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.