Don't Be a Plump Turkey at Thanksgiving

One of the great traditions at Thanksgiving is the Thanksgiving meal. If you're like me, you eat all day until you feel miserable. Why do we do this? How did this act of gluttony become part of a holiday of giving thanks? Now, I'm not saying "pigging-out" every once in a while is wrong, but why do we sabotage our healthy habits for a full week of indulgences? How can we enjoy family, food and fun at Thanksgiving and keep from feeling miserable the entire time? Here are some helpful hints:

1. Don't make it Thanksgiving WEEK! Thanksgiving is one day out of the year. One meal out of the day. Do your best to eat your calories up until Thursday lunch or dinner. Then eat the traditional leftover turkey meal on Friday, then STOP! Pick back up with your calorie counting on Saturday.

2. Don't be a cow! For the one meal, sure, be a cow or pig or whatever barnyard animal you want to be. But, other than that, stay out of the kitchen. Don't be a grazer. This is my weakness. I love to eat constantly on Thursday and Friday because it's there. Get away! Do something busy, get out of the house, go for a walk, play on the Wii, take a nap, anything to stay out of the kitchen.

3. Don't eat what you don't like. Why would you want to gain weight on food you don't even enjoy eating? Just because it is sitting there doesn't mean you have to put it on your plate. If you think you might offend somebody by not eating the green bean casserole they brought, put a little on your plate, THEN DON'T EAT IT!

4. Get full on the good stuff. Eat the healthy stuff first, then eat a few bites of the big calorie items. Turkey (white meat), most veggies, fruit, cranberries, etc. fill up on these items. Then, go lightly on breads, casseroles, mashed potatoes and desserts.

5. Get active. Instead of sitting around all holiday long, get up! Thursday morning before the parades go for a family walk or do a local turkey trot. Before the Cowboys lose have a family football game in the front yard. Ladies, on Friday go shopping. You don't have to buy anything, just get out of the house (away from the food) and go walking around the malls. Surely all that dodging and fighting for items can burn some calories.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for family, friends and health. Let's enjoy ourselves without being miserable the entire week.

Deals this Week 11/7

It has been a LLOONNGG week! I'm not going to give you all of my excuses; I'm just going to make this quick and easy for you. If you want to see some of the best deals this week at CVS and Walgreen's then check out Money Saving Mom's website. I didn't find anything exciting enough to work out a plan for unless you need some stuff to bake with (Walgreen's) or some Garnier goodies (also Walgreen's).

Have a great week and hopefully we'll be back Tuesday evening with a fitness-related post.