What food do you enjoy eating at your holiday meal?
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and welcome to the third blog in my series on self-discipline.
This week, we’ll discuss how we celebrate the holiday and how we can use self-discipline as we indulge.
The Thanksgiving Feast
Thanksgiving is a day where we get together and enjoy a festive meal with family, friends, and coworkers. We give thanks for the blessings we have received throughout the year, especially for the bounty of food we eat.
For dinner, there is always turkey to eat and sometimes ham. The usual vegetables include mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and scalloped corn.
And let’s not forget the desserts, especially the pumpkin pie with whipped cream.
Because there is so much food available than at regular meals, people often overeat to the point of discomfort and bloating. We all know how it feels when we have to loosen the top button on your pants or put on our pants with the elastic waistband after we finish that third slice of pie. Some of our relatives may even wear their special dinner pants to avoid the discomfort in the first place.
However, it’s important that we practice self-discipline when we eat, especially on holidays like Thanksgiving.
Some Things to Remember About Food Habits
What we need to remember is that our actions have consequences, and as we mentioned in the first blog: “Good habits are hard to form and easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with." You don’t want to mess up all the good habits you’ve been building throughout the year in one gluttonous dinner.
You also don’t want to fall for the trap that says it’s okay to overeat, because before you know it, you’ll do it the next day and the day after that. Of course, with holidays comes a sense of freedom, so if you do eat too much, exercise more; it helps counteract the results.
To help maintain self-discipline throughout the holiday season and before you begin to eat any meal, you might consider keeping the following three tips in mind. They will help you be healthier and consistent in all you do.
1. Exercise regularly.
If you exercise throughout the year, you will continue to burn calories during your resting periods. Also, exercising after a heavy holiday meal burns the excess calories and helps avoid the after dinner drowsiness that often comes from overeating. Your activity doesn’t need to be rigorous. Just take walk in the park or a bicycle ride in the neighborhood.
2. Do not overfeed yourself.
Some people don’t know when to stop. Self-discipline is knowing when you’ve had enough, even if you want more. It’s hard when everyone around you is chowing down much more than they need to. But you don’t have to overeat just because they do. You can end your feasting by taking your plate to the kitchen and offering to take the plates of others who are finished eating as well. The key is to know yourself enough to know when it’s time to stop.
3. Avoid unhealthy choices.
You may be able to maintain your health eating one Big Mac a month, but you won’t if you eat five a week; it’s too much of the wrong kind of food that when consumed as a steady diet can lead to disease.
Let’s consider this quote by Ernestine Ulmer that encourages self-indulgence rather than self-discipline:
“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.”
While this quote is witty, and people often choose to eat dessert before their evening meal, it isn’t always the best choice. It certainly is not one you want to make a habit of doing on a regular basis.
While you don’t want to spoil your dinner before it starts, everyone cheats a little when it comes to eating, especially on holidays, right?
Maybe.
But think about this:
If you eat dessert first, you may not get the nutrition you need from the savory dishes offered at your Thanksgiving dinner because you will be too full to eat them.
Remember—to stay healthy you need self-control or self-discipline, and the three tips above are techniques that will help you discipline yourself enough to maintain your health.