By Paige Miller, Features Editor
Gobble, gobble, don’t start to wobble! After almost a full semester of cafeteria food, most college students are excited for what we would call a “real” meal. The Thanksgiving and home-cooked feast that we all look forward to is just around the corner with New Year’s resolutions to follow. But why wait until New Year’s Day to start making healthy lifestyle choices? This holiday season, there are many ways to eat healthy without missing out on any of the goodness.
The biggest tip for eating healthy this holiday season is to watch what you eat and how much you eat. Being mindful of portion sizes is one way that we can still enjoy the home-cooked feast while also changing our eating habits. According to Duke University Diet and Fitness Center, “Larger plates of food can lead us to eating up to 45% more than what our average intake would be.” This big-plate phenomenon has become very common today, making it harder for us to limit ourselves and the amount of calories we eat.
Don’t let your grandma fill your plate for you. Instead, offer to portion out your own Thanksgiving meal and start small. You can always go back for seconds, but we tend to eat a lot more than we need when we fill our plates with too much food.
If you are going to overfill your plate, do so with vegetables. This food group is the lowest in calories, and let’s admit it — most of us don’t eat enough vegetables anyway.
Another smart way to watch what you eat this Thanksgiving holiday is by simply trading out certain foods in the meal. As much as we all love the common Thanksgiving dishes, most of these delights are full of fats, sugars and way too many carbs.
Here are a few suggestions for Thanksgiving meal substitutes:
Deep Fried Turkey Breast –> Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast
Mashed Potatoes –> Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes”
Macaroni & Cheese –> Cauliflower Mac n’ Cheese
Sweet Potato Casserole –> Butternut Squash
Green Bean Casserole –> Green Beans with Lemon & Garlic
Candied Beets –> Roasted Beets with Herbs
