In the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I talk to a lot of patients about how to approach the big day in a way that balances their two competing priorities. On the one hand, they want to enjoy a beloved holiday with food traditions they look forward to every year — without feeling guilty or deprived. But on the other, they want to make it out of the long holiday weekend without having erased weeks (and even months) of hard-earned health gains from eating well and exercising regularly.
[See: Holiday Vices: How to Have Fun Without Overdoing It.]
What’s a semi-health conscious hedonist to do?
While each conversation plays out in different ways, here are some of the ideas that my patients are planning to put into practice so they can have their pie and eat it too. What they all have in common is forethought. After all, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Plan to exercise that morning.
Whether it’s a formal turkey trot or a pact with their sister-in-law to wake up early to go for a power walk, many of my patients have made advance plans to work in a full hour of vigorous exercise on the morning of Thanksgiving. (I was surprised to see that my gym is actually open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day to accommodate such plans.)
The few hundred extra calories you burn on a Thursday morning when you’d normally be sitting at your office computer can help offset some of the meal excess that is to follow later that day. (And, an early morning workout will get you back home in time to help with the cooking.) If you’re traveling for the holiday, be sure to pack sneakers and exercise gear. Not having the proper attire makes it too easy to skip.
Plan your meal strategy in advance.
I start every pre-Thanksgiving conversation with my patients with this question: “What does Thanksgiving day look like at your family’s place?” This forces them to think through the flow of the day, their typical behaviors and the challenges that may arise.
One patient, for example, suffers from severe overnight attacks of acid reflux pain when she eats too much — and too much fat in particular. As we talked through the day’s schedule, we realized that even though she felt confident she could control her portions at the Thanksgiving meal, she failed to account for the appetizer spread she’d be facing for three hours before the meal even started. This conversation enabled her to come up with a game plan: She’d have a small plate of appetizers soon after arrival at 1 p.m., and then continuously pop Tic Tacs into her mouth so she wouldn’t graze mindlessly before the meal was served at 4 p.m. Like my grandmother always said: Nothing flips the bird to acid reflux like a woman with a good eating game plan.
[See: How to Survive Acid Reflux — Without a Pill.]
Plan for leftovers.
One stream of thought that’s responsible for a lot of post-Thanksgiving regret is the notion that “If I don’t eat it now, I won’t have another chance.” That, of course, is hogwash, because it ignores the possibility of leftovers. What if you were to approach the bountiful Thanksgiving spread with an alternative point of view: “I’m going to assemble two meals for myself from this spread so I’ll get to enjoy a satisfying portion of everything I want. I’ll eat one of the meals now, and the other one tomorrow for lunch.”
One patient of mine, who is recovering from a binge eating disorder, worried about how she would face a table full of her favorite carb-y side dishes and both of her favorite flavors of pie — without regressing into past binge-type behaviors. The solution? Leftovers. She plans to divide her dinner plate into thirds, with one of the thirds allocated to any of the carby foods that used to be her triggers — stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce. (The other two thirds are for turkey and veggies, respectively.) Rather than take seconds, whatever she wants to eat beyond that plate will be packed up for tomorrow’s lunch — another plate divided into thirds. As far as pie, she plans to have a single slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, and set aside a slice of apple pie for herself for the following day’s lunch. A meal so nice she gets to enjoy it twice!
[See: 7 Healthy Ways to Gobble Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey.]
Plan for a good breakfast.
It’s folly to skip breakfast on Thanksgiving day in order to “save your calories” for an over-the-top Thanksgiving meal and think that somehow it will work out in your metabolic favor. No patients of mine will be falling for this faulty logic! For starters, your stomach capacity at dinnertime has the same limit, whether you’ve eaten breakfast or not. If you arrive to the table starving from a day of fasting, you will (over)eat so quickly that you’ll risk going from zero to miserable within minutes. (Cue painful bloating and acid reflux here. Is that how you want to spend Thanksgiving evening?) Moreover, your brain will keep egging you on to eat, despite your stomach being loaded with food — a rebound effect from having been deprived of fuel all day long. The result is a veritable assault of energy at the precise time of day where it is least metabolically favorable to experience it.
A better way to go: Eat a substantial, balanced breakfast on Thanksgiving morning (and a light midday snack if your meal doesn’t start until 3 p.m. or later) so that you arrive to the Thanksgiving table hungry, but not famished. Your brain will be better able to stop you from outrageous overindulgence, and you can pack up the food your stomach couldn’t accommodate to enjoy as leftovers for tomorrow.
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The 4 Eating Plans You Need in Place This Thanksgiving originally appeared on usnews.com
