Thanksgiving – Finding Balance After the Splurge

“A 160 lb. person would have to run at a moderate pace for four hours, swim for five hours or walk 30 miles to burn off a 3,000-calorie Thanksgiving Day meal,” said Dr. Cedric Bryant, ACE chief exercise physiologist.

This is one example of the Thanksgiving information that I receive via emails, blogs, or fitness posts. I receive various tips and tricks about portion control and making healthy holiday recipes and tips such as passing on the booze, drinking plenty of water and eating an apple before your meal. Really?! There are only a few times a year where as American’s, it’s normal to splurge and one of them is Thanksgiving. As a trainer, I must provide proper instructions for living a healthy lifestyle, however, I can forgive for one day. The challenge is the following day where you have to find balance after a splurge. I encourage a few things:
Once Thanksgiving day is over, the Thanksgiving food is over

• If you are hosting, give away all left overs
• If the host makes you take leftovers, kindly discard them when returning home
• Return to your normal routine the following day

Begin the next day as usual

• Don’t compensate and skip meals or drastically cut calories
• Reduce your calories by about 10%, drink plenty of water and watch your carb intake for the following week

Don’t panic

• It’s easy to get stressed, but that will increase your cortisol levels which is bad news for your waistline
• It may take a few days to recover and you have plenty of time to regain control

Don’t step on the scale for a few days

• You may weigh 5 pounds more the following day because you’re retaining water from the salty food. Most of the weight gain is water weight which will disappear over the next week if you drink enough water and reduce salt intake

Remember, if you splurge on Thanksgiving day, it’s super easy to get back on track the following day and super hard to get back on track if you put it off until the new year.