9 Ways to Beat Back the Thanksgiving Bulge
Hi there: Alright I'm not sure where you're at when you're reading this but here in Kelowna it is cold! -14 C to be exact! All the prairie people are rolling their eyes right now thinking 'wimps'. Speaking of prairie people maybe this is just our way of being hospitable to the Regina Pats who are in town to play the Rockets tonight. Yeah that's it, just our way to make them feel at home.
But enough talk about the weather it's almost Thanksgiving weekend and with that means big meals, a few days off and maybe some football on tv. So whether you are south of the border or not I want to make sure you are well armed going into this weekend to stay on track with your training, to enjoy the holiday to the max and mostly importantly to stave off the weight gain experienced by so many. So here are 9 Ways to Beat Back the Thanksgiving Bulge.
1. Schedule your big meal earlier in the day. Most of us tend to eat dinner at the end of the day after school and work. But school is out for this holiday and many get the day off work. Since this frees up the schedule use it to your advantage to schedule the big meal earlier in the day. This will allow you more time after to work off some of the extra calories than if you finish late into the evening and simply slide in front of the tv before going to bed.
2. Eat your veggies first. This is important for a few reasons including the fact that when our plates are left unfinished often times it is the yams, broccoli and cauliflower that go untouched. Secondly, there are many enzymes contained within vegetables that assist in the digestion and absorption of other nutrients. Lastly, by eating our veggies first we will be filling up on high nutrient value, low calorie foods before you get to the high calorie, sugar and fatty accompaniments.
3. Take a pill. I don't advocate a lot of supplements but one that may not be a bad idea is a digestive enzyme. This ensures that you are able to digest and absorb food to the best of your ability and not have it linger in the digestive tract where it can lead to other problems. Food quality is not what it used to be and so taking a digestive enzyme ensures you get the most nutrition out of your meal. Let me know if this a topic that interests you and I'll write more on this in the future.
4. Use a smaller plate. Let's be honest. Nobody really counts calories. Instead we eat based on portion size. So if I use a smaller plate or even a saucer I am less likely to over eat than if I use a large plate.
5. Workout first. I written previously about the benefits of the post workout meal. About how your body is primed for muscle synthesis and enzyme concentrations are highest at this time. Well use this to your advantage by doing a workout before your meal.
6. Drink a glass of water first. Better yet make that two. Once you finish your workout you will be a little bit dehydrated so it makes sense to drink some water at this time. But additionally you will begin filling the stomach with zero calorie water and reduce the potential for filling with additional calories during the meal.
7. Decrease the energy density of your food. Energy density simply means how many calories you get based on a particular volume of food. Think of eating a cupl of broccoli or a cup of butter. There's 1628 calories in a cup of butter and 31 calories in a cup of broccoli. Over 50 times more calories in the same volume of two different foods. Why such a difference? It comes down the the amount of water and the amount of fat in the food. To reduce the energy density of your Thanksgiving meal look to increase the water content of your food i.e. drink more water, eat more vegetables, eat soup and reduce the fat content as well.
8. Go slowly. The message from your stomach telling you when you are full is not as instantaneous as we would hope. So we could in fact be full but due to the delay in this message being received we continue on past this point and end up over eating. To avoid this take your time, enjoy the company of those you sit down with and after a while pause momentarily to see how you feel.
9. Move afterwards. Point #1 was to set the meal time a little earlier in the day. By doing so now there should be some time left to do something active after. It could be as active as a pick up game of football, to shovelling the driveway or as relaxed as a walk around the block. Resist the urge to pop the belt buckle and crash out in front of the tv and get some fresh air.
Regardless of whether you are American or not look to incorporate these tips this Thanksgiving weekend and every holiday weekend for that matter.
All the best,
Chris okanaganpeakperformance.com 'always moving forward'
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