Thanksgiving is a great time to relax and be with friends and family. It’s also a great time to enjoy some feel good foods = high calories. Some say that in one Thanksgiving dinner you can rack up to 4,000 calories! Great for those that are bulking up but not great for those that want to stay nice and trim.
NYC Personal Trainer Advice
The common advice is to watch your portion, stay away from the sweets, don’t eat things you don’t need to eat and blah, blah, blah. It’s nothing but restriction, restriction, restriction. In my opinion that sucks, now it’s different story if you need to keep the weight down for a competition or you’re about to enter some type of physique show. But for the rest of us I believe you should be able to enjoy yourself. Depriving yourself of a great Thanksgiving dinner is just not right! HOWEVER this does come at a cost, you need to EARN that meal!
Earn Your Thanksgiving Meal
What I typically suggest to my clients around this time of year is start to focus ahead of Thanksgiving. Depending on their current diet, the client may stay low-zero carbs about 3-6 days out. My general suggestions would be:
- Minimize your calories on your off days.
- Go zero carbs on lighter workout days.
- Minimize your carbs on hard workout days to just during and post workout- you may need to uptake your BCAA’s and glutamine during these days though- this is also dependent if you’re training for performance or recreation.
- Workout before your Thanksgiving dinner, this will help you metabolize the dinner and the crazy calorie intake!
For myself, I typically try to minimize my total carb load about 4-5 days out depending on how I’m feeling. I’ll uptake my BCAA’s during the workout and keep the typical post-workout meal the same- medium carbs, protein, fats, and veggies! If the workout wasn’t as intense as I would’ve liked it then I would keep the carbs to a minimum. Finally for the big day, if I’m feeling good, I’ll go for a personal record in the lifts and if not it’s ok, I’ll still get in a strong workout.
Conclusion
In the end you should be able enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner, go eat and have fun! Fitness is a big part of mine and many peoples lives but it should’ve deprive you of good times with family and friends. But once it’s over, it’s over and it’s time to refocus on a nice healthy diet. In the mean time, try utilizing some of the above suggestions and “EARN” your T-day dinner!
Happy early Thanksgiving!