That's Fit

Thanksgiving is less than a month away, which means that a 1,000-2,000 calorie meal is also fast approaching. Mind you, 2,000 calories is the suggested caloric intake for a grown man for an entire day! So, how do both men and women avoid overindulgence this turkey day? Here are a few suggestions:

1 - Keep your portions limited. This is, by far, the best approach. Remember, it typically takes your mind close to 20 minutes before it registers that you're full. This means that as you pound your fifth piece of pecan pie, you were actually full twenty minutes ago, only your brain was slow in letting alerting you to that fact. To avoid letting this brain/stomach disconnect destroy your daily diet, purposely eat only small portions of each course.

2 - Stick to whole grains. I know how delicious those soft, fluffy biscuits are. And, I also know how easy it is to eat about four thousand of them in one sitting. But, these tasty litter suckers pack a pretty big wallop in the high-GI carb and calorie department. Same goes for your Mom's traditional recipe for stuffing. Try switching to whole grain products, replacing them for their faster-digesting enriched flour version.

3 - Go with white meat. Leaner meat, yeah we know all about it. It's true; white meat has less fat and calories than does dark meat. The downside, though, is that dark meat usually has a much richer flavor. My two cents: if you decide to not listen to any of these suggestions, this should be the one that you disregard. Dark meat, albeit slightly higher in fat, still contains a great deal of protein and almost no carbohydrates. This one is your call.

4 - Bring your own dessert. By the time you've even gotten around to desert, you've probably already eaten waaaay too much food to warrant stuffing even a granule of sugar in your mouth, let alone a piece of apple pie. However, Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving if it weren't for dessert, so you may as well be prepared. As such, you may want to bring your own dessert to wherever it is you're having dinner (that is, unless, of course, you're going to a restaurant). This way, you are in control of what you have to choose from. Some healthier options you can prepare are pumpkin pie made with Splenda, and any variety of sugar-free/fat-free pudding treats.