Feast for a holiday!
I'll admit it. If you put a tray of brownies in front of me, I'll eat most of that tray of brownies. Lucky the brownies that I have in my life usually come from my amazing girlfriend and so they are flourless little fat bombs, which when eaten in moderation aren't quite as bad for you as that delicious Ghirardelli mix you can get from the supermarket.
The holidays can be quite a blow out for many of us, especially when the Thanksgiving feast is composed of classic American dishes like corn casseroles, green bean casseroles, sweet potato casseroles and the likes of many others which are usually made with shelf stable products, loaded with preservatives, sweeteners and all kinds of other rubbish. It's generally accepted that Thanksgiving is a day of feasting and I'm all about that, but before you go out and start stocking up on the standard go tos, I wanted to share some recipes that might change up the way you do the holiday this year.
If you're anything like me, self control needs to start before you even bring food into the house. Otherwise, if it's in the cupboard I will have a hard time saying no. Similarly with the Thanksgiving feast, there are many traditional dishes that can be made with healthier ingredients, so feasting in this way will have less of an impact on your health goals.
That amazing girlfriend of mine has been hard at work, prepping her parents with a Pinterest board(which you can view here), so that our trip to Charleston this year is not only a relaxing one, but also an attempt to maintain a healthy diet through the feasting holiday. Keep checking back on this one because it's growing every day.
Despite the obvious ones, such as choosing RAW (recently alive and well) organic, pasture raised ingredients, I also wanted to share a few tips on how you can stay on track over this weekend:
Drink more water! If you are going to pollute it, dilute it! Give your systems of detoxification a little boost by helping to flush the system of all the crap that might have snuck in.
Start with salad. The table is going to be full of food, so start with the healthy stuff first. It's hard to cut all the crap so fill up on the good stuff before you get to it so that you can minimize the damage.
Chew your food! That huge plate may be overwhelming at first and so shoveling it down your gob as quick as you can might be instinctual, but slow things down a bit. Listen to your body, put your fork down from time to time and you might stop eating before you overstuff yourself.
Be aware that less is more. Overeating is very taxing on your system and you will for sure feel it in the morning. Eat until satisfied, not until you're full.
Go for a walk. Let's be realistic. We are probably going to eat more than what's good for us, so walk it off. 20-30 minutes will help you digest things a lot better.
Know when to quit. You might sleep well on a full belly, but you might wake up feeling like shit. Try to cut the chord 2-3 hours before you got to bed so that your digestion can take a break and your gut can heal through the night.
Relax and don't be too militant. You don't want to make a big deal of your fancy, healthy diet in front of everyone. Just do you and let everyone else do them and enjoy the time spent with family!