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.

Article Recommendation: Food is Not Fuel

There is an excellent, albeit long, article over on Precision Nutrition today called "Food Is Not Fuel." It is well worth reading.

It breaks down the very critical non-energy providing (zero calorie) substances in our food that play such a critical role in how our bodies respond. The food you put in sends signals to the body about what it needs to do, or provides substances that help it do that job. Providing energy is only one part of that . . .

It will take some time to read through it, but it is a great list of what food does for you, and why changing your diet (even without changing your total caloric intake) can change how you look and feel and perform.

Review: F*** Calories

Free is my favorite price point. It's even better when it's free and good.

F*** Calories is an ebook by Krista Scott-Dixon about, you guessed it, diet.

The ebook is available free (in return for your email address, of course) from Stumptuous.com

The book is free, and short, and very direct, as the title makes pretty clear.

The idea is pretty simple - eat real food. Pay attention to how you feel after you eat that food. Don't worry about calories, just eat off a smaller plate if you want to be smaller, a big plate if you want to be bigger. Skip the sugar and supplements and vitamins and just get back in touch with how you feel after you eat. Adjust according if things aren't working for you.

It's a good starter piece on diet - for people confused by the whole mass of "do this, not that" it goes right to "start here and do what works." It's refreshingly direct, and it's written by someone with a professional track record of success helping people lose fat - even if she says you don't need someone to do that.

It's good, it's free, and the advice is solid. It is a great tonic to take before reading a diet book or choosing an eating approach. Well worth the (quick) read.

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