Stuffing the Turkey, but Not Yourself

Ah, my favorite time of year doth approaches.

The smell of mojo marinated turkey, black beans and rice, stuffing, pumpkin pie.....oh man! Did I ever mention that I absolutely love food?

Well, I do.

My love for shoveling delicacies in my mouth, however, will have to be dampened by my passion to stay true to my new lifestyle.

That doesn't mean that I'm not going to enjoy a little bit of everything, I'm just not going to have an entire plate just for stuffing along with other plates piled with numerous items.

So for those of you who are also watching your intake, I figured I would share with you some of my tips that will get me through this holiday:

1. Just because it is a holiday, it doesn't mean you shouldn't work out. Wake up early if you have to and get a long cardio/strength mix workout. I personally will be stealing a workout from Rugged Regimen that combines 10 rounds of: running for 3 minutes, 12 squat jumps, 12 push-ups, 24 cross-body mountain climbers, 24 split jumps, and 12 plank to pushups. That should be a large burn and remember you have to eat back what you burn PLUS the base calories you have set yourself at to lose weight.
2.  You can enjoy everything, just control your portions. For instance, I won't be having a full serving of mashed potatoes, and rice and beans. I'll probably split the serving up. 
3. Load up on healthy veggies. I'm not talking about green bean casserole with the crunchy onions on top. Orange glazed carrots, mustard greens (like kale), roasted cauliflower, and fresh salads that aren't riddled with caramelized nuts and warm bacon dressing. These will help fill you up, while getting essential nutrients, and not going hog-wiled on calories.
4.  When making recipes, try and substitute as MUCH as possible. There are plenty of pumpkin desserts that call for cream cheese. Just buy the low fat one, it tastes the same (especially when mixed in with other ingredients) and it saves on the calories. Oh, and one other thing. Just stay away from the heavy cream. Let me break it down for you. 1 cup of heavy cream is just over 800 calories. 1 cup of low-fat half and half is 200. If you think there is a huge difference, there really isn't. If a cup of half and half doesn't thicken whatever you just added it to, just let it cook for a tad longer.
5. This is for the ladies. If you just don't think you can trust yourself to stop eating, something that helps me is wearing a shaper. If you have one that goes up over your chest (but below the hoohahs) it should help you not over eat, because if you do, it will be extremely uncomfortable. Any of you moms remember when your tummy was so big that if you ate past a certain point it would just all come up? Wearing a shaper is kind of like that, just not as uncomfortable or as severe. It works for me, I can't guarantee it will work for you.
6. If you are going to be drinking wine, here is a list of low calorie wine brands http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/04/top-10-low-calorie-wine-brands/2/ Remember that the more alcohol is in something the more calories there are. Red wines, generally, are also a better choice then sweet white wines.

So, those are the tips that I will be following this year. By all means, I am no expert, but I have learned a lot from a handful of people that know what it means to be healthy. I am just an average mom with a desire to become healthy and these are tips I know I can follow without feeling like I missed out on the tastiest holiday of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving all! 

And just a friendly reminder that Thanksgiving is a time for family, gathering, eating, and football. It is not a day for shopping. There are many retail employees that unfortunately can not enjoy this time on Thanksgiving because their stores choose to be open which is in my opinion just insane.