10 Tips to Keep The Turkey Tummy Away
Thanksgiving is a time we spend with family and friends and a time to be thankful for all the blessings in our lives. Unfortunately, it can also be a time of great indulgence and can wreak havoc on our diets. Here are some great tips to moderate your indulgence and still have a fabulous holiday!
1. Start the day off right with a good breakfast. Even though you will be eating a lot later in the day, eating breakfast will actually help you to keep your metabolism going. It will also prevent you from feeling starving and wanting to eat all the goodies in sight. People who skip breakfast tend to overeat during the day. Start the day with some scrambled egg whites and a slice of dry wheat or gluten free toast. Be sure to also drink plenty of water with your breakfast as well.
2. Hit the gym or the pavement before your big meal. Doing 30-45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise before Thanksgiving dinner can not only help to burn a lot of calories, but it can ease a lot of holiday stress! If you are stressed about seeing certain family members or in-laws, take it out on the elliptical and burn out the aggravation! Is your kid wreaking havoc on your kitchen while you are trying to cook? Take a break and hit the road for a couple miles and let it out! This will also help you to avoid stress eating.
3. Begin your meal with an antipasto, salad, or high protein and fiber appetizer. By doing this, you will fill yourself up quicker with lighter and healthier options. The fiber of a leafy green salad mixed with water will help to fill you up quicker. The water will bind to the fiber and create a fuller feeling in your tummy without having a big heavy meal! Some great options besides a starter salad are carrots and broccoli with hummus dip or lean turkey meatballs. Skip out on the heavy cheese and crackers! These are loaded with saturated fats, high glycemic carbohydrates, and will also increase your thirst because of the high level of sodium. You may end up drinking more wine because you feel thirsty, More wine = more calories!
4. Save the wine for dinner. It’s difficult to avoid drinking on a family holiday that’s focused around food. Wine can have between 150-200 calories per glass, depending on the size of the glass! Pour yourself a glass of flavored sparkling water with a splash of cranberry juice to sip on instead or start out with a cup of coffee and skim milk. These choices are much less calories and you won’t feel as fatigued later on in the day.
5. Use a smaller dinner plate. When we are hungry, our eyes tend to be larger than our tummies. If the food is in front of you and there is room on your plate, chances are you are going to fill your plate up with more food. Instead of grabbing for everything in sight, use a smaller plate that’s meant for a salad. This will help you to control your portion sizes. You can still fit the turkey, potatoes, corn and cranberry sauce all on there! As Americans, we think the normal portion size is what we see at restaurants but this couldn’t be further from the truth. A normal portion size of meet is approximately 3 oz. or the size of a deck of cards. A normal portion size for potatoes or corn should fit in the palm of your hand.
6. Try to eat gluten free. Gluten is a protein found in breads, processed foods, desserts, pastas, and many more foods. By eating gluten free, you will feel less bloated and natural eat less high starch foods that tend to be higher in calories. Items that you may find gluten in at the thanksgiving table are: cornbread, stuffing, pies, certain turkey gravy, biscuits, and if you are a beer drinker, gluten is in your beer. “But wait, that’s cutting into most of the good stuff at the meal!” Not necessarily, you can have turkey and use gluten free gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, and sweet potatoes or yam pie.
7. Share dessert with your sweetheart. A slice of apple or pumpkin pie can run between 300-600 calories each, depending on how it’s made! Yikes! For some of us that is a 1/4or a 1/3 of what our daily caloric intake allows for. Sharing a dessert with your husband or wife or even your child can save a bundle of calories! If you’re apple pie is 400 calories and you cut it in half, that’s only 200 calories!
8. Bring your own dessert. Notice that eating gluten free pretty much leaves out any dessert. Some gluten free dessert options are saving the sweet potato pie, apple sauce, or yams for dessert. You can also try a baked apple with brown sugar and cinnamon or how about a liquid dessert of home-made apple cider!
9. Skip the nap, hit the pavement. Bring a nice warm coat with you so while everyone is in a food coma after the meal, you can use this time wisely and have a nice brisk walk. A half hour brisk walk can be enough to burn off that extra glass of wine and will help to boost your metabolism. You will feel much better by the end of the day and less bloated if you get some exercise!
10. Concentrate on conversation with friends and family. Focus your energy and thoughts around people instead of food. This will help to keep you away from nibbling and snacking and you can use your mouth for less calorically challenging activities! Talk to a family member who makes you laugh, tell stories, have a good time. Laughing burns calories too!
Leave RI
11:45 pm on Saturday, November 24, 2012
Love these health posts. Keep it up. Maybe a diet plan and exercise safety plan. I graduated from the Dallas Institute for Aerobics Research (Cooper Clinic) and have been hooked..Thanks Dr.Misty
Dr. Misty Kosciusko
2:33 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
You are very welcome. I'm glad to see they are enjoyed. They are meant to educate and stimulate the imagination on simple ways to improve your health. Being a Doctor means being a good teacher!
Local Bargain Jerk
1:40 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
I'm sorry, but when I read this article, my overall impression was that it seemed a little off-putting and ran the risk of having those who follow its suggestions come across as rude guests or hosts.
The Dr.'s basic suggestions are ok, but when they begin to impose the opinions of one person on others, they become problematic very quickly. No one should feel that they are entitled to be a sanctimonious jerk who tells others what to eat and what to do.
Let's look at these point by point:
Part I: These Tips Work
1. Start with a good breakfast...
2. Hit the gym...
4. Save the wine for dinner.
9. Skip the nap...
10. Concentrate on conversation with friends...
Sure, no problem with any of these. Good advice applicable to an individual.
To further qualify this list, I should say it's ok to invite others to join you for Nos. 1, 2, 9, and 10, but it's NOT ok even to mention anything about #4. Just do #4 yourself and don't mention to anyone why you're doing so. In fact, if these are your choices, just do them quietly, and if others don't want to do them too, don't crinkle your nose and certainly don't judge.
Local Bargain Jerk
1:40 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
Part II: These Tips Work, But ONLY If You're the Host of the Dinner.
3. Begin your meal with an antipasto, salad....
5. Use a smaller dinner plate.
These two work but only if you're the host.
For #3, asking someone else to serve a special dish for you as an appetizer may or may not be polite. If the host is a close family member, sure, call ahead of time and ask if it would be possible. If it's a friend, think things through before you start questioning their menu and asking for special considerations. Your host is trying to plan a menu for a dozen people. He or she has enough going on without trying to remember that you like water-spritzed salad, hold the croutons.
#5 works just fine when you are hosting, but only if you give a smaller plate ONLY to yourself. If you're a guest, asking your host for a special plate for just you because you can't control your urges is sort of pathetic. Use the plate they graciously set for you, say thank you, and simply mind your portions. If you're the host, giving your guests small plates might end up annoying them.
Local Bargain Jerk
1:40 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
Part III: This One Works, but Only When You're a Guest
6. Try to eat gluten free.
If you're the host, serving an entirely gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner to your guests will likely mean you'll never serve those guests again. The only way this would be ok would be if all of the guests were members of your cult.
If you're a guest at someone else's dinner, sure, avoid the gluten but don't make a big fussy show of it. This includes not telling anyone else what you're doing. As Dr. Misty suggests, grab the turkey, eat the yams and potatoes, and load up on the green beans. If you have a question about the gravy, keep your yap shut and just avoid it. Asking if the gravy was made with gluten would begin to question the abilities and concerns of the host. That would be would make everyone uncomfortable and would lead to the host feeling like he/she had to justify what ingredients were used to make the gravy. Why subject other people to your dietary outlook?
Local Bargain Jerk
1:41 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
Part IV: These Do NOT Work Under Almost Any Circumstance
7. Share dessert with your sweetheart.
8. Bring your own dessert.
For #7, uh, no. You can accomplish the same result simply by asking for a half-portion. Why do these suggestions need to involve anyone besides the person who wants to eat a certain way?
Doing the above, as suggested, imposes your dietary worldview on your sweetheart. That may or may not be fair and it may not be consistent with how your sweetheart feels at the exact moment the pie appears on the table. It may have been a year since he/she last had some and he or she might like a decent-sized hunk. Are you going to say in public that he or she shouldn't?
In addition, sweetheart or not, taking half of someone's food when they're holding a sharp utensil could even result in an untimely holiday stabbing. It certainly would if you came after my pie.
For #8, this would be an unacceptable insult to any host. If you are not comfortable eating what he/she is serving, you may simply graciously decline the dessert saying that everything was so good that you've eaten too much.
Local Bargain Jerk
1:41 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
Part V: The Bottom Line
Have fun and be healthy, but please don't impose your dietary needs and opinions on others. In fact, don't even mention them. Remember, these are your issues and your choices, and not everyone else's. If you can't understand why respecting and tolerating others' choices is important, you're likely an insufferable host or guest already.
And "insufferable host or guest" is a polite way of saying "sanctimonious jerk".
**** end of procrastination-induced rant ****
Dr. Misty Kosciusko
2:55 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
These tips are meant as neither judgmental nor opinionated. They are just tips for individuals to use if they apply to the individual or if the individual so desires to use them. You are welcome to perceive them however you feel necessary or disagree, but please be courteous to those who decided to enjoy these for themselves this Thanksgiving, especially those with specific food allergies or dietary restrictions. Thank you for your input.
Local Bargain Jerk
5:31 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
In the sub-headline above the article, you say you are advocating a "whole body, evidence-based...approach..." My response was meant to be a "holistic, experienced-based approach to NOT imposing one's unique requirements on others."
I didn't mean to imply that your tips themselves were judgmental or opinionated. However, suggesting that someone show up to a dinner with his or her own dessert might cause that person to appear to be judging the host's ability to cook. In future articles, you might include some advice such as, "if you do bring your own dessert...or ask for a specific plate size...or request a different first course than everyone else's, please be sure to discuss your needs with your host well beforehand. Your host will be juggling many tasks trying to please the other guests, and his or her needs must also be considered."
Please believe me, my observations are experience-based; The kind of person who does something like trying to host a gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner can often be unaware (to the point of inconsideration) that such an approach might not be everyone's cup of tea.
So, I agree that you did a good job of providing useful tips for "those with specific food allergies or dietary restrictions", but I believe you overlooked the needs the other members of the parties they attend.
In other words, stress flows both to and from an individual. Your tips handled the inflow. I was trying to provide some "tips" for reducing the outflow.
Lorraine F
4:18 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
LBJ,
Loved reading your procrastination-induced rant(s)!
Most of these dietary blogs are little more than advertisements for someone's business. I'm getting tired of reading "blog number 25 on how to cure everything-itis".
I think most readers are capable of a Google search.
deb of see-attleboro
6:08 pm on Sunday, November 25, 2012
Maybe it's a generational thing. I have no idea how old you are, Dr Misty. But your suggestions are not practical for most of us who try to host large gatherings. If a guest were to exercise some of your options, he/she may come across as ungrateful. In fact, I now avoid hosting holidays or special occasions because I find more than a few younger folk asking for special menus to cater to their latest fad. If I could afford to hire a party planner or chef, I might not be so hesitant. Until that day comes, I have all but burned my rolling pin.
East side
8:24 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
While some of these suggestions are not representative of a reality based family all are marketing material for this individuals small business. So with that said, shame on you all of making comments that are not hollistic nor support small business (at least keep your comments to yourself another week). Now, on a reality note - no bad marketing is good marketing and thus the fact that we are talking about these suggestions is in fact marketing. So the plan worked, instead of using the above suggestions, the suggestion is to talk about the business and that is the wanted result. Well played.
Common Sense
8:57 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
Do any of you realize that you are bickering over a Clinical Nutritionists advice? Great, if you don't want to take her advice, do not read the article let alone spew nonsense on the comments section.
You are all blasting a small business owner for giving up her time and writing these posts for people to read? Does that make sense? What happened to the old adage if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all? If you do not agree with a Doctors advice no one said you have to take it.
The fact that all of you are spending your time complaining over advice from a nutrition professional speaks volumes about what is wrong in our country today. If you prefer to binge and eat your weight during the holiday season, do not complain come January that your blood pressure is through the roof or that your "New Years Resolution" is to lose weight.
Long story short, grow up.
Dr. Kosciusko, thank you for taking your time and writing these posts. Do not let the naysayers discourage you.
East side
9:05 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
You should read your own advice.
On another note - the guidance to spend money to a small business is not based on the marketing of charity. This individual is just that - an individual that went out with advice, now should she not like the reponses above then she should not post advice. I feel some of the advice makes sense and others would not work in the real world as expressed above.
I find your comments that this individual being a clinical nutritionist and giving advice is insulting. she is a clinical nutritionist and that is a great thing. She reached out and gave advice. That's a great thing.
Local Bargain Jerk
9:44 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
Dear Common Sense:
No one here is "bickering", although your insults (saying that we "spew nonsense") and observations (suggesting that we need to "grow up") could easily cause everyone to start doing so. Or was that your objective?
I will stand by the original summary recommendation I made in my post:
-- Have fun and be healthy, but please don't impose your dietary needs and
-- opinions on others. In fact, don't even mention them. Remember, these are
-- your issues and your choices, and not everyone else's.
I meant these words as a supplement to Dr. Kosciusko's advice as they were prominently missing from the Dr.'s original article. I believe these words are anything but "nonsense". Unfortunately, I also believe they are anything but "common sense" for many.
As an aside, congratulations on your first post on Patch! It's a free country, of course, but I'd like to suggest that you might benefit from quietly observing things for a while before chiming in again. Doing so might help you avoid making the mistakes you made in your inaugural post (http://portsmouth.patch.com/users/common-sense-0fa09d24/comments).
deb of see-attleboro
9:08 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
Who is "bickering"? If the Dr does not want comments, she should ask Patch to post her column without the ability to do so. I have seen it done before.
Why does it seem every time someone offers constructive criticism, an opinion or an observation, it is perceived as "hate"?
Amy
9:14 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
Thanksgiving is a feast! A time to gather with family and freinds and give thanks for our bountiful harvest. If you want to eat a salad on Thanksgiving have at it and enjoy. Maybe I'll get to salad on my third helping.
Ryan McGowan
5:17 pm on Monday, November 26, 2012
Right on Amy! And since we can eat from harvests all over the world, we have much to be thankful for!
JavaJen
9:38 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
I think these are great reminders for the entire holiday season. Thanks Misty!
Mandy
10:14 am on Monday, November 26, 2012
Dr. Kosciusko: Thank you for sharing your professional knowledge and advice with the public. Keep on posting! Do not let the misery of others lead you astray! Unfortunately, miserable people tend to say miserable things. That will never change. However, your strength to endure, despite their unfortunate misery, is another story! You educated yourself for a lot of years for the purpose of helping others with your God-given talent. Shame on the evil doers and sayers for trying to hinder you. Happy Monday! Chin up!
Small Change
12:43 pm on Monday, November 26, 2012
==bick·er/ˈbikər/
Verb:
Argue about petty and trivial matters: "whenever the phone rings, they bicker over who must answer it".==
==Local Bargain Jerk
Dear Common Sense:
No one here is "bickering",==
==deb of see-attleboro
Who is "bickering"? If the Dr does not want comments, she should ask Patch to post her column without the ability to do so.==
Someoene posts some suggestions for controlling calories on Thanksgiving and everyone lays into her, trying to find some point of fault.
If the dictionary replaced the phone call example with this thread, it would have a more precise example of pointless bickering.
SC
2:00 pm on Monday, November 26, 2012
I think maybe this is a good spot to advertise the Psychological Wellness Center in Tiverton.
deb of see-attleboro
2:21 pm on Monday, November 26, 2012
I think the Dr can handle her critics. I guess her fans don't agree.
Steve
3:35 pm on Monday, November 26, 2012
Are we as a society this stupid that we need to have a "Chiropractor" tell us to watch what we eat and drink on Thanksgiving?
Give me a break here!
Here are the line items recapped in the article as follows, don’t eat, don’t drink, and excercise!
That’s it, advice given, gee go figure, I now feel enlightned!
Thanks “Misty”, next you’ll tell me not to drive 140 mph and run into a bridge abutment! What’s next, don’t run with scissors?
Where would society be without you.......
Dr. Misty Kosciusko
5:22 pm on Monday, November 26, 2012
Thank you for your comments everyone. I won't be responding individually because there are too many but to those of you who do appreciate this, I'm glad you have a vested interest in your health! For those with suggestions, I always welcome constructive criticism or suggestions that will help with future articles. Finally, for all the rest, I'd be happy to discuss what a chiropractor truly is. Clearly there is misinformation or some of you may have had a negative experience with Chiropractic. That is unfortunate and I apologize on behalf of my colleague is that is so. A Chiropractic Physician is a diagnostic physician that focuses on the health of the neuro-musculoskeletal system and utilizes treatments other than drugs or surgery to manage pain and optimize wellness. I am also a Clinical Nutritionist, which is an individual who helps to aid individuals suffering from chronic illness or disease through nutritional aid and a preventative lifestyle.
I offer these blogs as easy read help tips and reminders for the community. If you have any other questions or would like to personally address me with an issue, you may reach me at drmistyk@newhorizonchiro.com.