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Do Your Body A Favor And Savor The Flavor!

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This Thanksgiving, resist the urge to gobble (leave that to the turkeys) and instead vow to savor the aromas, ambience, fellowship and flavors that make the holiday special. Too many of us treat the Thanksgiving meal as an “all you can eat” buffet, piling huge quantities of food on our plates and thus creating a dietary train wreck. The average American eats between 2,000 and 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day, a significant increase from the 1,600 to 2,400 calories that we put into our bodies on a typical day.

Fortunately there are plenty of simple ways to trim some of the calories from our Thanksgiving meal without diminishing the flavor and fun surrounding the holiday. First of all, don’t show up hungry. Many of us make the mistake of skipping breakfast and lunch to “save up” for the big meal. If you are hungry when you sit down you are more likely to eat fast which usually causes you to eat more.

Start with the veggies. Make the majority of your plate healthy and minimize the amounts of candied yams, stuffing and gravy that you serve yourself. Skip the bread because traditional Thanksgiving meals are already loaded with complex carbohydrates. Wait a few minutes before you take that second helping because the first plate you consume takes some time to make its way into your stomach. Enjoy the conversation for a bit. You may find that in 10 minutes you don’t want that second helping after all.

While food tends to take center stage there are many other aspects of Thanksgiving that should also be savored. Invite everyone to write their blessings in a remembrance book on Thanksgiving Day. Younger children will enjoy articulating their thankfulness. Save the book and review it with your family every Thanksgiving before you add that year’s blessings to the lists.

Take a walk as a family after the meal. This will help digestion and will get your metabolism in gear so that you can more easily burn calories. It also provides precious time to visit with relatives and build happy memories that don’t add inches to your waistline.

Be sure to spend plenty of quality time with elderly relatives. Encourage them to share stories and memories and record the information with a video camera or in a special notebook. This will insure that traditional family stories are documented to be cherished by future generations.

Consider reaching outside of your own family to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. With the jobless rates higher than ever and more and more people losing their homes to foreclosure, community service agencies are in dire need of helping hands. Volunteer to help serve the Thanksgiving meal at a homeless shelter. By helping to alleviate their hunger, you will be feeding your spirit. And spiritual calories will expand your soul, not your waistline.