How to sruvive and enjoy your Thanksgiving

How To Survive and Enjoy Your Thanksgiving
Article By: Melissa Sperl www.weightwatchers.com


Special meals, such as the Thanksgiving feast, don't have to sabotage your weight loss plans.



Although it is tempting, festive meals should not be perceived as a time when it is impossible to stay on plan. Some of us even feel we have a permission slip to abandon our weight-loss efforts all together.

In a way, you actually are at an advantage with holiday meals — you know exactly when they're going to happen, and you probably have a good idea of what foods will be on the table. With the proper planning and preparation, you can plan for obstacles such as Thanksgiving far in advance.

Turkey Day Tactics
Several days before the holiday, write out a list of all the foods you expect to be part of the Thanksgiving spread. Remember to include the hors d'oeuvres, nuts and candies that you usually munch on before dinner. Then, using the POINTS® Calculator, look up all the POINTS values. Try to be as honest as possible about portion sizes — how much are you likely to eat? How much do you typically eat?

After you add up all the POINTS values, add on 12 more since you will have eaten breakfast and lunch that day. Are you over your POINTS Target?

If so, what can you do to put your numbers back in the black? You've probably heard your Leader or other meetings members talking about the tools and strategies you can use to prepare for large, family-style, meals. Would any of the following tricks work?

Earn activity POINTS values which you'll then be able to swap for food POINTS values.

Eat a light breakfast and lunch, so you have more to work with during the big meal.

Reduce the POINTS values of some or all of the dinner dishes by finding renovated recipes in Recipe Search.

Whichever tricks you use to get ready for Thanksgiving, be sure to prepare mentally as well, using Mental Rehearsing. It is a powerful tool from Weight Watchers Tools For Living, which will help you to envision yourself succeeding using your tools, prior to the event itself.