Trying To Watch Your Weight This Holiday Season? Eat Thanksgiving Foods Without Putting On The Extra Pounds!

I think now more then ever, people are becoming more and more health conscious and striving to watch what they eat.  But what do you do when the holidays are here?  When your faced day in and and day out with the challenge of not eating those cookies or pies or chugging that glass of eggnog.  How can you have a simple and fit holiday season, while still enjoying the goodies that come with Thanksgiving?

Well it's simple actually, and it all begins with your level of self control.  You can enjoy the foods that you find on a traditional Thanksgiving spread as long as you watch yourself!  First off, don't go hungry!  Eat like a protein bar or some low fat snack like yogurt before you go.  Once your there, you can have a little of everything and you may be taking in a little extra fat, but as long as you manage your portions your going to be fine.  Don't go back for seconds, eat smaller portions of the foods and your body wont freak out and you end up gaining 5 pounds.  That's actually a big part of it, most people can actually eat what they want, as long as they eat small portions of it.  Moving on, here's a list of food that you can enjoy in regular portions on your plate, again don't go overboard and go back for seconds.

Turkey - Turkey is amazing!  It's tasty, and when you stick to the lean white & skinless meats of the turkey, your getting good pr0tein with low fat and not a crazy amount of sodium.  Skip the gravy though, leave that stuff off, instead enjoy some cranberry sauce on it (sugar free if possible).

Side dishes - Corn, broccoli, potato salad, fruit salad and regular garden salad.  Now watch your portions on the potato & fruit salads and any pasta side dish you may eat!  The fruit salad is high in sugars, while the potato salad is high in starches and fat due to the dressing used,  and carbs are pretty high in the potatoes and pastas (there is whole grain low carb pasta available if your doing the cooking).  The corn, steamed broccoli (no cheese) and garden salads you can have at, use low fat dressings for your salad!

Desserts - If you insist on eating a dessert just be conscious of how much you eat, but I must tell you if you are seriously trying to shed weight you will stay away from them all together!  Stay away from anything sweet!  If you want to indulge guilt free there are plenty of recipes for desserts that you can make on your own and take to share with your family and friends as a pleasant surprise for everyone, no one has to know it's sugar free because it's still delicious ;)

Other tips include drink plenty of water, not spiked eggnog.  Remember that it's not an all you can eat buffet on Thanksgiving!  Moderation is the key to staying within the limits of eating a healthy Thanksgiving dinner!

Now if you do go overboard, set a goal for yourself.  Tell yourself that if you eat a piece of chocolate pie, you have to run or walk 3 miles the next day.  And really stick with it!  If you get second helpings, make yourself get out the next day and bike for an hour or so.  Self control is what it comes down to, everybody has it, you just have to exercise it!

Oh yeah, speaking of exercise, that's important stuff!  It's great to get a start now instead of waiting for it to be your New Years resolution.  If you really want to get in shape, find a great gym like Gold's Gym, they have great offers, they care about their clients and they want to help you live a healthy lifestyle!  Exercise is important I always end suggesting you do a good 80 minutes of vigorous activity a week!  That's a minimum there!