Tips on Managing Thanksgiving Dinner and Your Diabetes!

Before I was diagnosed with Diabetes, Thanksgiving was one of my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving used to be an all access pass to gluttony and guilt-free eating. With the holiday approaching I have developed a plan to keep my blood sugars in control and my cravings too!

Avoid or limit breads and gravies.

Turkey is good by it's self. Don't add carbohydrates to something that has NO carbohydrates. Leave the gravy off the turkey and off your plate completely to minimize your carb intake. If you must have gravy consider watering the gravy down a bit. I know it may not taste as good but if you must have it at least try to limit some of the carbohydrates in it.

Bread is full of carbs, but bread is also delicious, especially dinner rolls! So here's what I do. I pick the smallest dinner roll can find, if it is soft I merely separate it into two pieces and eat only one piece. If it's a hard dinner roll I open it up and pull of the bread out of the inside and just eat the outside! This also works for hamburger and hot dog buns.

Pick Turkey Breast as your main meat.

Turkey breast is good for you! It has a very small amount of fat in it and no carbs or sugars. By loading up on the turkey breast it will fill you up and will not affect your blood sugar levels. Because you have diabetes you should limit ham to a bite or two during Thanksgiving dinner. Ham has a lot of fat in it, not to mention trace amounts of sugar because of the way it is cooked. Most hams are prepared sweet, and as we all know when something is sweet it has sugar in it and should be avoided if possible when you are diabetic.

Compromise on side dishes high in carbohydrates.

Most every thinkable side dish for Thanksgiving has massive amounts of carbohydrates in it. From mashed potato's to stuffing or macaroni and cheese or even green been casserole everything is full of nasty carbohydrates. So what do you do? I personally exchange one carb for another. For instance instead of bread I will have a half cup or small portion of mash potato's. Instead of gravy I may have a small bit of green bean casserole. I make compromises when it comes to side dishes. If I wanted macaroni and cheese I would probably have just that and turkey because macaroni is so high in carbohydrates. Minimize your portion sizes and exchange carbohydrates from small un-needed ones like gravy to a small filling mashed potato side.

Eat more green vegetables.

Many vegetables such as carrots, corn, sweet peas and baked beans are high in sugars and carbs. Try eating green beans, broccoli and green salad if it's available. Making green vegetables the majority of your sides will help you limit your carbohydrate consumption in turn keeping your blood sugar levels stable.

How to manage desert time.

After eating dinner wait 2 hours before considering desert. Just because you are diabetic doesn't mean you absolutely have to go without desert. Don't fall victim to "sugar free" deserts or "no sugar added" deserts. These items still have lots of carbs and sugars in them. Instead eat a small portion of a regular desert or perhaps make yourself a desert sampler with 1-2 spoon fulls of each desert offered, this way you can still try everything without going over board. Munch on a piece of turkey before or after your desert just to balance a little protein with all the carbohydrate and sugar filled deserts. Drink water with your Thanksgiving desert and perhaps take a brisk walk after you are done eating to jump start your metabolism.

One last tip.

Remember, diabetes is a very personal disease that has a different affect on people individually. While this plan may work for me and some others it may or may not work for you. It's up to you to determine whether or not this article will help you this Thanksgiving, while managing your diabetes.

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