With Thanksgiving coming soon, I'd like to help you savor the holiday in a more meaningful way.
Here are 5 tips to help you have a sweeter, happier, more nourishing holiday
meal that contributes to your feeling energized, cheerful, energized and
focused.
In other words, I'm here to help you stop Sugar Shock this
Thanksgiving. My intention is to give you tools and tactics so you will NOT get
depressed, moody, anxious, brain-fogged, hungover and libido-sapped after your
Thanksgiving meal.
Feel free to spread these simple strategies to your friends
and family members.
1. Pick a party purpose that's not about the food.
Arrive at
your Thanksgiving celebration with a non-food-focused mindset. Instead, select
something substantive to accompish that evening or afternoon -- long before you
stuff your mouth with sugary concoctions like candied yams, apple pie and
cranberry sauce.
For instance, you may choose as your party purpose to get to
know a long-lost relative better. Or perhaps you want to go for a half-hour walk
after your meal or walk your host's dog. Or maybe you'd like to make yourself
useful by cleaning the dishes. Just do something that keeps you from
over-focusing on the food.
2. Nibble before you nosh.
Before you even arrive at
your destination (or before you open your door to guests), take time to have a
small, healthy snack or mini-meal which includes some protein, quality carbs and
healthy fat.
For instance, you could have a hard-boiled egg with a couple of
sticks of celery or an organic apple. Or maybe you could eat a few raw almonds
with some grapes. You may even wish to have a few bites of turkey, along with a
couple of chunks of raw cauliflower.
When you nibble before you nosh, you're
basically taking out an insurance policy against pigging out at the party. Also,
make sure NOT to skip meals on Thanksgiving day with the idea that you'll be
eating a lot that evening. Passing up on meals that day will just set you up for
a binge that evening.
3. Zero in on the people, not the pies.
Remember that
Thanksgiving is about being grateful that you can celebrate a bountiful meal
with loved ones. So pay attention to the cool folks at your gathering.
Promise
yourself to learn something that excites three of your relatives. Or for that
matter, choose to talk to three spouses of relatives or three children of
relatives. But make a point to draw them out and tell you about a hobby, job or
passion that moves them. Thinking about what moves three people gets you out of
yourself, involved in other people and less focused on food.
4. Please partake
of polite portions.
I'm realistic that most of you will want to savor some, if
not all, of the sugary foods offered at your gathering. But there's a way that
you can go about this that's less intrusive on your body.
First off, make sure
to have a well-rounded meal before you go for the sugar. That means you'll eat
some protein (a piece of turkey, I suspect); quality carbs (like vegetables) and
some healthy fats (like olive oil on a salad.)
Before that evening even arrives,
make a decision to mindfully select which sweets you'll taste and how much
you'll eat. In other words, plan to slowly, deliberately, savor polite portions
of desserts.
When you eat in a mindful, conscious manner, you'll enjoy your food
more and feel less inclined to gorge on the sweets that could send you into
Sugar Shock.
5. Bring your own goodies.
Whenever you go to a party or family
gathering, it's best to expect that very few, if any dishes, will be healthy.
It's more likely -- especially given the fact that 65 percent of Americans are
obese -- that you won't have that many healthy options from which to choose.
The
best way to combat this party conundrum is to bring some healthy foods that
you've prepared and give them to your host. For instance, you could come to the
affair with some raw veggies and a hummus or avocado dip. You could prepare a
fresh fruit salad with almonds. Or perhaps you could make a whole-grain
stuffing.
For those of you in the dark as to what to prepare to bring along to
the party, see three tasty, sugar-free Thanksgiving dishes prepared by
culinary
consultant Pamela Morgan.
- Sweet Potato Heaven
- Cranberry-Walnut Relish and
- Spiced
Baked Apple
Connie Bennett, M.S.J., C.H.H.C. is author of Sugar Shock! (Berkley
Books), with Dr. Stephen T. Sinatra. Connie is a sought-after "Sugar-Liberation
Expert," speaker, frequent TV and radio show guest ("CBS News Sunday Morning,"
"Oprah & Friends Radio," etc.), certified holistic health counselor and
experienced journalist/columnist. Once a heavy-duty "sugar addict," Connie
reluctantly kicked refined sweets and carbs on doctor's orders in 1998 -- a
health-generating move that made her 44 baffling ailments vanish, including her
horrible headaches, crippling fatigue, heart palpitations and brain fog. Connie
now laughingly pokes fun of her unsavory sugar past by dubbing herself an
"Ex-Sugar Shrew!" She now educates thousands of "sugar sufferers" from around
the world to learn about sugar's dangers, to become a "Sugar Sleuth" and to
break free their dangerous habit of overloading on "culprit carbs." She runs the
popular Sugar Shock! Blog
and hosts the weekly
Stop Sugar Shock! Radio Show,
where she interviews such acclaimed guests such as Dr. Mehmet Oz (YOU: Staying
Young), Dr. Barbara DeAngelis, "The FlyLady" Marla Cilley, etc. Connie has been
widely published (The Los Angeles Times, eDiets.com, etc.) To learn if you've
been brainwashed to become a sugar addict, take the Sugar Shock! Quiz at
www.SugarShockBlog.com.
Feel free to use this article, but please credit me by
posting the above paragraph. |
