How to Gobble the Deserts on Turkey Day and NOT Gain Weight

We all want to enjoy ourselves during Thanksgiving and part of enjoying ourselves means eating all those delicious foods. However, while it’s certainly easy to appreciate a giant feast, appreciating a giant waistline is another story. Here are some tips and tricks that can help you avoid putting on weight around Turkey Day while still enjoying yourself.

Just one more bite won't hurt…

1. Eat a Filling, Low-Calorie Meal Before Cooking

Sampling can be devastating to a cook’s waistline. If you aren’t hungry when you are cooking it will be easier to resist this temptation. Eat a salad, high-fiber cereal, or any other low-calorie meal before getting out the pots and pans. Some people find sucking on sugarless mints helpful too.

2. Diet on the Days Before Thanksgiving

Maintaining a diet on Turkey Day is not a fun way to celebrate and many people find it almost impossible to abstain from their favorite holiday staples. However, if you have the willpower to resist the indulgent stuff for a few days before Thanksgiving it will all balance out. Weight gain is about calories in versus calories out and your body won’t know that you treated yourself on Thanksgiving, so long as you prepared yourself beforehand.

3. Begin with Small Portions

It’s a fact that willpower, especially when it comes to food, is directly tied to how hungry you are. For this reason, it is very important to take small portions of everything when you first start eating. Once your stomach is a bit more full you’ll be in a better position to decide whether you need to eat more or not. Tell yourself that you can always have seconds, but that you are going to start with only a little bit. Then, when the time comes to decide whether you’re really having seconds your stomach will have a bit less of a voice.

4. Eat Thanksgiving Dinner- and No More

Thanksgiving dinner can have a lot of calories in it, but where people really go wrong actually comes after the dinner. One big meal isn’t going to torpedo your efforts to avoid weight gain, but several high-fat, high-calorie meals might. In addition to eating low-calorie, filling meals while preparing Thanksgiving dinner, make sure that dinner is the only big, caloric meal you eat. Give away the leftovers or freeze them to ensure that you will have time to think before eating them.

5. Avoid Leftovers

This doesn’t apply to every leftover, but most of them should be avoided after the big day. The exceptions would be low-fat cuts of the turkey, as long as it is not fried, and healthy items like wild-rice casseroles. Make sure that you apply strict portion control to these foods after the big day, however, since they may be healthy but they are probably also tastier than the foods you are used to eating.

Most importantly, remember to enjoy yourself and not get too worked up over the number on your scale. Your body is a constantly changing process, so if you do take a few steps back, you can always get back on track afterwards. For more information about avoiding weight gain, ways to rejuvenate your body, or body sculpting in Beverly Hills, contact Rejuvalife at 310.856.9173.