Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Nothing like a good meal, great company and some football!
It’s impossible to be thankful and unhappy at the same time. The two emotions cannot coexist. Thankfulness magically gets rid of every other non-happy emotion there is.
Of course, celebrate the great holiday, but let’s try to mindlessly eat a little less than we otherwise would.
Here’s five ideas for you to use this Thursday:
Wear Your Best Belt and your tightest pants! It’s a lot easier to stop eating when you know you’re full. One great clue is when your clothes and belt starts telling you. Sounds obvious, but stopping when you’re full is probably one of the harder things to do at the Thanksgiving table when everyone else is helping themselves to seconds.
It will be easier to stop if you wear very tight pants because then you’ll have to push away from the table when you’re stuffed. You’ll just be too uncomfortable otherwise.
Save your Calories for Dinner. If you want to be a great guest and enjoy the meal the most, skip the hors d’oeuvres. A great basic rule-of-thumb is don’t eat anything that doesn’t require a knife and fork.
Focus on the Special Stuff. Don’t waste your calories on large portions of food you can eat everyday. Limit the variety you have. Let’s make a rule. Only two items on your plate at any one time. Having a lot of different items on your plate at once stimulates your appetite so therefore don’t have 20 different things on your plate.
Small seconds are better than Big Firsts. Some people show their love through food. Research on memory shows that your Aunt Grace won’t remember how much you take, BUT she will remember if you liked it enough to take seconds. Especially, if you announce it. Take two small helpings of key foods over one medium/large portion.
So here’s the play: Take a little bit of Aunt Grace’s ‘famous’ mashed potatoes. Tell her how great they are. Then go back for seconds and say something like, “Aunt Grace, your mashies are so good I’m taking seconds!” She’ll be really happy because your making her feel good…and your body will be really happy, too because you’ll actually be eating less of them even though you’re going in for round 2.
Forget the Post Dinner Snacks. We won’t starve if we skip the late night turkey sandwich. This is a great time to focus on the family and not on the food.
Most importantly, and this is somewhat counterintuitive, don’t sweat it if you make a dietary mistake or two or three. We all will. And we’ll have the other 364 days to do it right!
Bonus! Want to make everyone laugh at the table? Cut out aluminum foil in the desired shape. Wrap the turkey and cook normally. And when it’s done and ready to be served it’ll look like the picture above. Not only will everyone laugh, a lot, but it’ll also remind you that, before we know it, bathing suit season will be here!
Also, from the bottom of my heart I want to thank all of my amazing clients for allowing me to do what I love doing. I don’t take it for granted, for even a second, that without them I wouldn’t have a business! I also want to thank you, my loyal reader, for reading my blog!
Enjoy your family and friends and, of course, happy Thanksgiving!
[Some really nice comments over at BrazenCareerist.com!]