If you’re not involved in the planning and execution of Thanksgiving dinner, the day passes fairly slowly. You wake up late, saunter around the house as the nearest female family member frets about the pie crust, dress just in time for the arrival of various relatives, catch up with cousins as the table is set. Then, suddenly, it’s over. You’ve finished several helpings of just about everything. In fact, you feel a lot like that poor cooked turkey: dazed, stuffed and unable to walk further than the nearest sofa.
It doesn’t have to be like this. You can be one of the few, the proud, the brave, to transcend the tryptophan tide and emerge from Turkey Day sated and energized. Here are five tips to help you avoid overeating this Thursday – follow our guide, and we’re sure you’ll be bright-eyed for the economy-boosting Black Friday trek to the mall.
1. Do NOT skip breakfast
Every year I watch my male cousins proudly ignore breakfast, saving their appetite for the Real Thing. By the time my uncle puts down the carving knife, they’re moaning from eating too much too fast. If you eat a decent breakfast, your appetite will be proportional once the turkey is wheeled out. Your brain will make better judgments about what/how much you can and can’t consume.
2. Lend a hand.
No mom, dad, brother, aunt or grandmother on Earth will ever decline a sincere offer of help. Whether it’s fetching extra chairs from the basement or storing desserts in the fridge, get to it. Staying active will burn calories and rev up your appetite once the meal begins. You’ll feel a lot more entitled to honey butter when you’ve been schlepping platters from kitchen to the dining table for 30 minutes.
3. Eat what you love, love what you eat.
Help yourself to the dishes you love best. Skip the mashed potatoes if you’d rather tuck in to the mac and cheese; get it on with the cranberry sauce and pass on the sweet potatoes and marshmallows. Then, really relish what you have on your plate. For some strange reason, we only eat stuffing and pecan pie on the third Thursday in November, so enjoy the meal.
4. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
There are no medals for finishing first. If you think you can handle seconds, pace yourself. Take a cue from 1st grade and take the next bite only when you’ve finished the first. Don’t wash down the biscuits with water; the starch will expand during digestion and take up room you’re saving for pumpkin pie. Put down the fork – put it down – when you feel full.
5. Lend a hand. Again.
The dishes do not clean themselves, and leftovers do not fly unassisted into Tupperware. There is as much to do after the meal as before, and the family females usually end up segregating themselves to take care of it all. So help out. You can shed the sluggishness pretty quickly if you push yourself to move around. Take out the trash, refill water glasses – just don’t sit down until everything you can think to do has been done.
How do you manage to avoid the full-to-the-brim feeling? What are your portion control tips for Thanksgiving?
[…] this holiday can be synonymous with indulgence, make sure you don’t overdo it. If you can avoid overeating (no matter how tempting that second piece of pie may be), you’ll feel much better for the […]