Health Tips: Surviving Thanksgiving Dinner

Photo from clatl.com

Let’s all let out a joyous cheer that we are in the holiday season.  It is a wonderful time of year, filled with friends, family, and food.  Lots, and lots of food.  Thanksgiving, holiday parties, treats at the office, food gifts from neighbors and friends, sneaking a Cinnabon at the mall, Christmas dinner, Christmas cookies, more Christmas cookies, New Year’s, etc, etc, etc!  While this might be the happiest season of all, most Americans will not be cheering when they step on their bathroom scales January 2^nd.   Although weight loss during this time of year can be challenging, if not impossible, with a little planning and some will power, weight management is possible. 

I could probably focus this whole blog on tips for managing weight during the holiday season, but for now I will focus on the most imminent threat to your waistline: Thanksgiving dinner.  According to the Calorie Control Counsel (yes, there is officially a counsel for everything now) the typical holiday meal contains a whopping 4,500 calories.  That’s like eating 8 Big Macs.  Goodbye, skinny jeans!  How can a meal possibly be that atrocious?  Blame it on fatty, sugary foods and lots of ‘em.  But here’s a few things you can do about it:

Makeover Monday: Cranberry Walnut Jell-O Salad

The week of Thanksgiving is upon us!  After a two year hiatus, I am finally returning to my parents' house to have Thanksgiving with my family and I could not be more excited. As the big day quickly approaches, I find myself thinking about my favorite dishes that my mom has been making every year for as long as I can remember.  While I love them all, perhaps the one I get the most excited about every year is this Cranberry Walnut Jell-O salad.  I know that Jell-O salads aren't usually the star of the show, but for some reason I can never get enough of this stuff.  It is sweet, tart, crunchy, and just plain good.  With cranberries, apples, oranges, and walnuts, it is a perfect dish for this time of the year.

As with many of the recipes I have requested from my mom over the years, I was a little surprised when I saw that this seemingly healthy side dish was deceptively unhealthy.  It had a cup of sugar!  I've eaten desserts with less sugar than that.  And that is on top of the 73 grams of sugar in the package of Jell-O.  Ouch!  But I loved this recipe too much to just forget about it.  I was going to make it myself.  I was going to enjoy it without feeling guilty.  And I was definitely going to eat it more than once a year.

Makeover Monday: Guiltless Pumpkin Pie

My tummy is counting down to Thanksgiving.  Only 10 more days!  My favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner, much like most meals, is dessert.  And my favorite Thanksgiving dessert is pumpkin pie.  It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it.  Every year after overindulging on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries and the rest of the gang, I tell myself I am going to wait and have a piece of pie later.  Then I see my mom cutting and distributing the delectable pieces of pumpkin pie and topping them with a generous scoop of whipped cream.  My resolve instantly weakens and I know I can't resist.  It gets me every time. 

The good news is that pumpkin pie isn't all bad.  The main ingredient is a vegetable, after all.  Pumpkin pie's best quality is that it is an excellent source of Vitamin A.  Unfortunately, it is also an excellent source of fat and sugar.  Pumpkin pie's worst quality is its crust.  A standard piece of pumpkin pie has about 315 calories, and almost 40% of that comes from the crust. 

I came across this recipe for Guiltless Pumpkin Pie a few years ago and thought it was brilliant.  It has a meager 100 calories.  That's 100 calories for dessert.  On a day known for overeating, that's kind of a big deal.  The main calorie slashing method of this recipe is that it is crust-less.  This is a double bonus for me since I'm not a crust person anyway.  It also saves calories by using fat free evaporated milk, using less of it than a standard recipe, and using Splenda instead of sugar.  If you are a pie crust enthusiast, you could still make this filling with a crust and lose about 95 calories per slice.