Ah, Thanksgiving…the festive holiday filled with decadent dishes, sweet treats and plenty of trimmings to go around!
And while the main attraction is certainly the meal (and those leftovers!), that celebratory day of eating isn't so friendly for the waistline.
If you're being mindful of a diet, or simply want to make sure you don't overdo it this year, we're got some savvy tips to help you through the long weekend!
We tapped celebrity nutritionist Kimberly Snyder, author of The Beauty Detox Foods: Discover the Top 50 Beauty Foods That Will Transform Your Body and Reveal a More Beautiful You, as well as the owner of her very own juice bar in Los Angeles, Glow Bio, for her healthy tips for staying on track this season.
Here's what she shared with us:
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Thanksgiving is such a decadent day of eating! How do you make sure you enjoy the holiday without sabotaging your diet?
Keep your routine as healthy as possible at the beginning of the day. I think it is important to still keep your hot water with lemon or to drink the Glowing Green Smoothie. If you start the day on a good foot, it gets much easier to resist temptations or to give in to everything around you.
If you start the day with a donut and you start having lattes then the rest of your day you're just not going to feel good and be in the position of power.
How do you resist temptation at social functions such as holiday parties?
I would say make sure you're hydrated when you arrive so you're not feeling hungry, which can lead to snacking. Start with raw veggies, which have a lot of fiber and enzymes which just act like a natural form of calorie restrictions and portion control just to fill up on those first.
Avoid eating nuts because party nuts are almost always roasted and denatured and full of salt or really fattening. When you're at a party, you forget how much you're eating and you can end up eating thousands calorie worth of roasted nuts and not even realize it, so that's really important.
During the holidays a lot of us tend to get more sweet cravings and want to have more treats. I think a really good trick is to keep in your car or your purse, a little bit of dark chocolate. That way at the end of the evening or the end of a party or out at a day of shopping and you're stressed, just that little bit of dark chocolate will help to wipe out your sweet craving, so you're not reaching for that cake or that cupcake or something you'll regret later.
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Tell us what's on your Thanksgiving plate.
I love all the different veggie sides. I always make some type of sweet potato dish, which is always really grounding and delicious and full or keratin. Entrée-wise, I like to make this stuffed acorn squash. It's made with gluten-free breadcrumbs and all kinds of veggies and spices and herbs and it really tastes like real stuffing and I either put it in squash or I bake it and put it in a cabbage wedge and I bake it and it's really delicious and yummy!
For sweet cravings, I make a healthy hot chocolate with unsweetened almond milk and Stevia and raw cacao powder. It's warm and it's comforting, especially at the end of your shopping day when you're stressed.
Sounds delish! Finally, if someone overdid it on Thanksgiving, what's your best advice for detoxing the next day?
Start with hot water with lemon. Start to hydrate. Don't eat heavy food in the morning. I would say the next day cut fat because fat starts to slow cleansing. You don't want to have any oil that next day. You just want to let all that fat that's circulating in your blood stream start to clear out. There's a relationship between fat and sugar and keeping your insulin levels up. Have hot water with lemon, have the Glowing Green Smoothie, have some fiber to help push things out with all the greens in it. I would have a pureed soup or a hearty and filling salad. No olive oil, no oil of any kind…just keep it really low fat. Keep it simple!
And there you have it!
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