Enjoy Thanksgiving dinner without the guilt!

The Thanksgiving holiday is designed to set aside time to be grateful and to express gratitude for all the gifts that saturate our lives.  Many of us celebrate by spending time with family and friends, enjoying time away from work, watching football and sharing magnificent meals together.  But many of us are left feeling guilty about indulging in the traditional colossal meals and spirits.

So how do you make it through the holiday without feeling deprived, but without the guilt?  Here are some tips on how to have a healthy mindset toward the Thanksgiving holiday from Mike Gorski, RD, CD, ACE, and Founder/Owner of MG FitLife.

“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.”

According to Gorski we “need to get away from this all or nothing mentality.  Thanksgiving can easily be enjoyed without stressing about our diet, or the scale.”

This may be easier said than done.  However, Gorski provides three tips to a healthy mindset when preparing for your Thanksgiving holiday:

1)      It is ONE day – So enjoy this ONE day!  “Where people tend to get into trouble is when they start celebrating the feast at the START of the week.”  They take the attitude of “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) into and through the rest of the weekend.

For those trying to lose weight or watch their waistline, this is a dangerous mindset which can easily “snowball back into old habits that you have worked hard to break.”  So, if your goal is either maintaining your weight through the holidays or losing weight, stick to your regular routine leading up to Thursday.  Then, “give yourself the day, but nothing extra before or after.  It is ONE day out of 365.”

2)      Enjoy your favorite foods – responsibly!  Gorski uses this mentality with clients all the time.  “Do you enjoy (insert your favorite holiday food here)?  Then eat ONE serving/slice/portion/scoop/etc – not the entire thing.”  One piece or serving will not destroy your healthy diet or eating regime.  Gorski warns 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 one.”

3)     Plan ahead!  If all else fails and you know you will go a little crazy with the upcoming feast Gorski suggests “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.”

And even though Gorski indicated at the outset of our conversation that you shouldn’t need to feel like you need to earn your holiday food, a little morning workout could be a good part of your pre-feast plan.

As a registered dietician, Mike’s view of holiday feasts is that they are to be enjoyed with friends and family.   This means indulging in food that we don’t often have.  “So, even if you have the best intentions and you do over eat, oh well.  It’s okay!   Enjoy the day, enjoy the food, but get right back on track.  If you have a healthy relationship with food, it will be easy to get right back into your regular routine the next day. ”

For more tips from Mike Gorski, RD, CD, ACE, on fitness and nutrition, visit his website www.mgfitlife.com.