The only thing you need to understand to have a happy, healthy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving, it’s an all-American holiday. And in that all-American holiday fashion, we put on our stretchiest pants and eat until we can’t move. It’s fun to enjoy turkey, sides and delicious pies, but one big meal often turns into a three to four day binge session. Now, I’m not against enjoying some good comfort food, but if you want to have a great Thanksgiving without derailing your health goals, then you need to know this one thing...
You are accountable for what you eat on Thanksgiving.
I know that everyone says holiday calories don’t count, but they do. The food you eat counts. Every single bite. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your holiday favorites!
Instead of justifying overeating and then being upset or frustrated when the scale goes up, let’s be accountable for our food so we know exactly how to get our weight back to normal after the holidays instead of letting Thanksgiving ruin all our weight loss and health goals.
Accountability is the key to a healthy Thanksgiving
When we start to approach the holiday season, I like to sit down and 💬 chat with each of my clients about what their goals are going to be for the season. A few weeks ago, I was talking with one of my clients about her Thanksgiving plans and how we were going to balance enjoying the holiday with staying in line with her goals and she told me that it wasn’t so much Thanksgiving day she was worried about but the days after Thanksgiving when she was eating leftovers.
And I realized that she was 100% right! If you’ve been around here for a while you know that I always say, one off meal isn’t going to destroy your progress. It’s when one off meal makes you say oh, screw it! And then you make bad choices for a few days, which leads to a few weeks and then all of a sudden it’s three months later and you’re back where you started.
If you want to be accountable for your Thanksgiving choices, then these two steps will help you get there!
Enjoy the holiday
First off, enjoy Thanksgiving. You can have all the good food on Thanksgiving without feeling guilty about it!
Most of us have been taught that eating certain foods is “bad” but that way of thinking leads us to restrict, restrict, restrict until we can’t restrict anymore. Then we end up eating way more of that “bad” food. It’s a cycle that hurts us in so many ways.
A restriction mindset is also the culprit behind the snowball effect, where one off meal leads to a day of off eating, then a week, then three months until we end up right back where we started.
My advice is to ditch that restriction mindset immediately! Replace it with a balanced mindset.
In a balanced mindset, it’s ok to enjoy a holiday! Enjoy the mashed potatoes, the mac and cheese, and the pumpkin cheesecake! But don’t gorge on them. Think about what your nutritional needs are, and what your emotional needs are and meet them in the middle.
Your nutritional needs probably don’t require cheesecake, but you might need it emotionally. Instead of having a massive piece, have a smaller slice. After a few bites evaluate if you want to keep going or if you’ve satisfied that need/craving. If you have stop! You don’t need to eat everything to enjoy it.
As you learn to undo that all-or-nothing mindset, you’ll see that enjoying your Thanksgiving dinner, or any celebratory meal, is a part of your healthy life - instead of what throws it off.
Get back on track the next day
This is my number one tip for avoiding weight gain during the holidays. Get back on track with your normal eating as soon as you can! The sooner we get back to normal the easier it is to stick to our weight loss goals.
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t eat your Thanksgiving leftovers! This is where accountability comes into play!
I don’t usually have my clients track their food on holidays, but I do have them track as soon as they can, that could mean the next meal or the next day, either way, we want to return to normal eating as soon as possible.
So, if you’re still looking to enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers, you just need to know what each of them is costing you nutritionally.
I always relate nutrition to a budget because it’s easy to understand that we only have so much food we can eat in a day, just like we only have so much money to spend each month.
With macro tracking, you get a certain number of grams in each macronutrient category: protein, fat and carbs. It’s just like having a grocery, clothes and utilities budget. If you run out of money for groceries halfway through the month then you have two choices, stop buying groceries for the month or go into debt to get more.
It’s the same way for your food. If you run out of carbs for the day, you can either stop eating carbs or go into “debt” and keep eating. When you go into food debt you usually end up gaining weight or feeling bloated, etc.
To hold yourself accountable to Thanksgiving leftovers you need to know what they’re costing you in protein, fat and carbs. Then, you can make a balanced budget each day that includes some leftovers!
This might mean that you don’t get to have mac and cheese and pumpkin pie every day, but you can choose which one you want and enjoy it without feeling bad about it.
When you hold yourself accountable to your nutritional budget you’ll find that you can enjoy Thanksgiving, all the thanksgiving leftovers and even some Christmas cookies without stressing about gaining 10 lbs in one weekend!
Macro tracking can be a lifesaver during the holidays, but you need to know what your nutritional budget should be! That’s the part you might need some help with. I help busy mamas learn what their nutritional budget should look like during the holidays and beyond.
The first step towards a healthier holiday season is to schedule a free discovery call with me! Let’s take a look at what your goals are and how I can help you get there.
