Tips for Sane Eating on Thanksgiving
Most people have a love/hate relationship with Thanksgiving. It is great being with family and friends, having a long relaxing weekend and being able to take a break from the daily stresses of your life. On the other hand, those stresses can be replaced with new ones, being with family, trying to be a perfect hostess/host and wondering how you are going to stick to your diet.
Thanksgiving is basically a great excuse for overeaters to well… over eat! This holiday is the ultimate test for a food-aholic. But just because the rest of America is gorging doesn’t mean you have to as well.
Dr. Adam Silberstein is a co-founder of The Source Health and Wellness Treatment Center in Los Angeles. The Source is a program developed expressly for food addicts. Their goal is to treat those with an unhealthy relationship with food. Dr. Silberstein and his staff are intent on helping their clients break bad behavior and learn how to re-train their minds and bodies to live without binge eating. As an aside, Dr. Silberstein was admittedly morbidly obese and has his own personal journey in which he lost over 130 pounds and has kept it off for over 13 years.
Here are his top food tips:
- Feast on family and friends-not on food.
- Remember Thanksgiving is still just a Thursday.
- Fail to plan, plan to fail
- Don’t face the challenge alone. Bookend with a friend – tell someone you can be honest with before the meal what you will eat or won’t eat and call them after the meal to let them know about your success
- Remember your last food hangover- the fatigue, the guilt, the pain and bring that memory to the table
- Ask yourself what a “reasonable” person who you truly respect would say about your food choices- remember the key word is what is “reasonable.” I sometimes say to people if 100 of the best doctors saw your plate what would they say- reasonable or not reasonable
- Honor and respect your triggers. If you lost the battle with the pumpkin pie last year why would you go in the rink with it again this yea
- Sometimes Disneyland is not the happiest place on earth and neither is the Thanksgiving table- filled with family who you may not be thrilled to break bread with. Have a plan for coping with your family- especially the difficult members.
- Take care of yourself- know you’re not being weird if you call your host to ask ahead of time what is being served.
