A Meet In The Middle Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of the many holidays we have in the United States that has an established tradition of eating.  For many years our holiday was filled with family recipes made lovingly by me, my sisters and my mom. It was never a healthy holiday.  I would abandon my self care and often regret it.  Most of the foods were laden with sugar, wheat, dairy and eggs. These ingredients just don’t make me feel good and I don’t enjoy them anymore. For a while this used to make me dread the holidays.

Food is the Fabric of Holidays

Food is such a connector; it is often hard to refuse. Or when you do refuse or it becomes a big deal, you can feel isolated from the people you care about. This isn’t what Thanksgiving is about for me. So I set a goal to let go of the dread and figure out ways to enjoy the day. My goals now are to be happy during dinner, engage in a positive way with my family, eat until satisfied, skip the food coma, enjoy the walk and wake up the next day feeling great.

Over the last few years I have developed some strategies, to help me enjoy the connections and traditions forged by food, as well as allow everyone healthier choices. I started simply by adding fresh organic whole foods to our table as my family thanksgiving contribution.We meet in the middle! Let me know what you think and how you manage your food health on the holidays.

Meet in the middle strategies:

1. Make the Turkey as fresh and healthy as possible. I volunteer to buy and cook the turkey to get us off the mass produced bird that had been raised in cramped misery and feed genetically modified corn or soy and frozen for 6 months. Now I get naturally raised one fresh from a local farm.   Here are a couple I use.  Lilac Hedge Farm and Chestnut Hill Farms are both fabulous Massachusetts meat community supported agriculture based farms. I stuff my fresh bird with fruit and herbs rather than stuffing. The flavor is so good!
2. Make no sugar added cranberry sauce, no one can tell the difference.
3. Introduce Fruit as an appetizer. Add a little mint to green it up. Make enough so you can have a little for dessert.
4. Make a clean dessert, either fruit salad or a pumpkin custard no sugar added.

   

5. Add a new green vegetable to the offering. I added Asparagus then Brussels sprouts drizzled with lemon. These don’t displace the green bean casserole, but provide now well loved alternatives.
6. Invite everyone on a walk after Thanksgiving dinner. 20 of 30 minutes walking and catching up before the couch and football claims everyone.
7. Bring a tea to help digestion. Coriander, Cumin and Fennel tea or Ginger tea work great for me.
8. Have a really Green eating day on Black Friday.

Make Changes Gradually

Because I introduced these things over a number of years, it wasn’t a shock to anyone. This works much better than when I just brought everything separately. There are still plenty of traditional foods on the table. So I choose not to eat everything that is served. I skip the eight or so kinds of pies on the dessert table. The joy of being with people I love who are truly enjoying themselves is a much healthier sweet sensation for me. I actually take pleasure in watching my family enjoy themselves. But with these simple changes, there is choice within the context of tradition that really works for me.

The information provided in this blog is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment or advice. All the material here is for information purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.