Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, which also means that it marks the beginning of parties, alcohol and food. If you're worried about gaining weight this holiday season with all of the extra calories, Gloria Tsang, author of "Go UnDiet," has offered up some tips on shaving calories off of your Thanksgiving feast.- Serving up mashed potatoes this week? Save yourself 90 calories by using buttermilk instead of cream and using half the amount of butter you would normally use to make them.
- You can still serve cakes and pies for dessert! While baking, Tsang suggests substituting unsweetened applesauce or pureed prunes for half of the sugar in the recipe. You can even try substituting egg whites or egg substitute for the eggs in the recipes to make your cake even leaner. If the eggs in the recipe are used as an emulsifier, it's best to substitute with an egg substitute (1/4 cup = 1 egg). If you do this, you can save 96 calories per 1/8 of a cake or pie piece.
- If you just can't find a way to part with whipped cream this Thanksgiving, you should try making your own whipped cream using evaporated milk. It will offer up a similar taste and texture without the fat of regular whipped cream. You can save 60 calories per 2 tablespoons if you try this.
- Well you can't have Thanksgiving without turkey! And that's good because it's actually one of the healthy Thanksgiving menu items -- it's a good source of protein and has the least amount of fat per serving of all meats, if you pass on the skin. If you skip that crispy skin, you's save between 45 and 63 calories.
- Passing on eggnog and choosing champagne or sparkling wine will save you 100 calories per serving. Cheers!
Want some more tricks to use to save on calories this Thanksgiving? Try using a smaller plate. With all of the amazing dishes on Thanksgiving, it's easy to completely fill your plate with food. But you could cut down on how much food you serve yourself just by picking up a smaller plate.
You can also try to be choosy with what you decide to serve yourself. If you've been craving stuffing, go for it but pass on muffins, rolls and any other bread included in the Thanksgiving spread. Decide what items on the menu you most want to have and limit yourself to those. When serving yourself, you can also try to just serve yourself a fork full of the foods you don't usually allow yourself to have so you don't have to cope with the post-meal guilt.
If the casseroles and pies are right in front of you, it's easy to pick at what's left and take some extra servings. Instead, grab a seat away from the Thanksgiving spread and limit yourself to your first plate of food.
More of Gloria Tsang's simple, small achievable actions to reclaim health are available in "Go UnDiet," now available in Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kindle and iBooks.
