Treat your holiday plate like it was a TV dinner tray
November 25, 2008 by lisagriffis
Filed under Uncategorized
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Most people don't think of this as a Thanksgiving dinner but the portion size should be what we aim for that day.
The average person will eat at least 4,000 calories on the day that we stuff a turkey along with ourselves. Frankly, that estimate is low considering that most people will have breakfast, the holiday meal and then continue to nibble the rest of the day.
This is just a guess but a pretty good one that no one will be walking the many hours that it would take to work off their indulgences. I know that my day will start off with a good workout but I have no intention of overeating so that I have to walk several days straight to work off the extra calories.
Most turkey TV dinners have around 500 calories but most people don’t serve their holiday meal on an aluminum tray. We should but we don’t.
I have learned to hold back in the line for the holiday buffet and not be the first person digging into the beautiful dishes. When I am last in line there is less food to choice from and I don’t feel the need to rush so that the others can eat. My nephews are eager to fill their plates and I let the 6-foot boys take first run at the food. By the time they are done there is less food for me to pile on my plate and there is no pressure to rush and I have time to properly portion out my dinner.
The end result: I am the only one that doesn’t feel the need to unzip their pants after the meal which is just fine with me.
I try to think in terms of miles when sitting down at the the table.
A Thanksgiving dinner of 4,000 calories is 150 miles on my bike. (A cyclist burns 25 to 33 calories a mile.)
At record-breaking speeds, it would take more than nine hours of biking to burn off an hour of eating.
Yipes!
I say ‘No Thanks’ to that Thanksgiving ritual.
—Matt