What are your favorite Thanksgiving Traditions? While Thanksgiving should be a time to focus on spending time with family, enjoying the brisk weather, and gearing up for Christmas (my favorite holiday!!), sometimes Thanksgiving can be filled with stress and wondering if you are going to fall “off track.” There is no doubt that this time of year can be stressful when you are working on health and lifestyle changes. Your REBEL Dietitian can definitely help you set a plan in place to work toward your goals while still enjoying the foods of the season.

I find when I focus more on family and traditions over the holidays, I am happier and stress less about the foods I am eating. Traditions are very important the me and I enjoy keeping them alive from year to year. During Thanksgiving, we never really had a set “tradition.” As a child, my family and I would switch between going to my Great Aunt’s house on my mom’s side or going to Aunt’s/grandma’s house on my dad’s side. Each side had its own special traditions we would take part in each year.

For example of Thanksgiving Traditions:

Great Aunt’s House

• Lasagna. This is the very Italian side of my family, so it shouldn’t come to a shock that we ate lasagna on Thanksgiving. I LOVE my aunt’s lasagna, so I always remember to save some room for it; I usually took a smaller portion than normal, but ate slowly so I was still able to enjoy it.
• Bocce Ball. Going along with the Italian theme, if the weather isn’t too chilly, we try to head outside to play some Bocce ball! We would either do this before or after our Thanksgiving dinner, depending on when we had time and also if we had enough light to play!
• Watching Elf. Okay, this may be my own personal tradition, but I love watching Elf after Thanksgiving dinner! In my opinion, when Thanksgiving ends, Christmas season begins. And what better way to kick off the holiday season than watching one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Grandma’s House

• Thanksgiving Play. This is probably one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions.
• Forget football! We love playing baseball on all holidays. We can get pretty competitive. What’s your favorite family sport to play?
• Watching Football. Yes, then when we are done with playing baseball, we all watch the game together. Most of us fall asleep during it though.
• Pumpkin Crunch. My Aunt makes this dessert every year! It even has a nice jingle to go along with eating it…. To the tune of Macho Man: “Pumpkin, pumpkin crunch. I want to eat a whole bunch! Pumpkin, pumpkin crunch. I think I’d even eat it for lunch!”

Thinking back on all these traditions I have with my family gets me a bit nostalgic! I am thankful for the time I have spent with them through the years and the memories I have made. If there aren’t any, what new traditions would you like to introduce this year? Whether or not your family has rich Thanksgiving traditions, how will you make sure you’re fully present (body AND mind) and enjoying the moment this Thanksgiving? Having some ideas on hand will help you focus more on family fun and traditions and stress less about food!

What are some of your favorite traditions? We would love to hear!

Don’t forget, we are open during the holiday season and are looking forward to working with you; maybe a new tradition for you could be to see a Registered Dietitian around the holidays so you can think about holidays in newer, healthier and FUN way. Contact us today! Our number is 301-474-2499 or visit our contact us page.