Don’t Fear the Turkey

I noticed a common theme this past week. Many people, including some of my clients, were in defense mode about Thanksgiving. They were concerned about how to avoid as many of the ‘bad’ foods as possible. They were preoccupied by how they could best offset the inevitable disaster that Turkey day would bring. This is an unfortunate way to be living and I also believe it hints that they have failed to assimilate the real lesson of proper dietary habits.

I’m sure we’ve all heard it before, but let’s repeat it: a diet based on deprivation is unsustainable. We all enjoy sweet, fatty, salty and otherwise “unhealthy” foods. You can’t deprive yourself of these things for your entire life, it just won’t work, and it also happens to be completely unnecessary. The key is to have good habits most of the time. That way, if you indulge here and there, it won’t tip the scales in a direction that you don’t want it to.

Thanksgiving is one night a year, and that means it happens to only be one night in the week. If for the other six days of the week, you are eating clean, healthy meals without succumbing to the “just one can’t hurt” or “I’ve been good all day” traps then having one day in which you indulge will not sink your ship. Thanksgiving is no different, If you are good every day except this special Thursday, then nothing that happens on that one Thursday will thrust you into the clutches of obesity. Enjoy whatever you’d like!

The tricky part, as I have written about before, is to not allow this event to snowball into a skewed norm. Too often, one night of indulgence becomes two nights, two nights become three, and pretty soon bad habits become okay simply at night! I’ve had a good number of clients tell me that having dessert or a couple of glasses of wine only at dinner “isn’t that bad.” Having something you shouldn’t every single day is excessive, even if compared to the average diet it doesn’t seem to be that bad. The key, therefore, is to turn the balance around. If you can go five days a week eating healthy, well balanced foods, then you needn’t worry about one or maybe even two nights where you indulge for a special occasion.

My friend Marjorie Korn put it best in this Huffington Post Video when she said “don’t let food control you.” You shouldn’t let special occasions like holidays, birthdays, or any other party become a source of stress. The things that you will eat there will not kill you, make you obese, or otherwise completely derail your attempts to be healthy. They are not, in and of themselves, the enemy. It is the daily, small slips that add up. So do not fear the fun times. Make your daily routine one that is consistently healthy so that when those special occasions come around you can live a little!