Local nurse offers tips on how to stay on track with your diet this Thanksgiving

By now, many of us are doing our best to minimize our bad eating habits. That time between Halloween and New Year's is the toughest to maintain. Nutrition goals, weight goals, everything, right? Especially at the holiday dinner table. There's a way we can enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving spread without too much guilt. Priority Health Nurse and Care Manager Charlotte Hobbs is here with some of those. Healthy alternatives for us. Yeah, and Charlie, you're already telling us, look, we gotta scale back on some of the toppings and things that many of us love. Right, right. Yeah, well, and you know, we forget, right? We want to use like our family recipes that we've had for generations, right? And you don't want to divert from that. But you can, you know, instead of like maybe the green bean casserole, just have, you know, green beans, right? Or do some roasted vegetables like your Brussels sprouts, carrots, things like that. Or even a salad on the side. Because I remember you guys have talked before, like, you never see a salad. No, you're right. Not really. Hey, I know the turkey's coming out. Can I have a salad first? No one ever says that. Exactly, exactly. You know, but turkey is a good lean protein, right? You do have your white meats that you can, you know, cut off the turkey, you know. And fill up, you know, make most of your plate your turkey and your vegetables, right? And then you can still have your mashed potatoes, you know, your cranberry sauce. You mentioned yams, too. Don't top on the marshmallows. Yes, right, yeah. Maybe put on maybe some pecans to get that crunch instead or, you know, something. You know, to give you that little extra that you might want. But, you know, don't layer on the sugar, right? That's the thing, right? Sugar really is our enemy, you know? So you can still have like your desserts, you know, you can have pumpkin pie is actually good for you, right? I mean, it does have, you know, like your vitamins and minerals from the pumpkin. Okay. And maybe not eat, you know, maybe just eat the pumpkin out of it and not keep having the crust, right? Okay, well, what about sweet potato pie? Because, you know, in my household, we do the sweet potato. You can do sweet potato pie too. Yeah, absolutely. Right. And then maybe do like an apple crisp pie or a berry pie. You know, there's healthier options and maybe not the cool whip and the whipped cream all on top of it. You know, I know, I know. But no, it's good information. And then what about like, listen, I mean, the last couple of years, my family, I don't know how this happened, but we started to go. We eat Thanksgiving at a restaurant. OK, same place every year. But there's no leftovers then. So you kind of have this great plate of food, and then you're done done. Right, right. Yeah, well, I mean, you could order more, right? You could take some takeout. Oh, yeah. And I know some people, like, they'll make two turkeys, right, because they want to have those leftovers, you know, and maybe still make a turkey, maybe not put on that whole meal at home because you are going out to eat instead. But some people will still just go ahead and make that turkey so they have it so they can have those leftovers or have that sandwich, you know, and, you know, or, you know, have those memories of this is what we did as a kid. So is that a bad idea? I mean, the leftovers, it sounds like, I mean, the leftovers can get you, too. They can, but if you don't have an overabundance, then it's still... It's still all in moderation, right? And turkey, again, is not the bad. That's not your bad. Yeah. It's the sides that get us in trouble. It's all the sides that get you in trouble, right? The dressing and the stuffing and the mac and cheese. I like a couple trays of stuff. A couple trays. Trays. Okay, can I say, though, there is a limit to leftovers, okay? I don't want to see the Thanksgiving leftovers a week after. No, Sunday. You really should not have them that long. Right. Because they do start going bad in the refrigerator after like three, four days, so it's not Good to keep having them, you know, because you do see some people that keep going and going and going. So make sure, you know, when you're heating up your leftovers, you're heating them up, right? So it's safe to consume because that's the other thing is... Because food doesn't get put away right away. Right, right. It gets left out, you know, before you put it in the fridge. So just be mindful of that, too. That's all good information, Charlotte. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thanksgiving at Charlotte's house. Mm-hmm. Not at yours. You're like the fun police today. I'm not. Look at you. You used to be so much fun on Thanksgiving, Tanisha. All right. Good day. Next.