Thanksgiving And Maintaining Your Diet Goals

If you're cooking this Thanksgiving and there are people in your family who are diabetic, on a diet or are suffering with a bad heart, then perhaps you should skip the butter basting this year and opt for something healthier.

According to www.atkins.com, you can have a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner, sacrificing the calories without cutting into the taste. Of course, not everyone will be interested in the roasted cauliflower and almond cream soup, but see if they even detect that your stuffing is made from reduced-carb bread, low-fat maple-flavored sausage and apples! Pumpkin pie with pecan crust sounds too delicious to fit into the Atkins diet, but it's true!

Sometimes, it's our eating habits that sabotage us on Thanksgiving. For instance, many people will starve themselves the morning of Thanksgiving, and will keep busy cooking or entertaining, without even giving it a second thought. Then, when the food comes out, they overeat.

Instead, you should be eating a healthy snack like veggies and a low-fat dip prior to the meal, says dietician Bonnie Taub-Dix. She also recommends that you aim for 3½ ounces of protein, which is the size of a deck of cards, for your Thanksgiving meal. Next, serve up 1 cup of starches, or the size of two computer mice, and check to be sure that fills up half your plate.

Fill the other half with healthy vegetables, unless, of course, you've been stocking up on cheese cubes, pepperoni and other snacks prior to the meal. Then you'll have to cut back on your turkey a little. She says we can still indulge in our favorite Thanksgiving dinner items, like mashed potatoes, stuffing and bread, but only if we can fit those items into a cup-sized portions.

Thanksgiving and dieting may seem like an oxymoron. If you've got your heart set on all the festive dishes and can't pull your thoughts away from that pecan pie or that homemade stuffing, then consider trying a little of everything with proper portions, and add exercise to your week.

If you're not cooking, then portion sizes and bringing a healthy dish are your best recourses. If you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner, then you've got a little more leeway to play with recipes.

A quick google search will find you all the Thanksgiving recipes you could ever hope for and www.atkins.com naturally has some options for the low-carbers in your family. You can mix-and-match low-fat with regular items to accommodate everyone and perhaps try a few recipes in advance before the big day.

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