EATING DURING THE HOLIDAYS (THANKSGIVING / CHRISTMAS)

HOW TO NAVIGATE / PLAN DURING THE DAY

2 STRATEGIES:

1.5 Meals

• Skip breakfast for this day to help push some of the calories for later in in the day
• For lunch, stick to a small meal of 300-500 calories of really high protein
• Ex: greek yogurt packet (100cal, 13g protein), and protein shake w/ ultra filtered milk and powdered peanut butter (270cal, 40g protein)  
• Total of 370 cal, 53g protein 
• For “holiday dinner” use the rest of your calories to eat whatever you enjoy as long as you stay in your caloric limit 
• Note that you still may see some “scale weight” change if you end up eating a lot more carbs than usual- this will be due to retaining some extra water. Remember if calories are equated for there will be no change in FAT
• I recommend perhaps leaving 200-300 calories extra after dinner depending on time of your meal for a later in the day snack - this should also be really high protein 
• If you eat holiday dinner really early (around 2-3pm) you’ll definitely be a little hungry by evening  

1 Meal 

• Skip breakfast and lunch (hopefully holiday dinner isn’t too late in the evening)
• Try to consume lots of sparkling water, black coffee to help curb appetite 
• Use ALL your calories to put towards “holiday dinner” 

BONUS:

1. If you want to treat yourself give yourself 200-300 extra calories for the day (no more than 500 calories) 

HOW TO NAVIGATE DURING HOLIDAY DINNER 

4 PLATES

Plate #1:  LARGE salad with light - low calorie salad dressing 

• Careful about croutons, lots of cheese (unless it’s fat free shredded cheese), avocados, high calorie creamy dressings

Plate #2: Protein and Greens (Veggies)

• Get a second plate that is half full of either green veggies or any veggies and then about  1-2 palm sizes of protein choices (turkey, chicken, fish, meatloaf, whatever you all make)

Plate #3: SMALL CARB PLATE

• Now is your time to go around and sample all the carb goodness 
• By this time it’s probably been a good 15-30min so your body is getting a chance to feel how full you are
• Remember, carbs are not the problem, but its much easier to over calorie with decadent carbs than protein and veggies

Plate #4:  DESSERT 

• If you have any room left go ahead and do small taste test / samples of the desserts
• Remember, we hit our highest level of satisfaction very early in eating desserts, after you get the highest feeling, any consuming after that actually leaves us LESS satisfied