Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a Webinar conducted by the International Food Information Council Foundation called "Reversing Mindless Eating Over the Holidays". I will be presenting more of the information from the Webinar in the future (if you want to see the powerpoint, it's here), but I did pick out a few tips to help navigate Thanksgiving.1) Counter the typical eating pattern. - The usual eating pattern for Thanksgiving is to eat a light breakfast and then not to eat much until a couple of hours before the meal. At this point, you are famished, so you reach for all the snacks. It turns out that the chips, nuts, and other snacky foods can easily add up to more food in calories than the actual meal!
To counter this, I recommend eating a substantial breakfast. Later before the snacking starts, eat a small meal which includes plenty of protein, fiber, and healthy fat. Then you can skip the chips, and be ready to really enjoy the main event.
2) Dealing with "Food Pushers" - My typical response to people pushing high-carb food at me is (said smiling and a bit apologetically), "sorry, that sends my blood sugar up". Having the label "pre-diabetic" has helped with this, but feel free to use this term loosely, if you're sensitive to carbs and trying to avoid becoming diabetic. At the Webinar I learned another trick. It turns out food pushers don't pay as much attention to the amount people eat as the number of times they get a "serving". So if you take a tablespoon of the food two or three times they will be just as thrilled.
Do you have a strategy for Thanksgiving? Vote in the poll, and then leave your tips in the comment section or in our Low-Carb Forum.
Poll: How Do You Deal With Thanksgiving?
- I'm going to de-carb Thanksgiving completely or to a large extent.
- I'm planning to have (or bring) some low-carb options, but otherwise eat traditional dishes.
- I'm going to limit portion sizes of high-carb foods, but have a little of all my traditional favorites.
- It's one meal - no problem. I'll eat what I want and go right back to low-carb the next meal.
- Thanksgiving is special and so are the leftovers! I'll be eating off-plan for 2 or 3 days.
- Honestly, I probably won't think too much about carbs until the Monday after Thanksgiving.
- View Results
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Rather than take 2-3 tbsp of high-carb food I don’t really want, it would work better for me to use the “sorry, that food sends my blood sugar up” response. That’s a good one.
And it would even be true for people who don’t have diabetes or prediabetes.
-Steve
Hello! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is 1 of my favorite holidays, and every yr I like to get into the mood-extend the holiday, when it were-by reading “Thanksgiving novels.” Unsurprisingly, these stories are mostly about family and friends, about coming together to heal old hurts and giving them thanks for the gift of love. . . –
Have You Been Currently Better Off These days Than You Were 6 Yrs Ago?