The Daily News – Fit to Be Tried by Devin Sherrington
You do it and feel bloated, sick and tired, but you don’t stop. Then you try it cold later, and even re-heat it the next day. I’m talking about turkey dinner.
When it comes to holiday turkey dinner it’s always tough to say no, to anything. More turkey and mashed potatoes? Why not? Extra helping of gravy, and more pie? Of course. But there is a little voice in the back of your mind tell you not to.
On average the a turkey dinner with all the trimming adds up to about 1300 calories. If you’re a 180 to 200 pound person this means the meal is around half of your daily caloric needs.
Don’t panic. You can still eat your turkey dinner and not feel guilty about it if you follow Devin’s three simple rules for holiday meals.
First, don’t deny yourself anything. If you do, you’ll only come back and eat more or it later. So eat it in the first place. The key is portion size.
Just because there is a piece of pumpkin pie the size of your head, or a 30 pound turkey doesn’t mean you have to eat it all. Try eating portions, which are only as big as your two fists together.
Don’t worry. It’s more food than you might think.
Second, eat before the turnkey dinner. Not a big meal, but your regular meals throughout the day before dinner. You will not be as hungry if you eat your average meals before turkey dinner, so you won’t be as likely to gorge yourself.
You hear someone say they won’t eat anything all day before dinner. You might even be tempted to try that, but don’t. Your body will be in starvation mode after several hours of no food. Even a salad will be stored as fat, if you haven’t had anything to eat. Eating regularly is the best thing to do.
Third, relax and don’t do more exercise a few days before or after your turkey dinner. Though an extra 1300 calories are a lot, they won’t make you even gain one pound permanently.
It takes 3600 calories to gain one pound so you don’t have to worry about gaining weight. You’d have to eat at least ten turkey dinners to gain five pounds.
Your body will burn off the extra calories from the one meal you ate in the next few days, as long as you are active. So go ahead and enjoy your holiday meals without worry. You won’t look any worse for having done so.
