While I do hope that you all had a Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you made wise food choices as well. According to the American Calorie Council the average American consumes up to 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving day! That’s more than double of recommended calorie intake for a whole day! Also, a 229 gram fat count. In case you’re feeling a bit guilty about this years thanksgiving, I’ve found some tips to make your next Thanksgiving a little less guilt filled. First off plan your meal ahead. Plan out what you want to eat ahead of time. Don’t just go crazy piling onto your plate. Plan what desert you will eat and how much. Once the meal starts load your plate with all the healthy things first. Salad or vegetables ..whatever’s available! Before you even look at the fattening food, load up your plate so you have limited room for the bad stuff. Of course you can have a little bit of everything (it’s a holiday after all!), but moderation is key! Eating more than normal is fine, but keep an eye out and stay aware! These numbers and tips are from the ShopWell app.
My experience having my first Gluten free Thanksgiving certainly opened my eyes. Having to be weary of gluten made me weary of everything! I ate significantly less and probably much more healthy (less fat and carbs) than the rest of my family. This enabled me to stay awake (no food coma for me) and decorate already for Christmas! Speaking of which.. Happy Holidays everyone!
I wanted to end with a recommendation that’s helping me on my gluten free journey. An app called Shopwell is a great way to organize your diet. On this app you create an account and then you put all the specific aspects of your diet. Any allergies, medical conditions, or just preferences (low carb, low fat, low sodium, etc.). Once you put all of this information in your profile is created. The app has a scanner and you can scan any packaged food and it will tell you if it meets your criteria. The app will give these foods a score based on your profile. The higher the number the better match for you! If a number is highlighted in red then the food should be avoided! If it is highlighted as yellow, you should eat it as a once in a while snack. If it is highlighted in green, then you’re good to go! Sounds familiar right? This certainly reminds me of the British food labeling system we learned about in psychology. This app also has categories that can show you the top products that fit your profile. They even tell you what stores in your area will have these products! It has been extremely helpful for me and I thought I would pass it on! I hope it helps!
The Logo for the ShopWell app.