Healthy Choices Thanksgiving Challenge Day 4 – Thanksgiving!

Well, today was Thanksgiving – Day 4 of my Healthy Choices Thanksgiving Challenge to make healthy choices and eat smaller portions.  

Even though this week, I’ve done pretty well, I really felt like I needed to be more diligent today – simply because there was so much more food choices than normal.

So I started off the day, just making some different choices in how much food I served: 1/2 of a pie instead of the full pie, 1/2 as much broccoli cheese casserole (my favorite), and serving plain baked sweet potatoes instead of a sweet potato casserole.  I also realized I needed to get more movement in, to offset the extra food I was going to eat.

So Exercise wise: I did several mini-workouts,  Fat Loss Quickie-style.  I also used my exercise ball for a chair for about 2 hours of our long Phase 10 card game.

But I think I over did it, because by the time dinner came around, my legs were killing me and my low back was threatening to shut me down.  Thankfully, some stretching on the ball and the floor and a 1/2 hour of resting made a difference.

Food-wise, I tracked the same as I have for the last few days – not only what I’m eating, but when I’m eating it. Again to raise my own awareness of where the bulk of my calories/nutrition is being consumed.

10 am – Diet Coke for a break-fast snack (there’s that morning soda again…gotta break this again!)

11:30 Brunch: 1 half white, half- whole wheat waffle with homemade cinnamon applesauce on top, 3 pieces of turkey bacon, 2 pieces of turkey sausage, and a 1/2 cup of scrambled eggs. Oh, and a cup of homemade hot cocoa with a couple mini-marshmellows.

11:45 am – 3:30 pm  Snacked on baby carrots, a couple stalks of broccoli,  about a dozen black olives, and a 2 inch square of coffee cake. Had about a tablespoon of fat-free ranch dressing for dip.

4:30 pm Thanksgiving Dinner: Turkey, jello, whole wheat roll, mashed potatoes (w/skins but full of butter!), broccoli cheese casserole, 2 baked sweet potatoes w/ about a 2 teas real butter, about 4 slices of peaches, and homemade gravy (made with a butter roux and turkey broth) on both the turkey and the mashed potatoes.

6:30 pm Dessert: a thin slice of Marie Callendar’s Chocolate Cream Pie (think 1/6 of 1/2 of a pie)

A plus here: We also had Chocolate Muffins (made with pumpkin and devil’s food cake mix) available, but I decided to just freeze mine for another day.

9:20 pm Several handfuls of Carmel Corn (from cub scouts popcorn sales) and a couple handfuls of roasted almonds.

10 pm  1/2 bag of popcorn

1:30 am  a banana as a bedtime snack (this week I’ve discovered that I like having a peice of fruit as a bedtime snack. hmm.)

The Verdict of the Day

Today was good. I felt good about the choices I made. Of course I had it easier because I was in control over the menu and oversaw the cooking, so I could control the ingredients. But I also felt good about the choices I made – both food wise and exercise wise.  It was a good day and I have much to be thankful for.