My family on Thanksgiving....ergh, help.
 

I do NOT want to overeat. I'm only 2lb away from my first official mini-goal of 20lb. I'm trying to plan the perfect meal. I don't know if there will be a salad there or not, but I know my family LOVES carbs. Bread, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, etc.

I'm going to try to stick to this:

TONS of water.

Either 2 slices of turkey (thin, moderate sized), either 1 small spoonful (soup spoon, not serving spoon) of mashed potatoes or stuffing, NOT BOTH. 2-3 pieces of the famous toothpick-cheese, and a medium salad, no dressing or croutons. Oh, and possibly 1 develled egg.

I'm going to be starving. I can already tell. But nobody will make any special additional sides for me (if we had the money, I'd make my own side dish and bring it for everyone as well as myself. I might try to whip something up, but I doubt I'll be able to do it). I feel like if I eat the turkey, the stuffing/potatoes, and maybe 1 piece of cheese at dinner, I can snack on another 1-2 pieces of cheese and the egg later on.

No pie, no cake, no ice cream. No exceptions.

We won't be there for very long, only a couple of hours. I just do NOT want to overeat. I can't afford to mess up. About how many calories do you think that will average? I estimated around 1150, but I'm probably WAY off. Also, if you can think of any way to cut calorie-corners, please let me know :D

Could you afford to bring some roasted vegetables and load up on those? If you have a cheaper market nearby roasted vegetables don't have to cost more than 2-3 bucks (unless it's a huge gathering).

If you are doing low carb I'd actually eat more turkey than you are and have a few devilled eggs, that's mostly protein anyways. And if there is a salad FILL up your plate and eat slow. One trick I do is to drink a lot of water AND wait till everyone serves themself before you serve yourself, most people will be too busy eating to pay attention to your plate. If someone presses seconds on you just get more turkey or salad.

Good luck! Thanksgiving is a nervous time IMO!

Great advice :)

Good luck :hug:

I was going to try do do that, yeah. Maybe some green been casserole or something, or some roasted veg like you said. It isn't that my family doesn't eat healthily (they do, normally) it's just on thanksgiving they go all out.

My aunt knows I'm trying to lose weight though, so she MIGHT serve a salad. I hope, at least.

You can't ask your parents to get some veggies for you to take with you? You don't even need to bring any for everyone else, just roast some up for yourself and pop them in the microwave at dinner time to eat with some turkey and salad.

You could also bring a container of your own low-fat dressing. At dinner, make a big salad and top it with sliced turkey and your dressing. I'm not sure what your plan is, but I can't see this being too bad for any plan.

I understand where you're coming from; I live with my parents and the holidays are all about the carbs (I'm on a low-carb plan).

I saw an awesome recipe for green beans on food network the other day:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/c...ipe/index.html

Maybe you could try that :)

Could you maybe eat a nice, big salad before you go? Then you're not starving and depriving yourself, and you'll feel satisfied with just a little of everything and won't leave hungry?

Why are you planning to starve? Why not have more turkey? Why not make an actual calorie count plan before going so that you aren't starving? Even include a sliver of pie or bit of ice cream? Make it within your plan.

I'm cooking for my family for Thanksgiving and have also been thinking about what I can serve that they won't object to. I'm thinking about baking the sweet potatoes and eating a small portion plain. I probably won't make theirs "a heart attack waiting to happen" either this year...LOL. I'm going to do fresh green beans instead of the green bean casserole. I'll still make stuffing and mashed potatoes and eat a small serving without the 1/2 cup of gravy. I'm going to try a crustless pumkin pie sweetened with truvia. They'll get apple and my pumkin but none of my usual temptations of pecan, sour cream raisin or french silk. My daughter's trying to lose weight too and both my son and husband are heavy so it won't hurt them either as long as they don't feel too deprived. I'm also going to send the leftovers home with my son who doesn't get home cooked very often.

1150 calories for that meal sounds like too many. 2 slices (43 grams) of breast meat would only be about 45 calories, one small spoonful of mashed potatoes would be ~30 calories (2 tbsp), ~200 for the cheese (assuming each piece is 1 cubic inch), 145 for two halves of the devilled eggs, and I don't know what you're putting on your salad, but vegetables are very low in calories. So you'd be around 500-600 for the whole meal, depending on the size of things and the dressing you use for the salad. You shouldn't be feeling starved after a meal, though! Eat before you go if you're super worried about it, so that you can eat less and still feel satisfied.

What she said! ;)