Thanksgiving Is One Meal

Thanksgiving Day in the US is about feasting - a big meal, from appetizers through dessert, with a table heaped with food.

It's extremely easy to eat an inordinate amount of food on Thanksgiving Day.

In fact, it's encouraged.



But it's just one meal. One huge meal, but still one meal.


Today is the day after Thanksgiving. All you need to do to get back on track is to eat like you normally do for your goals.

You can eat the leftovers, but eat them in normal quantities.

Remember that consistency is what your body responds to. One huge meal followed by you immediately getting back to your normal diet will be a signal to your body that this was a one-time event.

Just like going to the gym once a year, if you eat an epic amount of food on Thanksgiving and not again for a long time, your body will just recover from it and not adapt to it. The damage you do to your healthy eating from one big unhealthy meal is limited if you just let it be the occasional meal and not the standard. If you extend Thanksgiving into "huge meal of leftovers, huge breakfast of leftovers, huge lunch of leftovers" etc. until it's all gone, you are significantly worse off (and you'll run out of leftovers quickly).

This also goes for folks trying to gain weight. If you eat a huge amount of turkey and then go back to eating sparsely the next day, that won't do it. You need consistency. The main thing your body is built to respect is consistency.

If you don't want extra weight, look back at yesterday's meal, remember it with fondness, and move on to healthier eating. If you do, look back at it as something to do more often, and don't let it dissuade you from eating a big meal today . . . after you lift.