Be Healthy While You're Being Thankful

Two years ago my pre-Thanksgiving column was this simple guide to making the annual feeding free-for-all as healthful as possible. I still think it's an extremely useful set of tips to have a great time and still stay on the path to life-long wellness and a lean body.

Here are few ideas you might want to add tomorrow:

• Add thawed frozed chopped spinach to the veggie Greek yogurt dip and serve with mutli-grain pita chips. Thin with low fat milk if it breaks your chips!
• Skip the beverages during the meal altogether. You can avoid taking in hundreds of uneccesary calories if you're not "washing" them down with even more.
• If you're having trouble remembering to put your fork down between bites, stop several times and ask others at the table questions. Wait to take another bite until after they're fininshed answering your question.
• E-mail me at the website if you want the recipe for the healthy pumpkin muffins pictured above.

Do take a few minutes to read the article in the link above. These tips and tricks are how I and my most successful clients have learned to enjoy eating without going overboard on calories and adding to that strained waistline.

They'll work for you too. I promise.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dan is a nationally certified personal fitness trainer and former continuing education faculty member of the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the American Council on Exercise. He is the owner and head trainer at Tri Valley Trainer in Pleasanton, which provides personal training, small group fitness and nutrition guidance. He can be reached at Dan@TriValleyTrainer.com