What to do about Thanksgiving
Hey there, fellow food-lover!
Here’s what I want you to know as many of us are preparing for Thanksgiving:
It’s not the Thanksgiving food that’s the problem.
It’s your all-or-nothing thinking about Thanksgiving that’s the problem.
It’s your belief that you can EITHER be “good” (aka totally on plan, eating all the clean foods, feeling deprived and missing out on the foods you’re actually craving) OR you can just give up.
And most of us WANT to enjoy the Thanksgiving spread, so we choose to just give up. And then we don’t even try to find realistic, doable opportunities to enjoy the holiday fare without going completely off the rails.
Your all-or-nothing thinking often sounds like:
“I don’t want to restrict, so I'm just going to eat whatever I want.”
“It’s impossible to lose weight during the holidays.”
“There’s so much good food around, I might as well just blow it out now and try again later.”
“It’s all too much. I’m just going to put my weight loss on hold until January.”
It’s thoughts like these that block you from finding the easy, realistic, and doable solutions to your weight loss struggles.
Here’s the truth: Thanksgiving is ONE meal. It doesn’t have to have a huge impact on your weight loss, even though it’s decadent and you may choose to eat more than you normally would on Thursday.
You can totally enjoy yourself on Thanksgiving and still reach your weight loss goal this week...if you’re willing to try to find solutions.
My clients are currently working on creating their restriction-free weight loss game plan for Thanksgiving, and you can, too.
The plan looks different for everyone, but here are some solutions they’ve come up with:
Even if I’m traveling and I don’t have control over the menu, I can still wait for true physical hunger before starting to eat. And I can stop when I’m satisfied, not stuffed.
Instead of just mindlessly piling up my plate, I can take a minute to look at what’s being served and decide which foods are really worth it to me and which are totally skippable.
I can put the appetizers I like on a plate and enjoy them consciously rather than mindlessly picking all afternoon.
I can leave some white space on my dinner plate rather than automatically serving myself big portions of everything.
I can practice “the pause”. Before I help myself to another plate of appetizers or a second helping of dinner, I can give myself just five minutes to pause and check in with my body and how I feel physically. My brain may be automatically asking for more, but what does my body need right now?
I can remind myself that Thanksgiving is just one day - I can get right back to my normal eating tomorrow.
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These solutions are brilliant, and they completely shift my clients' focus from what's challenging about the holidays to what's possible for them, even with so much delicious food available.
These solutions allow my clients to fully enjoy their Thanksgiving food AND also to keep some focus on the weight loss results they’re creating. It’s a total win-win.
If you’re inspired by their creative solutions, send me an email and let me know what you’re going to try this Thursday! I would love to hear from you.
And if you need help and support on your weight loss journey, I would love to be your coach. Click >>HERE<< for more information about scheduling a free chat with me.
