Short list to help you have a healthy Thanksgiving.

Are you worried that Thanksgiving marks the start of an unhealthy month (or two)? Are you determined to make it different this year?

We’ve got some tips. While you may have detected a number of these before, a reminder can only serve to help, don’t you think? Sometimes it takes a while before it actually clicks.

But this year we’re giving up some new tips that you simply won’t have meet before, like things you thought you couldn’t eat but can/should.

Here’s a short list to help you have a healthy Thanksgiving.

• Eat breakfast. You might be tempted to avoid wasting up all the calories for the “big meal,” but that usually backfires because you end up with an “I deserve it” mentality, which often leads to overdoing it. Instead, begin your day with a filling, but healthy, breakfast like a bowl of hot oatmeal or whole-grain cereal or an egg-white omelet filled with vegetables and sprinkled with a little low-fat cheese. Most important: don’t show up for Thanksgiving hungry!
• Be active. Most gyms ar open national holiday (at least, part of the day) and feature fun workouts. Working out early won’t solely offer you the energy to induce through a busy day, but it will lift your mood and rev up your metabolism. If you cannot get to a gymnasium, try taking a walk. And there’s no shame in grabbing a number of your Thanksgiving guests and insistence you walk off your turkey when dinner, either.

• Eat whatever you want. Just eat less of it. There’s nothing worse than regretting never having tasted that homemade apple crisp that smells so good or not trying the pumpkin pie that you look forward to all year. Saying no to foods you love and won’t likely see for another year will only make you feel deprived and frustrated. Instead, have a plan: tell yourself that you will let yourself eat whatever you want, but that you’ll put just a small amount of that something(s) on your plate—and not take seconds.

By the way, opt for a touch of chocolate, preferably the dark stuff. A German study that reported on chocolate’s health benefits also found that you need only consume about six grams a day—about the equivalent of one square of a chocolate bar—to reap the benefits, which include lowered blood pressure.

MORE: 5 Healthy Ways to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

• Help out. Obviously, if it’s your house, that’s a given. But if you’re a guest this year, helping to clear the table and wash or dry some dishes will not only keep you from sitting too much, it’ll keep you from lingering at the table and picking at the leftover food.

MORE: Why You Might Not Want to Sit

• Bring something. Yes, that’s a given, too: you’re unlikely to show up empty-handed. But here’s your opportunity to prepare a healthy dish in the event your host favors a heavy hand in the cooking department. For instance, bring your own version of sweet potatoes. Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa suggests baking yams in foil at four hundred till the syrupy juice starts to ooze out (usually concerning Associate in Nursing hour), peeling and slicing them, then layering them with some pineapple slices and a touch of cinnamon.
• Snack on some nuts. While there is not any guarantee your host can have them, consider bringing a nice assortment for before or after the meal. A new study has found that adults UN agency Ate atiny low few batty (about a one-ounce serving) seven or additional times every week were less doubtless to die from any cause over a 30-year amount than people who did not eat batty. Regularly consumption batty conjointly reduced mortality risk for heart and disease and cancer.
• Scope out the spread. Nutrition expert Kerri Glassman and cofounder of MommyCoach offers a good suggestion to people going to parties: Rather than jumping right in and filling your plate with all the goodies set out before you, take your time. Studies show that people eat more when they’re offered a greater variety of foods, she says. “By taking a tour of all the food 1st, you will not comprise this entice,” says Glassman. This way, you can look at everything and decide what’s healthiest and what to put on your plate.