How Will You Approach Our Favorite Food-Focused Holiday?

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Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Full of family traditions, Thanksgiving often involves a large, thoughtfully prepared meal. Now is a good time to create some intention about how to approach this food-focused holiday. The ADA has a Holiday Meal Planning page that could be an excellent resource for preparations. The key points are:

• Think About the Timing of Your Meal

• Be Physically Active

• Try Healthier Versions of Your Favorite Holiday Foods

• Nibble

• Be Selective

• Eat Smaller Portions

• Eat Your Vegetables

My action plan involves being physically active ("The best way to compensate for eating a little more than usual is to be active. Start a new tradition that involves moving around away from the food."*) and nibbling ("Have foods to nibble on while you are cooking or waiting to eat. Make sure the foods you choose won't sabotage blood glucose levels before the meal."*) Be thoughtful and prepared so you can enjoy a special day with as little stress as possible.

*Both quotes from the ADA page: http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/planning-meals/holiday-meal-planning/planning-ahead.html

Create a Healthy Plate with More Freedom

Create Your Plate is an interactive tool designed by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). This system was created to help people with diabetes (and others too) manage their blood glucose levels and lose weight. The Create Your Plate program is centered around the goal of filling your plate with mostly non-starchy vegetables and smaller portions of starchy foods and protein.

When you “create your plate,” you can make healthier choices, and since the guidelines are looser than many other dietary plans, you have more freedom. You choose and vary the foods you want for each meal, adjusting portion sizes so your focus is on non-starchy veggies. There are many foods to choose in each main category: protein, non-starchy vegetables, and grains and starchy foods.

Create Your Plate is a plan that’s very easy to visualize on your own. And on the ADA website, you will find an interactive tool that will allow you to fill up a plate with a variety of foods according to their portion recommendations. This tool can help you plan your meal in advance, or once you are familiar with the program, you will be able to start picturing food combinations and their appropriate portions and map out your plate on your own.

Healthy Living's Diabetes Nutrition Placemat

Similarly, on the Healthy Living Online Store (toward the bottom of the page), you can also check out and order our custom nutrition placemat. It is based on the same food group proportion recommendations as the Create Your Plate plan for the ADA. The placemat gives you visual tips for portion sizes, lists of foods in each group and their serving sizes, and a visual representation of a healthy plate.

7 Steps to Getting Started with a Healthy Plate

1. Using your dinner plate, put a line down the middle of the plate. Then on one side, cut it again so you will have three sections on your plate.
2. Fill the largest section with non-starchy vegetables. See this list of non-starchy vegetables.
3. Now in one of the small sections, put grains and starchy foods. See this list of grains and starchy foods.
4. And then in the other small section, put your protein. See this list of protein foods.
5. Add a serving of fruit, a serving of dairy, or both as your meal plan allows.
6. Choose healthy fats in small amounts. For cooking, use oils. For salads, some healthy additions are nuts, seeds, avocado and vinaigrettes.
7. To complete your meal, add a low-calorie drink like water, unsweetened tea, or coffee.

(List recommended by the American Diabetes Association)

Try a new way of creating your meal. Fill you plate according to the Create Your Plate sectioning strategy and see the difference it makes in your health!