I COMPLETELY understand why people are concerned about the health/weight gain impacts of Thanksgiving. It’s engrained in us since forever that Thanksgiving is a holiday based all around overeating.
But what if I told you that the health/weight effects from Thanksgiving that social media, television and everyone talks about are the literal LEAST of your problems.
Thanksgiving is one day. ONE DAY.
Your body can handle one day of a few hundred extra calories. If Thanksgiving dinner is just a singular event that doesn’t impact the rest of your week and send you on a December-long spiral, there is nothing to worry about.
It’s the anxiousness and hype of having all the “forbidden foods” at Thanksgiving, the guilt afterward, the over-restricting to “balance it out” and subsequent cycle of under and overeating that creates problems.
The health/fitness industry has a bad habit of telling you that these random things are HUGE DEALS.
Thanksgiving is to be feared and greens powders will change your life.
The extra food you eat at Thanksgiving isn’t a big deal, or at least it shouldn’t be.
Think about it. There are 365 days of the year. Thanksgiving is one day, Christmas Eve is one day, Christmas Day is one day, your birthday is one day, Halloween is one day, & say we throw in 10 other random holiday/events in there that you want to go HAM on and not thing about calories/health at all. That’s 15 days of 365! That leaves 350 regular days. Say we throw in all Fridays (52) to the mix just for statistics sake. That’s 67 days of 365; only 18% of the year! There’s still 498 days (82%) that will make up the majority of your year. Your results come from what you do the MAJORITY of days, not the 67 days you decide to do whatever.
So don’t let one day that revolves around food psych you out. Eat mindfully and slowly, focus on the time with friends and family and if the mashed potatoes are amazing, get a second helping. Then go have a regular day on the 27th and don’t give it a second thought.