Lets talk Turkey...how do you plan to "handle" Thanksgiving?
 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. My mom was a fabulous, fearless cook. I make everything she made, plus, and believe I improved her stuffing recipe while also lightening it up and making it healthier.

I'm looking forward to fresh mashed turnips! I make a lot of veggie dishes, most simple and unassuming.

So, here is the question: How are you planning to approach Thanksgiving?

Will you eat like its the last day you'll ever eat and get over it immediately? Or feel horrible afterwards?

Will you plan to make the best choices but allow yourself some indulgences?

Will you stick 100% to your diet no matter what, and be happy about your resolve, or miserable because you felt deprived?

I plan to eat everything, but only a little bit of the "bad" stuff (i.e. gravy, stuffing, French's Fried Onion green been casserole) and really enjoy the rest. I don't like pumpkin pie, so that is no temptation, and I plan to make a skinnytaste.com no bake cheesecake minus the 1/4 cup sugar (it doesn't need it) to satisfy any sweet tooth that I might have.

We never go out for Thanksgiving anymore. We did that 2X when our daughter was little--none of us enjoyed it...lol My husband and daughter made me promise a long time ago to always make "our" Thanksgiving dinner and we usually have company.

So, what is your plan?

My plan is to eat a light breakfast and lunch, stay within my lower calorie ranges the days before and after, and then eat the things I enjoy mindfully and to satisfaction (not stuffedness). Things I love: my sour cream pumpkin pie with whipped cream, stuffing, brussels sprouts, potatoes, dark meat.

And I love to get up early and go for a walk or bike ride depending on the weather. There's a comraderie with the other people out in the morning on Thanksgiving exercising before the day starts.

To be honest. my plan is to fit whatever i can on one plate.. and thats it..
lol no 2nds or 3rds no pie.. nothing else.

but i will chose wisely. i dont like potatoes.. trying mostly for turkey, some stuffing ( evil i know ) and veggies....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Load up on turkey and vegetables that I make. Avoid stuffing and pie.

My plan:

Make sure to exercise that day, and enjoy a fulfilling breakfast.

Eat only the things that I don't get to enjoy most other days of the year.
(Ex: Turkey is blah to me, and I can have that any ol' time. But, my mom only makes Baked Corn once a year... so I'm going to have some of that.)

Have only one plate of food. No seconds.

A slice of pumpkin pie is non-negotiable. It is a must.

Try to convince my family to go on a very light around the block walk afterwards, mostly to make sure that I haven't over-stuffed myself.

....and, enjoy the time I have with my family!

I've decided that I'm not going to calorie count on Thanksgiving. It's going to be too much of a hassel to figure everything out. I'm going to control my portion size which, quite frankly, won't be too hard at this point since I get full so fast.

I plan to have a small breakfast (approx 100 cal) and drink water and diet coke until our meal (both keep me full) around 2 or 3pm. I'll make sure to not go overboard so I can have a slice of pumpkin pie later on :) Then I'm done for the day!

I don't know if I'll exercise or not, but I'm leaning toward either not at all or just light exercise, depending on how the day goes/how much work I have to do. I'm pretty sure the gym is closed that day, so I might just go for a jog or drag out the Wii Fit if I'm really pressed for time.

I'm planning on going to the gym in the morning, eating my usual oatmeal breakfast, and only having one plate with non-oversized portions. I will be having a small piece of pie because I love pumpkin pie. I'm going to enjoy the heck out of that pie.

I like the idea of going for a walk afterwards. I may do that as well!

I plan on eating light before the big meal, then pretty much eating whatever I want until I'm comfortably full (not stuffed.) It will definitely be a "no-count" day. I will send as many leftovers home with my guests as I can and go right back to my regular plan the next day.

Sure, the rest of the week might be a "wash" making up for that one high calorie day, but if I come out of Thanksgiving weekend without gaining, I call that a success :)

i plan on only eating dinner and having whatever i want but still recording it. and although i know that i will go over plan. Im perfectly ok with it. But i know that if i record it i will stop a zillion times sooner than i would stop going in blind.

My plan is to first get 1-2 bites of each dish i want. then counting the cals on that plate. Then going back for what i still really want and only if im not already full. i plan on having 2 or 3 meals of thanksgiving dinner. we have dinner early at 12-1 and then hang out for the rest of the day. so we end up eating a few times. snacking and stuff. so i will do like every year just not nearly as much and i will record it. : )

I'm not much on Thanksgiving food... don't like gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole or pumpkin pie. So this won't really be that hard. My husbands family is doing their thanksgiving this saturday. I don't plan on eating much there because they use ALOT of fat in their cooking. They're real southerners and cook a lot of really heavy foods. I might have some turkey but that's about it. We live in the south but my side is from the north, we don't cook heavy at all. So going to my dad's on Thanksgiving won't be that bad either. Some turkey and some potatoes and cranberry sauce and I'm set :) The actual holiday food is never the problem for me, it's the desserts.

I plan to have a reasonable portion of only the things I really like, and call it done. Light breakfast too. I don't want to feel stuffed. I also plan to walk sometime. I'm thinking it will be too dark after the meal so will probably walk earlier in the day.

I don't want one holiday (which if primarly focused on eating, of all things) to derail my progress! I'll enjoy the family and stay out of the kitchen as much as possible (easy, since I'm a guest)!

Honestly, after cooking all day. I'm not usually that hungry. I'm not going to calorie count on Thanksgiving. I'll just watch my portions.

We just moved, so we won't have many people over. I'm just making turkey, sausage stuffing, gravy, mashed sweets, brussel sprouts, rolls and cranberry relish. Plus a pumpkin pie. I'm thinking I'll go buy mini pie pans, so we don't have a huge pie laying around. Extra rolls I'll freeze right away to avoid temptation.

We're having the normal: turkey, tofurkey, mushroom and turkey gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, vegetarian stuffing, sweet potatoes, whole grain cornbread, vegetarian collard greens, low cal green bean casserole, so it's just a matter of not overeating for the day. I'm making these but I'm not a huge dessert fan, I just make stuff for the family.
I tend to over-drink and not eat much, so I'll watch that. ;)

I'm doing the cooking, and since I had an uber-healthy meal last year when I hosted, I'm compromising this year. I'm going to do a light lunch and breakfast, roast the turkey instead of fry, make an eating light version of the yams that is way healthier, but do the naughty stuffing and homemade green bean casserole that isn't quite as healthy.

im just gonna go for it. i love food... i am really really close to my goal, but i do believe in just taking a day off sometimes and eating whatever the **** i want. ive dealt with pretty disordered eating/terrible body image and im trying to get out of it, so not making a big deal out of overeating a couple of days a year is important to me. however, if you are still pretty far from your goal and have a healthy outlook than eating at least somewhat less than usual on thanksgiving is fine.

I'm going to skip the things I don't love and eat as much as I like of the things I do. It's quite likely that this means I will eat a plate full of stuffing and a small bowl of bread pudding. Oh carbohydrates, how I love thee. I will be back to counting calories the next day with minimal guilt, because I've been planning to do it this way for a couple of weeks now and it's starting to take on the feel of "the plan."

I believe in special occasions. Unfortunately, by some weird twist of fate, every single member of my family has a birthday in winter, myself included. Nov./Dec./Jan is like one big mash of special occasion. Awesome for festive feeling, not for dieting. I may have to scant my calories a bit on the few "normal" days if I'm going to make it through all of the birthday cake and eggnog.

I don't quite know what my plan of attack is. I'm just re-starting my calorie counting and am afraid that going nuts one day will bump me off the wagon again. I'm thinking may just get one plate of food, no seconds. I will definetly try for small portion sizes. Put more tukey on and less stuffing, potatoes, and rolls. Going easy on that will make my piece of sugar creme pie wonderful. (So delicious) So yeah, I think that's it. I formulated my plan as I wrote this post! lol!

I'm going to make sure I eat under my allowed calories for the rest of the week, at least 600 under, so I can add an extra 600 to Thanksgiving. However, if I ate as usual, I'd still go way over 1550 + 600.

Soo, I'm going to eat a light or no breakfast, depending on whether or not I'm hungry, and I'm going to go for a long walk in the AM-- maybe a run. (Hard for me to run outside due to the elements bothering my asthma, and I'll be in a different town than my gym). Also, I LOVE my wine on thanksgiving, so instead of limiting alcohol content, I'm going to be careful about food. I need to decide whether I'm in the mood for turkey/potatoes/stuffing or pie/cookies. If it's pie/cookies, I'll eat really light at the meal and indulge on dessert. If it's the opposite, then I'll eat a bigger dinner and one cookie/small slice of pie. We'll see.

I know I'll go over what I want to eat regardless, but I think it's important to see what small, easy things I can do to reduce that number. Like taking a 100 calorie burning walk and skipping bacon/eggs/toast bfast. That saves me like 500 calories right there.

I might be traveling that day to another state via car! So this will be made up of snacks and gas station food... not the best so I need to be on my game and have a lot of stuff pre planned and packed in a cooler.
I hope to get some exercise at each stop like a quick run around the parking lot.

By My nutritionist said that pumpkin pie is not that bad if you dont eat the crust its half the calories.

Good luck everyone! and Happy HOlidays!

^^This^^

I'll eat the foods I love and forego the foods I just "like" and can have any day of the week.

I calorie cycle anyway, but I definitely plan to shave off a couple hundred calories on the other days of the week so that I'll have plenty to spare on Thanksgiving.

LOL!! I loved reading your post. We must be twins separated at birth.

I'm still wondering how to handle the stuffing issue. While we don't plan on a lot of carbs for dinner, my husband has decreed that stuffing is non-negotiable! I've got a decent mushroom stuffing recipe that has a lot of veg in it (comparatively speaking) and I'll probably use it, then stick with white turkey meat and veggie for the rest of dinner. For dessert we already got some very nice chocolates from a local store. The store says they're 50 calories (I really think they're more like 100, which is the figure I use when counting calories) but one is all you need for dessert.

On Thanksgiving I will not be calorie counting..I will eat whatever I want to, and as much as I want of it..Eating over my allotted daily calories on a special occasion, holiday, or my birthday, is not a big deal to me..The next day I am back to counting calories..

I'm making Thanksgiving and it's just us this year so I'll have turkey and good stuff and make the other stuff for my family. We have dinner with friends on Friday and Saturday so that's what's got me worried... portion control all the way! And a two glass of wine maximum.

I plan on eating a light breakfast, and then eat whatever I want for Thanksgiving dinner. Although I won't be counting calories for that meal, I'm going to be mindful of how full I'm feeling -- I will not eat until I am uncomfortably stuffed like I normally do on holidays. Then I'll get back to counting calories the next day... I sometimes have problems with one day where I don't count calories turning into several weeks without counting calories.

For the holiday season I have given myself two free days off for calorie counting, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The rest of the season, the rest of the holiday parties I have to stay within my goal. But I've learned from the past that if I focus too much on CC during those days I don't enjoy the company of family as much and then soon after I give up completely on weight loss because I'd rather eat what I want when I want and as much as I want.

So on Thanksgiving I am eating what I crave, but I think I'll stick to whatever I actually crave and not eat just anything.

We eat early, so with breakfast plus a couple snacks, I won't eat a third meal that day. Lots of turkey, green beans (not the casserole), a few bites of sweet potatoes and maybe stuffing, and I'll be content. Dessert this year is cheesecake, which is pretty much the only dessert I don't really like, so I get to figure out what treat I want to bring for myself. Oh, and i will have a glass of wine or two. I am not sure if I will count calories that day. I am leaning toward no, but if I feel like I am leaving the realm of reality then I will probably tally them up.

I am hoping to get some treadmill time in before we hit the road to grandma's house that morning, but it won't be the end of the world if I don't.

I am much more apprehensive about Christmas/New Years. My extended family is big into cookies and candy all over the house, and there are a lot of eating-centered events. I will cross that bridge when I come to it!

I will walk the dog in the morning, at least a 5K, and I'm going to have to eat something significant for breakfast (pregnancy makes my usual "eat light and save up calories" strategy completely impossible).

I will eat a reasonable amount of crudite vegetables before the big meal if I'm hungry, and perhaps a small amount of dip with them. It'll be reasonable, but again, I can't really do the "saving up" thing right now.

Obviously, I won't be drinking! I can't imagine how many calories THAT was before (er, one of our Thanksgiving traditions involves taking shots of an Italian liquor called Tuaca...long story). Lots of water and probably some sparkling Crystal Geyser type waters.

I will take one plate of food, with at least 1/3 of that plate being salad. I won't deprive myself of anything I want to taste, but will keep my portions reasonable. I will skip the things I don't like (sugary sweet potato casserole using canned sweet potatoes, box stuffing) and focus on the things I love (turkey, my homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, and gravy). I will then have one piece of pie, and won't go near the inevitable chocolate fountain (yes, Thanksgiving also involves a chocolate fountain...). Well, maybe ONE strawberry...

I will avoid the "eating for two" food pushers (it was bad last year when I was at goal and eating normally, I can't imagine what it'll be like PREGNANT).

And then I'll do it ALL again on Friday when we host Thanksgiving for my grandpa and his girlfriend, who live in an assisted living facility near us and otherwise would only get the institutional holiday (they're a different side of the family from the family we do Thanksgiving with). That food will be a bit healthier than I expect the bigger party to be, since I am cooking it.

On days like Thanksgiving and Christmas, etc, I try to eat light early in the day so I can splurge a little at the main meal. Then I put 4 to 6 ounces of meat on my plate and 1 heaping tablespoonful of whatever looks really good to me that is NOT a vegetable. Vegetables and salad (that not drenched or mixed with anything fatty) are unlimited. I have one plateful and only one plateful.

If there is a dessert, I will have a tiny serving and only one. No alcohol since I don't drink anyway and really do not care for it. Tea and water to drink.