Holiday Planning – Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner Macros

Thanksgiving is 1 meal and a lot of fun. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to have fellowship with your family and friends this Thanksgiving. Please remember, we are flexible dieters, this one day will not be full of anxiety. Make good choices and slowly eat with your loved ones.

No reason to eat everything in sight. You can do a couple of things to prepare.

TIPS: 

1. DO NOT starve to binge at Thanksgiving dinner. 
2. Make sure that you plan ahead so that you can enjoy your Thanksgiving meal no matter where you’re at.
3. If you’re traveling just make sure that you have a decent meal before you go to your Thanksgiving meal. Recommend listening to LIVE FB for the Thanksgiving prep video from our pinned features at the top. There are ideas for protein meals before your dinner/ lunch. 
4. For best results, try to have a large/decent amount of protein in your breakfast and your snack before Thanksgiving dinner. This way, you will not overeat on your meal with your family and friends.
5. Remember to stay active, don’t skip your training sessions. Go for a walk after dinner and make sure that you ask your family to join you. Being proactive at the holidays doesn’t only benefit you and can also benefit others.
6. Water should also be in the forefront as you may have some spirits ( alcohol.) remember not to skimp on your normal water intake, if you’ll be drinking you will need the extra hydration and you’ll definitely feel better than next day. Try to keep water intake about the same. 
7. Keep everything the same if you can and meal space having protein and some fiber as a snack before you feast! The next day gets back on GOOD meal spacing. 

WHATEVER YOU DO……. Don’t show up hungry!!

Macro trackers – Prelog what you would like to have, ideally the day before Thanksgiving. Input everything that you would like to have for that delicious meal into your MyFitnessPal database.

There is a good chance that you can have small pieces of pie, treats and still enjoy traditional turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Remember, this is just one meal but it can impact the next full week of your success if you starve and recoil binge. This will be a good trail run for Dec.

Another flu busting quick tip for being your very best at the holiday season is to make sure that you get good sleep. Good sleep will ensure that you make better decisions because your cortisol will be well managed, hunger hormones will be managed, and you’ll feel better energy. When we don’t get good sleep, or sometimes we make poor decisions based off of that factor, and that your thoughts are not as well situated when you have not recharged your battery. 

Thanksgiving Dinner Traditional Foods / Estimated macros and quantities:

Thanksgiving turkey:

• Turkey breast 1 ounce portion 9 P / .5 F / 2 C if oven roasted (packaged) preserved – Omit if fresh breast / No carbs
• Brown Turkey and Legs 1 ounce portion 10 p / 4 fat and has zero carbohydrates.
• Thanksgiving ham Costco brand 2 ounces – 1 g of carbs, 3 g of fat and 10 protein for 2 ounces
• Roast Angus beef 2-ounce portion – 12 g of protein, 0 – carbohydrate and 4.5 g of fat
• Roast pork loin 3-ounce portion – 0 carbohydrates, 12.5 g of fat and 23 protein

Stuffings:

• Apple cranberry pecan stuffing – 5 g of fat, 53 carbohydrates and 6 g protein
• Classic bread stuffing – 26 g of carbs 10 g of fat in 5 g of protein per 1/2 cup cooked approximately 125 g cooked
• Corn bread stuffing 4 ounces portion – 4 g of protein, 10 g of fat and 25 g of carbohydrates
• Cranberry stuffing low-fat version Stovetop – One serving cooked, 1 /2 cup – 20 g of carbs, 1 g of fat and 0 g of protein
• Sausage cranberry stuffing – One cup portion – 50 g of carbs, 29 g of fat and 29 g of protein

Cranberry sauces

• Whole cranberry sauce from a can .20 c ocean spray
• 25 g of carbs zero fat and zero protein
• Whole cranberry jellied cranberry sauce 1/2 cup 36 g of carbs
• Jellied cranberry sauce without the whole cranberries 1/2 cup 28 g of carbs

Gravy

• Traditional turkey gravy 1 fluid ounce – 3 g carbs, 1 g of fat and .5 P
• Canned gravy .5 cup – 3.5 g of carbs, 3.5 g of fat and 1 protein
• Turkey sausage gravy 1 cup serving – 7 g of fat, 15 g of carbs and 20 g of protein

Potato

• Rosemary potatoes .5 or 1/2 a cup – 18.5 carbohydrates, 3 g of fat / 2.5 g P
• Yellow for white mashed potatoes, traditional style. 1/2 cup serving – 2 g protein, 4 1/2 g of fat and 16 g of carbs (This is with butter and whole milk estimated.)
• Garlic mashed potatoes 1/2 cup – 20 g of carbs, 5 g of fat and 2 g of protein
• Traditional Homestyle mashed potatoes without gravy extra heavy cream 1/2 cup serving – 22 g of carbohydrates, 6.5 g of fat and 2 g of protein

Veggies

• Roasted veggies on average 1/2 cup cooked – 2.5 g of fat, 5 g of carbohydrates /1 g protein
• Roasted yellow squash 1/2 cup cooked – 2.4 g of fat, 3.6 g of carbohydrates and 1 g protein
• Green beans 1 c with butter – Est 7 g c / 3 f / 2 p
• Green beans with Bacon 1 c est – 7 c / 2.25 F / 2 P
• Cream corn 125 g – 14 g of carbs zero fat zero protein
• Regular corn cooked 1 serving – 25-30 g carbs 2 p / 0 F (Small corn on cob also applies)
• Rudy’s or restaurant cream corn – 32 g of carbs, 19 fat / 6 protein

Mac n Cheese

• Homemade 175 g cooked or 3/4 -1 c cooked if eyeballing – 42 C /17 F /15 p approx 3/4 cup cooked
• KFC brand mac and cheese 70 -90 Grams – 47 g of carbs, 3 g of fat and 9 protein

Dinner Rolls

• Wheat traditional dinner roll 18 g of carbs, 1 g of fat and 4 g of protein
• White – Dinner roll 26 g of carbs, 1.5 g of fat and 4 g of protein
• Sweet classic Gen dinner roll – 15 g of carbs, 4 g of fat and 2 g of protein

Pies — watch it— log it and be honest!!!

These are approx for 1 slice average slices are SMALL, not large! Any pie that is purchased from a restaurant will be “double the fat” carbs and protein will be the same or very close.

• Pumpkin pie 36 carbs 10 to 12 g of fat and 4 -5 protein
• Pecan Pie 80 g carbs /20 f /5 protein
• Peach pie 27 g of carbs 9 g of fat in 1.5 g of protein
• Cherry Pie 30 g of carbs 8.5 g of fat and 1 g protein
• Apple pie 32 carbs, 9 g of fat and 1 g of protein

Alternate healthy desert apple

1/2 of a baked apple with 1 tablespoon ready whip cinnamon and 1/2 cup of Dryers Slow Churn vanilla bean ice cream

Notes:

Be sure to email your macro coach to get your weekly numbers so that you can plan your day.

You’re going to have Thanksgiving dinner early you would swap your lunch to later in the evening when you get home or you would have your lunch a little bit closer to your Thanksgiving dinner and closer to when you’re going to leave for your Thanksgiving dinner.

If your dinner is at normal time, you would have your regular breakfast lunch and protein shake snack or a protein bar. I would like you to pre – log your Thanksgiving dinner!! Be sure to add all the things that you would like and then work backward for the day, having breakfast and lunch a little bit lower fat and carbohydrate. Here are some samples of things that you could do for breakfast and lunch that would be lower fat and moderate to low carbohydrate.

This will make it so easy and foolproof, so you do not stress at all!!! Do this the day before not day of…. this way you feel no pressure. Say no thank you to appetizers and add all beer and cocktails! This is easy as 1-2-3!!! If you don’t drink as many drinks, you can just knock those off the list and fill your carbohydrates later with something like a snack. 

Apple, berries or extra cranberry sauce will work great

Breakfast – 1 egg or egg white omelet with spinach

Or 1 premier protein drink and oatmeal or toast

Lunch – Turkey or chicken deli meat on call wheat bread, 48 ounces depending on your macros. No mayonnaise please hold that as it does add up. Mustard tomato lettuce, all great!

Tuna fish and rice with quinoa mix like a bowl – yummmm!!!

Lean ground beef and half a bun with lettuce and tomato

Snacks – Protein whey or casein shake 1 -2 scoop with chocolate fiber 1 cereal

Before you go or between meals

One bar and 1 scoop shake mix

After eating this meal 🥘

You may see the hyper sodium phase for 2-3 days! It’s not fat, allow the body 3-4 days and stay on board. Not all is lost!! 

Don’t miss the holidays, BE present!