How to survive thanksgiving?

[purplebug12]

Hi all!

So thanksgiving is coming up and mine will be a 3 day stay (2 half days and 2 full days) stay with family. They are not very healthy eaters (meals are ok but lots of snacks and not very supportive of my healthy eating endeavors or exercising).  I do count calories, but I won't be able to measure so I will have to estimate. I won't be able to do my exercise but I will try to fit in 10 min of bodyweight training a day. I don't want to cause friction by refusing all the foods I used to eat growing up so I think I may just take them when I need to and try to make the healthiest and lowest calorie (while filling) choices when I have control. I am going to really try to stick to my calorie goal (2500) (not trying to lose just maintain/gain muscle).

 

Any suggesting for surviving the holiday? What do you do? Is there anything I should try hard not to do? How will 4 days off my regular diet and schedule affect me? Will I lose muscle/strength progress? Will I gain weight?

[Eleanorsbee]

I would just eat and pig out ..... At the end of 2 days if you manage to eat 7000 calories more than the 5000 you want to eat (so 12000) calories .... You will have only put on 2lbs .... You can drop that in a week

Just don't worry about it, life is for living and it takes more than 2 days to get fat

[starsapart]

You can always take bigger portions of veggies and meat and so on until your plate is really full, then it doesn't look so strange to only take a little of other foods you used to pig out on.  Try going with "I'm still pretty full" when offered snacks.  If your family isn't weird about tea, make it (no sugar) and keep people company while snacking/drinking but stay low cal that way.  But in the end, two days won't kill you regardless.

 

You can always get up early and go for long walks every day, too.

[Northlander]

Just don't worry about it, life is for living and it takes more than 2 days to get fat

 

This.  I'm in a similar boat and I think of it this way; Thanksgiving is the one day a year that I eat turkey, stuffing (my absolute favorite), mashed potatoes, gravy, etc so I just let myself have it that one day with the expectation that I'm back on the horse the next.  Even if you go overboard it's nothing that can't be burned off in a week as long as you don't let that one day turn into 2, then 3, and so on.  A day or two isn't going to significantly affect your weight loss/strength gains as long as it's only a day or two.

 

As far as the snacks go I usually volunteer to bring some myself, then I know I'll have something for me and others are welcome to it as well.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

In all honesty, I basically skip all other meals and go absolutely full on glutton on the dinner. I'm not going to eat more than 4000 kcal between that and dessert. It's only 1 day and at worse 1 lb per day, I'll recover it over a week or so.

[shaeon]

Something I do at holiday meals: no one in my family makes actual vegetables as a side dish. Every "vegetable" dish is a casserole, and I really dislike casseroles. So I've started contributing actual vegetables to the meal.

 

Brussels sprouts are a great option: they are seasonal, and they go well with Thanksgiving fare. But even just a salad is a nice relief from the heavy casseroles.

 

Other than that, I agree with what everyone else says - it's just this one time of year. Get a little exercise in, and control what you eat when it's not time for one of the big meals.

[Hong WeiLoh]

I don't survive it at all. I die and go to heaven -- then self-resurrect a couple days later after the food coma wears off. Then it's back to PT and life as normal. \o/ It's not a personal tragedy, it's life. "Nothing is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so."

[Elastigirl]

Since you are there 4 days, like others said enjoy your Thanksgiving meal. Then go on the no two in a row.  Other meals, skip seconds, skip dessert( or just have small portions), focus on veggies and meat. Bring some healthy things you like to eat. I bring a bunch of raw veggies and dip to snack on while at my family during holidays. Then if they are snacking on cookies, I have veggies. Focus on portion size. For Thanksgiving, it's  festive to eat more, but then people sort of adjust to that and do that on all the days from Thanksgiving-Christmas, which is where the problem lies.

 

You may gain a little, but you know how to lose, so the next week when you return go back to your regular habits and you will be fine. 

[purplebug12]

Thank you all! I will definitely enjoy my holiday but focus on making healthy choices. I will try the no two in a row method and will focus on vegetables and meats. I will continue to count my calories so hopefully I can just stop when I reach that and not gain. My worry is that the food at home is higher calorie than my food here and so I will be hitting my calorie target but will still be hungry.  I will try to focus on low calorie filling foods and snacks over the next 4 days, maye limit myself when I am alone and have control so I can eat normal with others. 

[Risk]

This is one of the reasons I stopped counting calories and when with paleo eating a lot easier to enjoy the days with my family and not worry about eating “unhealthyâ€. I usually eat 60% to 70% paleo when I'm with the fam.

Eat more meat, vegetables and fruits and try not to eat to much carbs (tortillas). But as always I eat till I end up like a pinata.

 

my advice is just enjoy your fam, take a break from the counting and keep on trucking when you get back! 

 

Cheers and good luck! 

[JessFit]

Make/bring food and snacks to share! If they want you to eat chips take one but then be like "chips are good but I've really gotten into these wasabi almonds (or whatever), you should try some" because then you're not going the snob route but chances are they won't want any. My family are terrible eaters and they don't understand the word no so they will nag you until you eat 4 pieces of cake, but if you're polite and you express that you really actually enjoy something else more they generally eventually let it go. Unless you're my gram, if you're up against my gram you just shut up and eat the damn cake because she will ask you every 3 minutes until you leave otherwise

[purplebug12]

Well I made it through. I believe I actually was under my calorie target everyday but I was still able to enjoy time and food with my family. I didn't eat as healthily as I have been but that's what holiday's are about. It shouldn't affect my weight since I was under in calories, it just makes it a little tougher to wean myself back off treats and get back to eating healthy. I did end up doing exercise all but 1 day. Some lunges, squats, crunches, planks and wall/counter pushups.