9 Tips for Holiday Eating from a health obsessive on Thanksgiving

Treat Thanksgiving like a normal meal, except the great part, the part to really take in, your friends and family that you are with. It’s a time to remember how great it is to be alive, to the wonders of the world, to how lucky we all really are, not to go wild with massive pieces of pecan pie ala mode.

How to eat a normal meal when faced with a 50,000 calorie spread:

1. Lean organic turkey is great. Have a few pieces, its good for you.
2. Eat all the green cruciferous vegetables you feel like. Brussel Sprouts, broccoli, green beans are great. If you need to eat because you are nervous around family, which happens to all of us, eat these.
3. Take it easy on the high glycemic treat foods like cranberry sauce. We love cranberry, but only a small spoonful. It is basically red sugar sauce, fine if you happen to be a hummingbird.
4. Beware of other simple carbs like mashed potatoes, be polite, just a couple of bites. Same with the bread stuffing.
5. Salad is great, eat lots.
6. The food coma that people complain about is not so much about the small amount of tryptophan that is in turkey, it’s about the massive dose of simple carbohydrates that we often gorge on.
7. The post-meal football viewing on the sofa maybe fun and social, it was de-rigeur in our family for years, but group walking in the sharp cool fall air is more our style now. Clean up the kitchen then get out of the house, stretch a bit, get moving again. You will feel great.
8. If you just went a bit over the limit, you can do some of fasting. Try to finish the feast by 5pm. Then don’t eat any food till noon the next day. That will give you 19 hours for your body to metabolize your meal. This works especially well if you do that brisk hour or two long walk before bed.
9. If you did lose your mind, and we all do sometimes, it’s ok. Assume you consumed a surplus 3500 calories, which means you ate yourself silly. Ok, we can deal with that. 3500 calories=1 pound of fat, not the end of the world. Put yourself into a 350 calorie deficit for the next 10 days and you are back where you were. No big deal. Of course, it’s easier when you don’t binge in the first place, but no one is perfect, and sometimes the pumpkin pie is awesomely good.