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Keep your gut manageable this holiday season

By Katie on 24 November 2009  |  No Comments

Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means you’ve got about 72 hours left to enjoy your slender physique before the onslaught of festive feasting hits and you get fat.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, if you’re up for a challenge. It’s tough to keep your abs taut and your butt eye-poppingly firm when you’re surrounded by turkey smothered in its own gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, carb-lovers stuffing, sugary sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream, and caramel apple crisp topped with a soft, fluffy scoop of French vanilla ice cream. Just thinking about these foods can make you feel 10 lbs heavier – and that’s just one meal! Here are a few tips that will keep you from looking like a bowlful of jelly come January 1^st.

Eat low-fat meals before your Turkey Dinner: From today until Thursday morning, eat low-cal meals in small portions. For breakfast, stick to whole-wheat English muffins with natural peanut butter, or stone-cut oatmeal topped with raisins and skim milk. Salads with lots of veggies and an oil-and-vinegar dressing should do for lunch. Add some grilled chicken if you’re not an herbivore and can’t subsist on greens and more greens. Almonds, low-fat yogurt with granola, and green apples are excellent snack choices if your stomach grumbles between meals. For dinner, stick with grilled fish or chicken, with quinoa or brown rice, and steamed veggies on the side.

Work it, baby!: Working out on the days leading up to your family dinner will give you even more opportunity to pig out on Thursday. Ride your bike for an hour, or do a 40-minute jog, or squeeze in an extra weight-training session at the gym. You’ll increase your cardiovascular endurance and you’ll bank some calories that you can “spend” on that second piece of pie on Thursday.

Portion control: Remember how your grandmother used to say that “your eyes were bigger than your stomach” when you overzealously loaded up your plate with some yummy home cookin’ then left half of it untouched as you doubled-over in pain due to your aching belly? You might want to keep Granny’s mantra in mind when you’re making your plate on Thanksgiving Day. Take small portions of everything – yes, you can taste it all! When you’re done the first serving, pause for a few minutes to let yourself digest and if you’re still hungry afterward and you’re just dying to have a second helping of candied yam soufflé, go for it – this is what all of your pre-Thanksgiving Dinner workouts and low-cal intake allowed you to do, after all. But remember, there’s still dessert!

With all of the emphasis on food and shopping surrounding this holiday, we sometimes forget that it’s about giving thanks and not just about consumption. Be thankful for the body you’ve got by feeding it the proper foods and giving it lots and lots of exercise.  These tips will help you do that, while also allowing you to indulge in the tasty foods, for which you are also presumably thankful.

What are your plans for staying healthy and keeping fit this holiday season?