Perhaps more than any other holiday, Thanksgiving is focused on food. (OK, and being thankful. But prominent among those things for which we’re thankful is food.)
So how can you take such food-centric festivities and not waste a month of good dietary behavior in a day of gluttony?
Here are five tips from Karah Stanley, registered dietitian with St. Elizabeth Healthcare:
- Plan to be active early in the day. Maybe you like to walk or run in Cincinnati’s venerable Thanksgiving Day Race. Have family or friends in town? Organize a touch football game. Take advantage of the day off and get your normal workout in early; most area YMCA branches are open 8 a.m. until noon Thanksgiving Day. Or just get up, get out and take a walk around the neighborhood. The key is to get moving. “If you’re active early, that gets you in the right mindset,” Stanley said. “People think, ‘I don’t want to blow all the good I’ve done.’ “
- Don’t go to dinner on an empty stomach. Don’t starve yourself all day and gorge at dinner. Eat sensibly early in the day. Maybe have a light snack. And when it comes time to sit down to turkey, you won’t be ravenous and you’ll probably be more reasonable with your portions.
- Get a scouting report on the Thanksgiving spread. Look things over before you start piling them on your plate. (If Mom’s watching, you can still clean your plate; just don’t put as much on it.) “Try to pick your favorite two or three things,” Stanley said. “Don’t eat everything. Then you’re not wasting calories on things you don’t love.”
- Stay hydrated. As the weather gets colder and the heat kicks on, everything gets drier. Also, drinking water will help you feel more full, and you won’t eat as much. If you’re enjoying a holiday libation, be mindful of how much; alcohol can dehydrate you, and also make you hungrier.
- Put the food away. Sure, one of the best things about a turkey dinner is turkey sandwiches later that night, and that’s OK if you plan for it, and that plan should include being awake for a couple of hours after your snack. “You don’t want to just go to bed on that,” Stanley said. Putting away all the food is safer and forces you to get out only what you really want for that snack. “They you’re not just grazing all night long,” Stanley said.
