And as I'm sure is the case with most of your family gatherings, there will be plenty of food to be had and eaten. Especially with Thanksgiving coming up in just a few days!
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| Source: allianceabroad.com |
While this is a wonderful thing for most people, those of us who are constantly thinking about the decisions we make with food and how it will affect our bodily aesthetic can experience the anxiety of what to eat and what not to eat on festive occassions and said family gatherings.
But fear not champions of fitness and aesthetics! I'm here to offer you my experience and advice for getting through your holiday meals without the guilt, as well as offer some techniques and gameplans you can use to make the most out of your family meal and make it a net positive (mostly) for your caloric, macro, and nutritional needs on the day.
Holiday meals can quickly get out of hand, but they can also be a powerful ally, as there are a lot of great food options that can help put you closer to your goals. So here are some tips / foods you should look out for this Thanksgiving / holiday season that you can use to help maximize your goals and enjoy the boutiful food choices in front of you!
EATING TIPS
To clarify, a lot of these eating tips will be centered around what MY experience / traditions are with my family and household. Your circumstances my certainly differ, but I believe a lot of these tips to be fairly universal:
Pace Yourself
There will be tons of options the first time you step up to the dinner table. You'll see tons of really satisfying foods that you are going to want to attack immediately. But hold on there champ. You don't need to turn your stomach into a supermarket your first go around, and you don't need to plow it down right away. Get a moderate amount of food, and enjoy each bite. Take time to enjoy this bounty of food you have just been graciously given. Take in the moment. Talk with your relatives. Let the food actually make it to your esophagus before you're ready to rush back for seconds. Eating too quickly will make you want to go back more and more often, and thus open up any tendencies for overeating. Take your time.
Pick foods that will help your macro requirements
Holiday foods, especially during Thanksgiving, offer bountiful amounts of food that are great for hitting your macronutrient requirements. In fact, a lot of these food choices are foods that you would typically find in a bodybuilder's diet.
The most obvious example is the turkey. I believe I've discussed turkey in a previous post on nutrition and protein sources. To refresh, what you need to know about turkey is that it is a super lean meat with tons of protein. You can get tons of protein from turkey without eating too much of it and breaking your caloric bank for the day. For those of you intersted in putting on muscle, be sure to hit the turkey hard....but of course don't go overboard. You wouldn't want to eat more than a pound of turkey on the day...which would more or less equate to 100g of protein give or take a few grams. However, if you plan on making turkey your primary source of protein / exclusively what you'll be eating for the day, then you can and should of course eat more to fill your protein needs.
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| Source: livefitwithstephanie.com |
At my holiday gatherings, deviled eggs are also a popular option. In my opinion, you don't really want to go for what's inside the deviled eggs (the yellow part), as it typically contains a lot of extra ingredients that will break your diet. Instead, I eat just the egg whites. I've also discussed egg whites before, and what you need to know is that they are essentially pieces of pure protein with a great amino acid profile with practically no calories per 5 grams of protein (if memory serves me correctly, you're looking at about 25 calories per whole egg white).
There might be other protein options at your Thanksgiving table. Be on the look out for other pieces of whole meat, like your chicken breasts, beef products, and bean / legume dishes as well.
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For carbs, sweet potatoes tend to be a very popular option at holiday gatherings. That's target number one to me at holiday gatherings. Sweet potatoes are a fantastic complex carb source for bodybuilding. You'll probably also have rice and grain options at your table. You can also eat as many fibrous carbs as you want in the form of salads and leafy greens.
For fats, I would recommend just eating the residual fats that come along with the foods that you are eating. Chances are the people who cooked your food added some form of fat or calorically dense ingredient, and it's a macro you definitely don't want to be overeating. You also don't need so much of it that you need to seek out the foods that are high in them.
Load up on whole foods / high fiber foods
I'll get into the toppings / etc in a second, but be sure that the foods you decide to eat have very little of them on them. What I mean by that is that you want as little ingredients on your food as possible, so that you don't over eat on the calories. You don't need to drown your turkey in whatever condiment or topping / dressing that is available to you. Enjoy the whole ingredients. When you become liberal with the residual ingredients, you start inviting excess calories to the party that you will be unable to account for. The less screwed around with the ingredients, the better you'll be able to ballpark the effect it's having on your body.
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| Source: golfdigest.com |
Also, aim for high fiber foods, like beans, brown rice, and definitely the vegetables. They will fill you up quickly and make you less inclined to want to continue eating.
Watch the toppings
Very important concept here folks. Sure, the 4 oz of turkey you're eating may have like 120-150 calories in it, but the gravy swimming pool you just threw it in could make that number skyrocket in no time at all.
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| Source: sogoodblog.com |
Try to avoid the toppings / dressings / dips / etc. Try enjoying the food as it is. If you absolutely need to put stuff on your food, try a conservative amount first and see how you like it. Also, consider putting said sauce on the side and dip your food into it. Or, better yet, dip your utensil into said sauce and then go over to the food you are eating.
Take small portions each time
Another important concept. A good strategy you can employ is to only take a small amount of the foods you want to eat. Doing so will make it so that you're constantly going back and forth to the dinner table. That might get old for you after a while, and thus you may be less inclined to go back. You'll pay more attention to your body and ask yourself if it's really worth going back. You'll also be less inclined to overeat since the chances are there isn't anymore food left in front of you. As a lot of people know, leaving food on your plate as you're sitting there in front of it will make you more inclined to want to keep eating it. Not a good thing if you're watching your figure.
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Don't drink your calories
Don't just use this technique for holiday gatherings, but use this technique ALL the time if you're bodybuilding or watching your figure. You should never drink your calories, as liquid calories will never fill you up as adequately as whole food will, and it's easy to blow up your caloric intake for the day in less than a minute. I understand that there are people out there who actually enjoy drinking alcohol for whatever reason, and that there might be some delicious sparkling apple cider with your name on it.....but pump the breaks on the drinks guys. You can take your diet from zero to destroyed in a very short amount of time. Stick mostly to water, with the occassional drink. And when you drink your drink of choice, drink it in moderation and small portions.
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| Source: i.dailymail.co.uk |
The Good:
Here are some popular Thanksgiving / holiday foods to look out for (biased towards protein...but your goals could be much different):
Turkey - High in protein. Lean meat. Calories aren't that high.
Sweet Potatoes - A nice starchy complex carb. Needs very little to make it taste good.
Salad / Leafy Greens - High in fiber and typically high in nutrients. You can eat as much as you want.
Deviled eggs without the yolks - Pretty much just solid blocks of pure protein for not that much of a caloric hit.
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| Source: igourmet.com |
Just be smart with your decisions guys. I know you pretty much know what foods would be better for you. Use common sense and don't let your mind control your body into making terrible food decisions.
The Bad:
Here is a list of the foods you should avoid during your holidays....but you should probably avoid them any time of the year...regardless
Cakes and Pies - Tons of calories per slice. And a lot of those calories are empty. A nuclear bomb to all the hard work you've done towards your nutritional goals.
Alcohol - Don't even get me started. Screws with protein synthesis, empty calories, makes you lose control. No nutritional benefit whatsoever. I don't care what you have to say about red wine. I'll probably have to write a post on this in the near future.
Candies - Simple sugars with no nutritional value. Loaded with carbohydrates that can easily be converted straight to fat.
High Fat Toppings and Dips - Very easy to pour the stuff on for toppings, thus leading to an overload of calories very quickly. As for dips, can you really only dip just once? Same concept applies. The only real exception MIGHT be salsa, but even so, the items you typically use to dip are not nutritionally sound either.
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| Source: www.4eagleexpress.com |
With these techniques and ideas in mind, you should be able to enjoy your holiday within reason. It's important for you to prioritize the things in your life, and to ask yourself whether one day of excess is worth the added excess of work you'd need to do to get back on track. I'm not saying you can't have ANY fun during the holidays, as you should, but keep in mind that, as I've alluded to many times, life is a balance. The amount of fun you have this holiday season eating food is directly proportional to the work you'll have to do afterwards to work it off and stay back on track. Just be smart about it. Find that balance of fun and discipline to attain the closest you can possibly be to the best of both worlds.
Have a great Thanksgiving you guys!
-Jtrain
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Solid post as usual. Just because I know there are people like me out there that are going to see their favorite pie out there on the battlefield, I've come up with a pretty awesome plan to keep that to a minimum. Got a wife/GF/ or mom? Most of the time they are in the same boat as you. They want something sweet like that, but don't want to bust all the hard work they've put in either. Well, why not grab a slice, split it down the middle and share it with them. it's 1/2 the bad with the added benefit of gaining a sense of closeness with someone you care about.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's best to be smart about limiting the junk and sweets. But this way you can still get a taste, satisfy the craving, and look like a hero by killing the stigma and taking 1/2 the hit from someone else.
Just a thought.
Omg, that's an AMAZING idea. I'm going to start telling people about that technique. Love it! Thank you for sharing, and thank you for the kind words!
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