Healthy Turkey Day Tips for Your Family: Creating a Healthier Thanksgiving Tradition

Here are some great tips for a healthier holiday!

Thanksgiving Day – 

Before the Turkey Dinner

Do not skip breakfast and lunch  - eat normal meals until the big one!

Do something active in the morning – run in  a local turkey trot, organize a family game of soccer or a neighborhood flag football game, go on a family hike or bike ride.

Preparing the Food

• Decide which traditions you want to keep – then add some new, healthier ones
• Offer cut veggies and dip for pre-dinner snacks
• Offer fewer choices of desserts – instead of having 5 different types of pie and wanting one of each, serve 1 kind of pie. Research shows that if there are more choices, we will eat more
• Don’t eat too late – eat around 4 or 5 pm so you have plenty of time to digest before bed.
• Don’t linger too long at the dinner table – you will eat (and drink) more!
• Serve (and drink) a lot of water! Make it festive, add sliced limes and cranberries to sparkling water. 

After Dinner

• Send leftovers home with guests
• Spend Friday doing something fun and active if you aren’t hitting the store.
• Keep some leftovers for Friday then set a goal to get them out of the house by Monday!

If you are going to someone else's house:

1) Offer to bring veggies and dip or salad so you know you have some healthy choices

2) Bring a couple of bottle of sparkling water which is festive and appreciated by host!

3) Bring some clementine oranges for dessert.

3 quick recipe suggestions:

1. Grilled Green Beans – toss green beans with a little olive oil, salt and pepper than put in oven at 450 for about 10 minutes. 
2. Mashed potatoes – substitute chicken broth and nonfat milk to keep flavor but avoid the extra calories
3. Offer fruit as a dessert option ( you will be amazed at how fast it disappears!)

Healthy Halloween Tips! Expert of the Month at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

I am honored to be the "Expert of the Month" at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

www.snack-girl.com

Article and original link:

STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With Halloween spookily approaching, dealing with the annual tidal wave of sugar can be a real challenge for parents. While everyone wants kids to enjoy the day, the candy cargo seems to be getting bigger every year, with parties at school and friends’ houses increasing the loot. That’s why we sat down to get some healthy Halloween tips from Thea Runyan, MPH, at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Runyan is the lead behavior coach for the Pediatric Weight Control Program, part of the hospital’s multidisciplinary Center for Healthy Weight.

“Regardless of whether a child has a weight issue, it's vital that he or she learn moderation, and the skill of making healthy choices”

“Regardless of whether a child has a weight issue, it's vital that he or she learn moderation, and the skill of making healthy choices,” Runyan says. “Research shows that kids don't simply ‘outgrow’ the urge to eat unhealthily if they don't possess the tools to do so.”

Here are a few of Runyan’s healthy Halloween strategies:

• One increasingly popular approach is telling kids -- especially younger kids -- about the "Switch Witch" or the "Halloween Ghost." The kids put their loot on the doorstep, and this figure takes it that night, replacing it with something fun but not candy. (Note: Parents must resist eating it, too!)
• Some older kids enjoy trading their candy for cash. Some dentists will buy back kids' candy. Some schools even set up programs where kids can donate the candy to U.S. troops.
• Some parents hand out fun, non-candy items: spider rings, pretzels, stickers and tattoos, for instance. Get creative. For Halloween parties, make "fingers" out of string cheese.
• Don't buy your candy until a day or two before you hand it out. Otherwise, it's too tempting to eat it beforehand. Or, buy candy you or your children don't like. Hate dark chocolate? Make that the treat you give out.
• Emphasize the fun of trick-or-treating, rather than the subsequent feast. And when the trick-or-treating is over, have the kids pick out their favorite 20 pieces to keep. To many parents' surprise, Runyan says, kids are often perfectly satisfied keeping just 20 pieces

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131016006209/en/Tips-Halloween-Candy-Fun-Calories-Packard-Children’s