Thanksgiving Gameplan

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Wendy and Debbie share a Thanksgiving Gameplan to help you rethink how you come to the table this Thanksgiving. We cover fasting, detox, post indulging ideas, and finding joy at the table.

Debbie 00:00

Here we are just about a week away from Thanksgiving, and we wanted to give a game plan for Thanksgiving, because people tend to have these ideas about what they’re going to do in order to be able to indulge on Thanksgiving, and lots of people end up not feeling so great.

You don’t have to indulge.

Wendy 00:21

Just the idea that you’re going to over indulge is a tradition or a pattern that might be a family pattern or influence just because of the community that you celebrate with. And I think the first idea is that you don’t actually have to over indulge.

Debbie 00:44

Exactly. That occurred to me several years ago when I realized this is just another dinner. There just happens to be a lot more people gathered. And then I really enjoyed it, and I ate slowly, and I didn’t over indulge, and it was so much more enjoyable. I tasted the food and it was wonderful. And ever since then, I’ve been enjoying my Thanksgiving dinner so much more in the past several years because of that.

Wendy 01:09

Coming to the table mindful can be a game changer for people. So number one, you don’t have to indulge.

Debbie 01:22

Yes, you don’t have to fill up your plate. Maybe with small amounts, and if you want to add a little bit more, do that. This year doesn’t have to be a huge, over indulgent feast.

Don’t skimp on eating that morning.

So another thing I know people do, and I probably did this years ago, is I would skimp on eating the day before and again earlier part of the day on Thanksgiving to save space for the meal.

Wendy 01:57

But what happened when you “saved space?”

How, how did you feel coming to the table?

Debbie 02:02

Well, then you’re coming to the table starving, right? And that never works out well.

Wendy 02:10

It’s not a recipe for wise decision making when it comes to our choices of food?

Debbie 02:15

Just like it’s not a good idea to go to this food market starving. You end up spending a lot more money.

Wendy 02:21

We make fun of this word hangry, right? Hungry + angry, but that’s the truth. And if you’re in a social situation and you’re hangry, tensions are high. So just don’t skip on your breakfast. Don’t skip meals the day before. Just eat normally and feel good going to the event. Feel good and well nourished when you come to the table already.

Debbie 02:47

And that will almost guarantee that you won’t overeat. If you’re mindful the day of, you won’t be so starving that you’ll just be shoving things in your mouth. You don’t want to come to the table super hungry. You want to come to the table ready for a meal, not hangry. That’s not a good place, right?

Connect with Nature

Wendy 03:05

This is a quick podcast, but a couple more ideas. Plan on going for a walk after your meal with or without your family. Go out into nature and get super connected with the outdoors, if that’s a possibility for you, because that can help with your digestion.

Debbie 03:32

Absolutely good for your digestion. That was sort of a normal thing for humans to do for so many years. So get up and go walking, and maybe you won’t feel that coma tired that a lot of people feel after Thanksgiving.

Enjoy and savor. Let go of guilt.

Wendy 03:52

I think Thanksgiving can be a time of special foods, and maybe we eat a little bit more rich foods. Maybe we do actually have more dessert and options on the table. So we’re not saying don’t have fun with all that. We say, go all in and enjoy the cranberry sauce or the extra stuffing, and enjoy every bite. Really savor the time at the table with people, and maybe you could even spark up some interesting conversations and have that feed you at the same time, right?

Debbie 04:30

It’s one meal, and it’s with people you probably don’t see every single day and food that you don’t eat that often, so enjoy it all. There’s no guilt, there’s no shame, just enjoy it and not too much. Simple.

Detox or not?

Then after Thanksgiving, I know a lot of people feel like they have to go do some kind of detox. They get online and there’s probably a bunch of ads about detox because most people over indulge on Thanksgiving, but our bodies do that naturally. We have a couple podcasts on that and a couple blogs on that. Your body’s continually detoxing, and you can only help it along by eating real whole foods and not over indulging on the next day and the next day and the next day. So just let your body do the whole process of getting rid of the extra sugar or the extra simple carbs that you ate, your body will take care of it. Put

Wendy 05:29

Put the faith back into your body, because it’s resilient. Detox ideas aren’t wrong or bad – that’s not what we’re saying. It’s just most of the time, it’s not necessary,

Debbie 05:47

Exactly

Question habits & Recognize peer pressure

Wendy 05:50

What we really want to say is: question everything. Just because you’ve done something every Thanksgiving for the last umpteen years, doesn’t mean you have to be that way this year.

Debbie 06:03

Right! And that’s another idea. A lot of people feel pressured to eat certain things over Thanksgiving, especially if somebody brought something and wants you to have it. And I know when the sweet potatoes come to my table, I don’t eat them. And it’s not because they’re not nourishing. They’re wonderfully nourishing. It’s just not my favorite food. And there’s 15 other foods on the table, so I bypass the sweet potatoes. Nobody gets offended at my house. You can eat what you want to eat. Don’t feel peer pressure to eat something you don’t want to eat. Remember that too. That’s important.

Wendy 06:40

There’s a lot of peer pressure around drinking alcohol at every celebration, and there are so many ways to celebrate without it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Debbie 06:51

We’ld love to hear about your Thanksgiving stories or ideas or anything surrounding Thanksgiving that you want to talk about with us.

Wendy 07:04

We have some clients who actually come to us with some old family recipes and ask: How can I upgrade this just a little bit? And that’s a fun thing for us. We can play around with recipes for people. Share it with us. We’d be happy to give you our feedback.

Debbie 07:26

So this Thanksgiving, remember that connection and gratitude nourish us just as much as the meal itself. Take the time to savor each bite and each laugh and each moment that will never be there again.

Enjoy yourself and listen to your body.

And here’s to a holiday that’s filled with mindful choices and joyful memories, Happy Thanksgiving.