Healthy Holiday Eating!

Briefly, here are the tips I gave in the first part of this series on How to Eat Healthfully this Thanksgiving - and Enjoy it!:

1. Make a couple of healthy dishes to bring and to share
2. Eat a healthy snack or a meal prior to the get together - fill up if necessary
3. Eat or drink something sweet but healthy prior to satisfy that craving for unhealthy sweets
4. Brush your teeth right before
5. Have the right frame of mind - you are not being deprived!
6. Decide before you go how you want to eat to lessen chances of succumbing to temptation

A note about #6. It is completely your decision how far you want to go to be healthy. Your motivation will depend on your perceived need and your desire.

I say "perceived" because if we're eating the Standard American Diet, eventually we will become sick, diseased, and die prematurely from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or other complication. But if you're young and your body is still nobly battling against the fuel you are giving it, or you feel like you're not in that bad shape, then you won't perceive your need to be that great.

And who wants to change something they enjoy, even if they know it's not good for them (everything in moderation, right?) unless they know they really have to. My response to that moderation thing is, Would you take arsenic in moderation, too?

Arsenic may do the job quicker, but unhealthy "food" is just as deadly.

Maybe you want to eat healthfully all year long, and then indulge with family and friends twice a year at Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's perfectly fine, if that helps you stay on track the rest of the year.

This isn't about doing "it" perfectly - and it's not about guilt or beating ourselves up when we "fall off the wagon". This is about continuing to move in the direction of eating and living a healthy lifestyle.

The neat thing about eating healthy, getting lots of exercise, fresh air and sunshine, is that we begin to feel better, healthier; we have more energy, and those extra pounds just drop off. People tell us that we glow with good health!

Even long-standing physical problems begin to go away, all because we've given our bodies the proper fuel so that they can heal themselves. How marvelous!

I will be posting recipes as quickly as I can, to give you more options and alternatives to eat healthy during this season. So please check back often for updates.

I will give credit to the authors whenever possible; if I miss giving credit it is because I don't recall where I got that particular recipe from and would appreciate if anyone who knows would tell me so that I may give proper credit.

Phyllis Towse