to edit out the worst for you foods.

a) The turkey and the vegetables are the best for you. So eat well and generous-sized but not very large portions. (You need to not overdo those so there’s enough to go around and YOU have room for at least some of the other foods.)

Cranberry sauce may have sugar and even some kinds have high fructose corn syrup; but the cranberries are a superfood you likely don’t eat often; and they add a festive air and are a great pair with turkey or gravy and mashed potatoes, flavor-wise.

Many people rarely have green beans or Brussels spouts or yams or sweet potatoes or cooked onions; but they are often served at Thanksgiving. They are all good for you. And, they fill you up so it’s much easier for you to eat smaller portions of less health OK foods than you otherwise would. If they aren’t your favorites, try pairing them with a good tasting food. Eat some green beans and then immediately eat a bit of stuffing with gravy and cranberry sauce for example.

b) Stuffing, particularly if it was cooked inside the turkey; gravy; mashed potatoes; the filling in the pies, and many other dishes have great flavor but include less than healthful ingredients. If you are exercising and eating right otherwise and have no serious health problems to be very careful of, the strategy I use is to have some of them; but hold myself to one small serving.
That way I enjoy them but avoid overdosing my system with their less OK ingredients. And, having had turkey and vegetables first I don’t have room left to eat a large amount anyway.

c) Soft drinks, rolls, biscuits, pie crusts, most commercial jam currently, and candied marshmallow topping for sweet potatoes are the worst foods and drinks for you in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Simply don’t eat as many of those as you can manage. Or, if you do eat some, have tiny, quarter of normal sized portions. And, only eat the ones that you most enjoy.

If you’ve already eaten well from the healthier foods that’s much easier to do.

Here’s personal example of that. I’ve always loved pie, including the pie crusts. But I’ve found out since that many, if not most, of the pies I’m likely to get at Thanksgiving have crust made with refined grain flour and Crisco, which is basically massive amounts of Transfats (aka as trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils). What I do now is take small servings of my favorite pie or pies & only eat the fillings. So I can enjoy cherry or blueberry pie filling, pumpkin pie filling, and/or candied pecan filling; but I leave the crust. The only exception I might make is to have one single bite of a browned bit of crust since it has the most flavor. Last year I didn’t even do that as I no longer had room for it.

4. Limit your alcoholic drinks to one or at most three if you drink. And, drink when you first arrive or at the start of the Dinner. That way, if you need to drive afterwards, the effect will have mostly worn off plus it will be buffered by the torrent of dinner.

(Some people are better off not having any. The Martinelli’s sparkling juices in yesterday’s post over ice can be a decent festive substitute. I love the flavors in a Bloody Mary. So I also recommend the Virgin Mary drink as it has all the flavor.)


Do the best you can with these strategies. Enjoy the day and the people.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!