Having a Healthy Thanksgiving - Four Essential Tips

Do you think it’s impossible to have a healthy Thanksgiving?  It’s not!

Enjoy these four tips to get in on all the celebration without doing damage to your waistline.  That way not only is your Thanksgiving happy, it’s also healthy.

Thanksgiving is Not a Day to Be Dieting

I know people who try to keep up a diet they may be on even in the face of Thanksgiving dinner.  I say don't do it.  Why?  Simple.  It's too much pressure to be an absolute angel on Thanksgiving.  Pressure and feelings of being too restricted, will only lead to an eating binge, which will ultimately be worse than if you had lived it up a little on Thanksgiving.

Notice I said a little. Give yourself a bit of a treat of your favorite comfort foods but save some of the Thanksgiving feast for the rest of the people there!

A Healthy Thanksgiving Begins With Filling at Least Half of Your Plate with Fruits and Vegetables

If you make the majority of your plate fruit and veggies, you've taken a giant step towards a healthy Thanksgiving meal as you’ll fill up on nutritious, low-calorie items.  Just make sure it's not a fattening vegetable dish, but the good stuff like a great salad of mixed vegetables with low-fat dressing, organic vegetables in their natural low-calorie and low-fat state (not green bean casseroles and fried potatoes).  No healthy fruits or veggies on the menu?  Bring a pre-prepared platter as a goodwill gesture to your host or hostess.

You Should Be Exercising More to Help Compensate for the Extra Calories You’ll Likely Have That Day

If you aren't already doing this, you should be working out extra, or a little harder ahead of Thanksgiving, and then throughout the holiday season.  This way you'll bank some extra burned calories and rev your metabolism up some more, so a little bit of treating yourself to Thanksgiving and holiday goodies overall will have minimal, if any impact on your hips, thighs, tummy and scale.

No One Ever Said you Had to Be Sedentary on Thanksgiving

There are typically several “Turkey Trots” that welcome walkers and runners at 5K and 10K lengths in an area on Thanksgiving morning.  Why not give one a try solo or with friends and family either locally or in an area to which you’re traveling?  Most will take entries even on the morning of the event.  At times, there isn’t even an entry fee as long as you donate non-perishable food items for local food banks.

Besides starting off the long holiday weekend with some activity, these events typically benefit local organizations, so you’re doing some good for others as well.  Win-win!

Or, instead of sitting around before or after the meal, go for a good walk, and try to get as many of your friends and family to go with you to keep the socializing going. Everyone is pushing the holidays earlier than ever this year, so you'll likely be able to check out holiday light displays and decorations to make it even more festive.

About Coach Melanie, NBC-HWC

Melanie Jordan is a Nationally Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) with 12+ years of coaching and corporate wellness program experience for digital health start-ups, top health insurers, and her own private practice Your Healthy Life Made Easy LLC. Melanie specializes in working holistically with business professionals to become as successful at healthfully losing weight for good and transforming their overall health as they are in their careers.

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