How to Avoid Overeating at Thanksgiving

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette, and I'm a registered dietitian, with the Austin Regional Clinic,and I'm going to talk to you, about how to avoid overeating at Thanksgiving. There are a lot of different tips you can employ, to try to avoid overeating. One of the things that is helpful, is to identify what kind of eater you are. Are you a muncher? If you're a muncher, then you probably want to make sure that when you get your plate, you walk away from the buffet table. Go talk to some of your friends. Take your food with you, but try to avoid hanging out around the buffet table, because that may cause you to just mindlessly, pick at the food there, and kind of munch,while you're standing there. If you're an emotional eater, you want to think ahead about what may be going on, at the event that you're going to. Are there going to be family members, that you know can actually push your buttons? If that's the case, you want to come up with a plan of what to do, rather than turning to food for comfort. Think of other things that you could do, that would help relieve some of your stress. It may be going out for a walk. It may be finding a quiet area to possibly read a magazine, or do something a little bit different, just to relieve your stress. If you're an overeater in the sense that you just like food, and you really enjoy the taste of it, the strategy there would be to use smaller plates. A lot of times when you go to an event, a Thanksgiving dinner, they'll have a variety of plate sizes. They'll have the very large plates, that are more like platter sizes, and then they'll have the smaller plates, that are more geared toward dessert type things, so in that case, it would be best for you to actually use smaller plates,and be very careful when you serve yourself, and make sure that you really are enjoying your food, really paying attention to each bite that you're eating. Try to avoid having your fork already ready with the next bite, before you have finished chewing your first bite, so that whole adage of putting your fork down in between bites, can really be helpful, if you're an overeater, who just enjoys eating. Another tip for this type of person, is to make sure that you're drinking plenty of water. A lot of times you may have an increase in appetite, simply because you're dehydrated, so make sure that you're drinking plenty of water,and lastly, remember that these types of foods, often will keep very well, and you can actually wrap these things up, put them in the freezer, have them for later. Don't think that you have to enjoy all of this food in one sitting, so those are just a few tips, to avoid overeating at Thanksgiving."