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Eating During The Holidays By Whitney Vaughan

Eating During The Holidays By Whitney Vaughan
  • PublishedNovember 16, 2022


 

Enjoy the Holidays and Don’t Feel Guilty about It

We’re in a season of family and friend gatherings and a lot of good food! How do
you navigate through the next few weeks enjoying each other and the meals while also being mindful and even possibly sticking to your macros? One word…

Moderation.

I’ll be the first to tell you to enjoy the dressing, have the slice of pie, and don’t you dare miss out on breakfast Christmas morning. I won’t. I look forward to eating my mother- in-law’s dressing & my sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows & pecans, see below for recipe) every Thanksgiving. My father-in-law’s homemade biscuits and gravy on Christmas morning are my absolute favorite breakfast, so I’m going to enjoy those dishes with my family every year. When you work so hard all other days and weeks of the year, these few meals here and there are not going to disrupt your overall progress whether it’s weight you’ve worked so hard to lose or healthy habits you’ve built.

My Advice

The first thing I’ll say is don’t step on the scale the day after either of these big food holidays. You already know it’s going to go up, but that’s not because of fat you actually gained in 24 hours. It could be a number of different things like high levels of sodium and water retention or food just sitting in your stomach.

Next, don’t not eat the next day or the day prior to your big meals. People make jokes and comments all the time like, “I just won’t eat tomorrow.” Again, this isn’t going to speed your progress up. You may not eat as much because you may not feel as hungry, but your body still needs food for fuel and nutrients. Instead of skipping a day of eating, you can use this day to get back on track if you’re counting macros or just working on building healthier eating habits such as portion control or including more fruits and veggies during the day.

Finally, if you want to log or track your festive meals, you can take the time to record the recipe(s) in your macro tracking app ahead of time or search for the foods you’re choosing to eat and try to get as close as possible. Logging your food may lead you to feel better about what you’re eating or how much.

It is possible to enjoy the next few weeks while still working toward your health and fitness goals. Plan and think ahead about when and what you know you’re going to be eating. Use this as motivation to help you stay on track all of the other days before and in between your family gatherings. This time of year is all about enjoying each other and delicious family recipes. Don’t let macros keep you from it!

Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe: 

3c cooked, mashed sweet potatoes 3/4 stick butter, melted
1c evaporated milk
1.5c sugar

2 eggs
1/2tsp vanilla
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/2tsp cinnamon
1/3c brown sugar, packed 1/2c chopped pecans
3/4 stick butter, melted

  1. Preheat oven to 400*
  2. Mix potatoes, 3/4 stick butter (melted), milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, nutmeg &cinnamon together using a hand or stand mixer.
  3. Pour into a 2-quart baking dish.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes.
  5. Mix brown sugar, 3/4 stick butter (melted) & pecans together to spread over thepotatoes. Bake fro 15 more minutes

*My family loves marshmallows on their sweet potatoes, so I use the above directions for the pecans and put them over half of the casserole. I cover the other half with mini marshmallows at the same time I add the pecans, so they can both bake for 15 minutes more.

Recipe from MCC 2012-2013 Cookbook (*20th anniversary edition)

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Written By
Christian Dicus

Christian Dicus is a Sulphur Springs, Texas native. She currently works as the Director of Operations and Content Strategist for Chad's Media LLC. As well as a photographer and contributing writer for Front Porch News.