I am curious about how everyone is dealing with Thanksgiving this year? Are you just going to enjoy it, or are you sticking strictly to your diet?

I am going to my Granny's for Thanksgiving; therefore, I cannot really control how the food is cooked. My plan right now is to double up on my exercise routine from the 21st to the 24th to burn some extra calories. I plan not to go insane with the food. I think I am going to take a small sample of everything I like. And, when I full - that is it. I am not overeating because it is a holiday.

Last year I would have ate all I wanted, regardless of hunger. I think if I double up on exercise that week, and I don't go crazy with the food, then I will be fine. I think I am going to stick with the healthier food choices.

Well for me, Thanksgiving is over since I'm in Canada. However, I dealt with it just like any other day, calories must be counted and within a certain range. I ate very lightly throughout the day, and had a nice serving of dinner at night and a small sliver of pumpkin pie. I felt great, and had a wonderful time, and actually was down a pound the next day! The year before, I would have eaten tons of everything and had gravy on top! I didn't miss that too full feeling, that's for sure! Anyways your plan sounds great!

Well, I was in Mexico for CDN Thanksgiving, so it was a piece of cake! LOL I do have a turkey in the freezer, though, as I missed having it. Since I'm in control, it'll be turkey, stuffing (made with bread, seasonings, potato, onion, and sausage meat), mashed potatoes, and veggies (prob. squash and brussels sprouts). No dessert, mainly because we're not a dessert-y family. I think Canadian Thanksgiving is generally more low-key than the US Thanksgiving?

In your case, your plan sounds good.

I've been worried about this very thing. My hubs has told me that I should just relax that day and not go overboard but not be all uptight about my calories, carbs, etc. A month ago, at the beginning of this journey, that sounded like a fine idea. Now the thought of eating anything that might put me over my calorie count for the day is enough to almost send me into a panic attack. It's awful.

A few days ago I tried to plug in numbers for my typical holiday meal and even at "normal" serving sizes it was still WAY too much. Too many calories, carbs, fat, etc. Oy!

I think I'm going to stick to very tiny portions of the things that I like and hopefully I'll be able to keep things under control.

This is something I wrote in a blog recently about this topic:

It got me thinking about how my mom is always saying, "it' just ONCE a year!"

Well, mom, this is what all the little "once a years" add up to:

1.) new years eve drinking
2.) Valentines chocolate (which we have never celebrated, but still, for most people it's a thing.)
3.) st pattys day drinking
4.) Memorial day picnic
5.) Summer vacation (one big block of "excusable" overeating!)
6.) Fourth of July picnic
7.) Labor day picnic
8.)Halloween candy
9.) Thanksgiving feast with all the leftovers that will keep you stuffed for days to come!
10.) Christmas feast, same as above, plus LOTS of holiday candy, drinks, etc

Not to MENTION all of the birthdays I celebrate:

1.) Joeys dad
2.) Joeys mom (don't celebrate my moms bday because they come here for holidays, my parents don't like to come to pgh and I dont' drive so can't go see them. That saves me ONE!)
3.) Joey's bday
4.) My sister's bday
5.) MY bday!
6.) My friend Ron's bday
7.) My friend Angie's bday
+ 8.) Me and Joey's anniversary!

COUNT EM!' EIGHTEEN excuses, for things that only happen ONCE a year to pig out! That evens out to more than once a month. Celebrations, more than once a month? I will tell you what happens:

First, the holiday, the junk, the eating of the junk, then, the leftovers, don't want to waste! the eating of the leftovers. Then, 'getting back on track.' which can take weeks (if I'm lucky, months if I'm not.) Then, if I'm lucky I've lost a few lbs right before the next holiday/celebration aka 'excuse to pig out'! Then, I gain that back.

I can't do this anymore. I can not.


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So, to answer your question, no, I'm not going to let anything slide on Thanksgiving.

I will eat 1500 cals.

I will eat no different than any other day. I will have 8 oz of white meat roasted chicken *no skin* (We don't do turkey, it's just me and the bf this year due to family issues with my fam and we just get a small chicken to roast so there aren't a ton of leftovers.) 1 serv mashed potato and 1 serving stuffing. Everything I eat will fit on the 9 inch plates that we use now, and not only will we each have one serving only of everything, I will not be cooking more than 2 servings of sides, and the rest of the chicken will be cut and put in tupperware before dinner is even served.

For this to all 'work' I may shave 100 cals off breakfast and 100 cals off lunch becasue stuffing is pretty high calorie. But other than that, no serious changes to my day!

For me, the main problem is all the snacking up TO the meal - we are all together as a family, with platters of chips and dips and crackers and cheeses and meats, etc...all before the meal? So I plan to just not snack before the meal and then eat sensibly - a little bit of everything I'd like instead of a full serving. It helps that I'm not really into all the heavy junk - my plate usually has turkey breast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and sweet potatoes on it. Not too terrible!

Since I'm zig-zagging my calories and averaging them at 1500 per day, I'm able to take the caloric wallop of Thanksgiving into account. I plan to eat about 2000 calories that day. However, the day will still be on plan--that means heavy on the turkey, asparagus, green beans, and baked sweet potatoes, lighter on the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls.

The big difference won't be at the dinner table, it'll be afterward. I used to be a leftover-hog; not this year. Aside from some pre-portioned turkey for use in salads and atop open-faced sandwiches, those leftovers are all for the rest of my family. I'm skipping the pumpkin pie, too; I never really liked it all that much, but it was "tradition" so I ate it. Well, it's time for a new, pieless tradition!

That's the plan I have in place. There's no reason I can't stick to it--it's plenty generous and it won't necessitate my passing up stuff that everyone else at the table is having. So I guess my answer is, I am going to enjoy it AND I am going to stay strictly on my plan.

My goal is just not to be a pig. I probably won't count my calories that day (I don't count rigidly every day anyhow), but I know what healthy, reasonable portions are and I know which dishes to pass on entirely. No drama, no sturm und drang, just - enjoy the special meal, without making a pig of myself.

I'm running a 5K race Thanksgiving morning, so that gives me a little leeway with my calories for the day.

Because I'm eating moderate low-carb, I know I cannot have potatoes and dressing and dinner rolls. So, I'm making Fauxtatoes (mashed cauliflower) to eat instead of the potatoes, forgoing the dinner rolls, and enjoying a small serving of dressing. I'm planning a side of plain green beans for myself, and avoiding the green bean casserole. So, that's my dinner - turkey, dressing, Fauxtatoes, and plain green beans.

And, yes, I will eat pie, because it's the only time of the year that I bake Pear-Cranberry Pie, and I'm going to enjoy every single bite.

I'm maintaining right now, and I am planning on eating fairly liberally. For me, it's the "sentimental food" exception: I can always have pumpkin pie, but how many more times can I have my moms?

But I don't celebrate most of the things people make a big deal about. Since I am seeing my family at Thanksgiving, I won't celebrate Xmas, so that will be just another day. I didn't eat anything special for Valentines, Halloween, the 4th of July.

I'm not going to make the day about food--I will just eat the meal--but I'm going to eat for pleasure, not fuel.

Thanksgiving scares the crap out of me this year. It would be bad enough going down to my uncle's house where all of the family will converge and bring enough food to feed the whole army, but since I am trying 30 days as a vegan that means I will be eating vegan during Thanksgiving. I was racking my brain earlier to figure out what dishes down there won't have dairy, eggs, cheese, or meat. Honestly there's very little I can think of that my family will have there that fits into the vegan category. So I think I will be making several dishes and taking them down there myself. That way I know exactly what will be in the food and know that it's safe to eat on a vegan diet. I am not telling my family I am going vegan but just going to let them know that I am fully committed to my weight loss efforts and not going to sabotage it during the holiday meal.

I do not know, but am eating up the above suggestions.

Last year Thanksgiving came a few weeks into my journey. My strategy was drinking a Slim Fast for "brunch" and then nothing else but the big meal. I chose to eat literally 1 tablespoon of everything I wanted and half a roll. I took tiny slivers of a few pie. I estimated my calories to be around 400, but honestly, I was so strict, it could have been 200. I overestimated everything.

This year? I'm much more practiced at this. I think I will practice something similar. I will have a normal breakfast. Snacking will consist only of fruits and veggies. I'll probably eat a tablespoon of everything I want, but I can forgo things like mashed potatoes and rolls.

I host, so I'll be sure to have steamed broccoli, squash, and maybe cranberry sauce with pomegranate.

My plan for right now is to completely stress out over Thanksgiving for the next few weeks I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. I started stressing out...well, 4 weeks ago, when I started.

My plan is a normal breakfast & lunch,
and then eat 1/2 of what I would normally eat at dinner.
No snacks before or after. Absolutely no seconds. Might have a small dessert ..might not

As soon as the guests leave I'm going to lock myself in my bedroom & watch a movie. Under NO circumstance am I going to cruise the kitchen later that night.

I could have sworn that I posted a thing about cottage cheese on this thread, but it's not here, I'm guessing my comp has been wonky so...whatever.

re cottage cheese:

before eating out lately I have been eating a half cup of cottage cheese, this way by the time I get there I'm not starving. To me, a 90 cal 4 grams of fat and 12 (woo!) grams of protein will keep me satisfied more than half of a 2200 cal 64 fat gram appetizer that I'll wolf down before my meal even arrives.

That was just a suggestion about something small to eat a bit before thanksgiving dinner to keep from munching on goodies.