Things You'll Need:
- Fat-free chicken broth
- Reduced-fat versions of traditional ingredients from your favorite recipes
-
Step 1
Eliminate some of the butter in mashed potatoes by adding chicken broth to the recipe or boiling the potatoes in chicken broth. Not only will it add tons of flavor to your taters, it will help create a nice, smooth mashed potato. On that note, add a raw egg to your potatoes before mashing them. It sounds icky, but the egg acts as an emulsifier to eliminate lumps and create a nicely blended texture.
-
Step 2
Add a little chicken broth to your stuffing. Like the potatoes, it'll add lots of flavor, no fat, and it'll keep the stuffing from getting too dry.
-
Step 3
Reduce the amount of drippings you use to make the gravy. Drippings are nothing more than liquid fat so substituting the fatty stuff with a healthy chicken broth will drop a lot of calories.
-
Step 1
Analyze your feelings. Holidays often conjure feelings of loss, loneliness and depression. Try not to fill the emotional void with holiday treats, as this can a snowballing effect: When the scale inches upwards, it can trigger feelings of failure or lack of discipline which will only enhance the negative thoughts associated with the holidays.
-
Step 2
Make wise shopping choices. For the green bean casserole, skip the artery clogging, full-fat cream of mushroom soup and opt for the reduced-fat version instead. And use fewer of those tasty fried onions. You won't notice the difference.
-
Step 3
Try a new version of an old side dish. Instead of sweet potato casserole which is loaded with butter and brown sugar (and perhaps even marshmallows), make simple baked sweet potatoes. A yam wrapped in foil and left to sit in the oven for a couple of hours comes out juicy and incredibly sweet. It's so good there's no reason to add anything to it.
-
Step 4
Save your calorie intake for the foods you wouldn't eat on a typical day. That means passing on things like bread and pre-Thanksgiving dinner snacks.
