Healthy Tips for a Guilt Free Thanksgiving
This year’s Thanksgiving is obviously going to look a lot different for most of us. So something tells me the traditional Thanksgiving foods are going to be even more important than usual- we are all looking for ways to create SOME sense of normalcy in these anything-but-normal times. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a healthy Thanksgiving. Healthy Thanksgiving recipes are in abundance in the food blogger world, and there are many great options for easy healthy recipes for your Thanksgiving meal.
So I would caution you against just throwing your hands up and saying, “This year has been crap. I am eating my face off at Thanksgiving.”
First, let’s just call a spade a spade- this year HAS been absolute crap. But please don’t use that as an excuse to throw caution to the wind when it comes to what we eat. You know what makes a crappy situation worse? Feeling like crap. And consistently eating in ways that are not health supportive will lead to exactly that.
We are all guilty of using food as a reward at some point, but I often see this as a roadblock with clients I work with: “I had a really stressful week and I just really felt like I deserved to get a treat at the bakery,” or, “I had a really crappy year so pass the Doritos.”
This year, it’s more important than ever to enjoy holidays like Thanksgiving, but there are ways to do this without derailing health goals, or contributing to feeling like crap for the entire holiday season when life is handing us enough crap already. Don’t add to the crap pile with foods that don’t serve you. AND. It’s important to enjoy your foods on Thanksgiving. (I know, this is getting confusing). So here are some healthy tricks to navigate having a guilt-free healthy Thanksgiving:
Avoid all or nothing thinking. How many holidays have you eaten everything offered simply because it's there and it's only offered once a year? This is the trap of the holidays - eating a food just because it’s there. Similar to the advice I recommend to clients around Halloween, one trick is to recognize there are foods at Thanksgiving that we may really be looking forward to, and there are foods at Thanksgiving that maybe we just eat because they happen to be there. Stick to the foods you really like.
Once you know the foods you are going to enjoy, ENJOY THEM. Don’t get caught up in guilt and shame because you ate a food that is strongly tied to memories and emotions and other forces that “willpower” doesn’t stand a chance against. There is also an actual reason to enjoy these foods- it helps your digestion. If you are eating a food surrounded by a cloud of guilt and shame, guess what- that stress can slow down digestion and lead to discomfort- bloating, gas, you name it. Getting your body into rest and digest mode, and being thankful for the foods you are about to enjoy will get your body into rest and digest mode, allowing your body to digest food properly.
One day of eating sugar and gluten won’t derail you….except….for most people, it’s never just one day. One day turns into leftovers and it’s the start of a slippery slope. If you are cooking, be mindful of how much food you are making for how many people you are serving, so you aren’t saddled with tons of leftovers that you then wind up eating for another week. Cut recipes in half, and don’t make ALL the dishes- choose your favorites and only make those.
If possible, use higher quality ingredients to support your health on this day, such as:
If your budget allows for it, consider finding a pasture-raised turkey. These can usually be found through a local butcher, farmer’s market, CSA boxes that sell meat, or even some grocers. They typically need to be ordered in advance so you’ll want to look now. What’s in your meat is important (you are what you eat, after all!). Pasture-raised meats also have higher nutrient profiles than conventional meats.
Use healthy fats in your cooking. This means no canola, vegetable oils, or margarine and instead relying on grass fed butter, ghee (clarified butter, origins from India), coconut oil, or olive oil. Processed oils like canola can be inflammatory while the healthy fats listed above provide plenty of nutrients like butyric acid, conjugated linoleic acid, and Vitamin A. So go ahead and make your mashed potatoes, just use grass fed butter.
Substitute coconut milk for regular milk in some recipes. Coconut milk is a great source of medium-chain triglycerides and minerals, while ‘conventional’ dairy is one of the most common food sensitivities. Recipes like sweet potato casserole taste even yummier with the healthful benefits of coconut milk.
Use bone broth. There are a lot of Thanksgiving recipes that call for stock like gravy and stuffing- by substituting regular stock with bone broth, you’re adding more collagen, gelatin, amino acids, and minerals.
Instead of regular refined sugar, substitute coconut sugar in recipes. This does not mean coconut sugar is ‘good for you’ and can be eaten with abandon. Coconut sugar is essentially a slightly less evil, in that it has some small amounts of fiber, along with small amounts of minerals and nutrients. However, it’s still a sugar, so use sparingly!
Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be a pitfall of dietary traps, and it is possible to have a healthy Thanksgiving AND also enjoy some of the special foods!