Thanksgiving Fitness Survival Guide: How to Avoid Unwanted Fat Gain & Tackle Your Feast Like a Pro
Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and all the Thanksgiving fitness posts are flooding social media.
9 out of 10 of them basically go along the lines of this:
“Don’t worry about it. It’s just one day.”
Or “Eat whatever you want, as much as you want. Thanksgiving only comes once a year.”
And there’s SOME truth to that advice.
After all, we work out and eat right in order to enhance the quality of our life, so if we’re so stressed out and concerned with our fitness goals that we aren’t enjoying special days like Thanksgiving, then we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
But nevertheless, that advice is also BAD ADVICE.
There’s a big difference between being an obsessive psycho about your diet and enjoying Thanksgiving while still being mindful of your fitness goals.
A massive Thanksgiving binge-fest can easily set you back a week of hard work, and you could enjoy it just as much without getting too sloppy in the process.
And for some people, totally letting loose on Thanksgiving just opens the gates for saying “screw it” to the next few days and digging yourself an even bigger hole as you try to clean up the fat gain that results.
So with that in mind, in this article, I’m going to be giving you 10 ACTUALLY useful tips and tricks to approach this Thanksgiving holiday like a pro.
1. Don’t Stress It
Yeah, I know that I just started this article talking about the typical advice of “don’t worry about it”, but like I said, there is an element of truth that to that.
Even with using the rest of the tips in this article, you still might be in a calorie surplus at the end of the day.
And that’s ok.
It’s nothing to freak out about. It’s nothing to feel guilty about. The world isn’t going to end.
Thanksgiving is a day to be with friends and family and to come together and show thanks for the things we have that we are grateful for.
It’s a day to enjoy good food, good company, and enjoy a day of reflection and gratitude.
Any small surpluses for this day can easily be erased in a day or two of a modest deficit or a week of a very small one that you probably wouldn’t even notice.
But that being said, the rest of these tips are here to help make sure you aren’t really racking up the calorie and making your job any harder than it needs to be and creating undue mental stress.
2. Don’t Try to Overcompensate by Starving Yourself and Doing Cardio
Knowing that Thanksgiving is on the horizon, many people approach the day by purposefully slashing calories and ramping up the cardio.
The day of, they don’t eat anything and are massively hungry by the time that meal times around.
And you know what happens?
They eat. And they eat BIG.
They eat more than they otherwise would because they know that they’ve been restricting themselves, and that isn’t good for their mental health or their progress.
So don’t do that.
Try to continue on as normally as possible. Some slight modifications are okay, but hardcore eating and starving yourself with lots of cardio are characteristic of an eating disorder, not a healthy fitness plan.
3. Try to Get a Workout in Before
You CAN try to get a workout in before, though.
A solid workout before Thanksgiving will burn a few hundred extra calories, and you’ll also be stimulating the process of growth and repair and giving those extra calories something to do for the next 24-48 hours rather than just go towards fat.
The effect here isn’t massive by any means, but it can make a difference, and you are working out anyways, right? So why not do it that day before all the festivities begin?
4. Try to Keep the Calories Low but Filling on the Meals Before
If you’re used to having regular meals during the day, then you shouldn’t skip them. But you can make some modifications to them to keep the calories down yet still stay very filling.
The best way to do this is via high protein from lean sources and high fiber foods like vegetables and fruits like berries.
Rather than having a 600 calorie meal for breakfast, for example, you can have a 200-300 calorie meal comprised of a big egg white omelette stuffed with veggies and some diced berries on the side.
This will fill you up and keep you satisfied while still keeping your calories low, creating a bigger sink for your Thanksgiving meal.
If you are already practicing intermittent fasting, then you can try just extending your fasting period by a couple hours until the Thanksgiving meal itself. This should be no problem if you’re used to it.
5. Before the Meal, Snack on Some Veggies and Fibrous Fruit
At most Thanksgiving gatherings, there is a tray of veggies and fruit for appetizers.
Take advantage of it!
Eating your fair share of things like broccoli, carrots, and berries is a great idea before progressing to the calorie-laden main course because they’re low calorie and very filling, meaning you’re less likely to overeat on something very calorie dense because you’re hungry.
6. If Possible, Make Some “Healthier” Dishes
If you’re taking care of the cooking, then this is a much easier fix.
But if you’re not and are just showing up somewhere else, then your only option is to make something on your own to contribute.
Do you really need to add a whole stick of butter to the mashed potatoes or sweet potato casserole?
Probably not.
There are many ways that you can make less calorie-laden versions of popular Thanksgiving dishes that can still taste just as good or close enough as the regular version.
7. Turkey First, then the Rest
For the meal itself, eat the turkey on your plate before going for everything else.
You already know that you need your protein, so go ahead and take care of that first by digging into the turkey.
This will fill you up even more before you get to the delicious sides and dessert afterwards.
8. You Don’t Have to Eat Everything Available
At a typical Thanksgiving table, there’s tons and tons of options to go around.
Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, bread, the list goes on and on.
No one says you have to eat it all.
You should only get what you truly like and enjoy.
If you’re lukewarm about mashed potatoes but wait all year to dig into that sweet potato casserole, then nix the potatoes and enjoy the sweet potato casserole!
By getting a serving of everything even if you’re not really feeling it all that much, you could be adding several hundred calories that you’re not even going to miss in the first place.
9. Don’t Pile Your Plate Sky High
Every Thanksgiving, there’s an unspoken contest to see who can pile their plate the highest and finish it all.
This is a little silly.
As humans, be intrinsically want to finish everything on our plates even if we’re full to the brim and ready to explode.
You could have been satisfied 500 calories ago, but you’re still cramming more and more food down your gullet and plotting how you’re going to make room for dessert.
Instead, start off conservative. Put enough food on your plate to where you think you’ll be comfortably full but not bursting at the seams.
You can always go back for more if you didn’t have enough, but it’s a lot harder to throw food off of your plate and into the trash when your eyes were bigger than your stomach.
10. Take Your Time and Be Mindful of the Experience
Last but certainly not least, be mindful of the experience.
Thanksgiving is a day for good food, yes. But it’s not the reason for the holiday. The food is just a nice bonus.
Take your time and enjoy the day for what it is.
If you hurry to scarf down your food, did you really get to savor and enjoy it? You might just reach the end of the plate and go looking to get your second when in reality, you could have been just as happy and satisfied with one if you actually took your time and were mindful of the experience.
Enjoy the conversations around the table. Enjoy the company that you’re sharing today.
And more often than not, you’ll probably find that you eat less and enjoy it more.
Happy Thanksgiving from Murci Fit
So there you go, guys.
My 10 tips on how to tackle Thanksgiving like a pro.
Do you have any other suggestions that weren’t on this list?
Let me know in the comments section below.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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