Turkey Trot-Making Room for Thanksgiving Dinner?

Are you enjoying your "coma" induced Thanksgiving Dinner? It's a annual tradition to let loose and kickback with family and friends. It's a time to give thanks for what we have.

You sit on the couch using a toothpick to pick out the little pieces of turkey caught in your backset of teeth. The rubbing of your belly is making room for more food despite the fact that it has been stuffed with extra servings of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potato, backed russet potato, dinner rolls, honey glazed ham, cranberry sauce (either from the can or made fresh). The football game flickers away on your new flat screen television, as your eyes start to roll back. Your last thoughts are plans of your onslaught on the dessert table when you awake from your recovery nap.

The tryptophan finally wears off and your eyes focus on the desert table. Your thoughts plan out the perfect plating and balancing of that slice of apple pie, pumpkin pie, cannoli, and cheese cake (from the Cheese Cake Factory). Remember the whipped cream!

The next day, with the sunshine in your eyes and your iPhone calendar alert chimes away to remind you of your Turkey Trot. A few months ago, it seemed like a good idea that you and your friends planned for the inevitable holiday waist expansion. Besides providing some funds to a charity, burning off a few calories from last night's dinner might be a good thing to do.

You notice on the print out of your application that the Trot is a 5K, and you think that should be enough to burn off the 4500 calories that an average person ingests on the Forth Thursday of November. However, you will probably need to run another 42 miles to even out what you ate in 2 hours. 42 miles can take about 6-8 hours to complete!

Here are some food stats for Thursday and miles to be run!

Turkey Breast: Serving Size: 3 oz; Cal: 115, 1 mile run

Turkey White Meat and skin: Serving Size: 1 cup diced; Cal: 276, 3 mile run

Turkey Dark Meat and skin: Serving Size: 1 cup diced; Cal: 309, 3 mile run

Prime Rib: Serving Size: 6 oz; Cal: 330, 3 mile run

Roast Turkey with Sage Stuffing and Gravy: Serving Size: 8 servings; Cal: 1126, 11 mile run

Mashed Potatoes: Serving Size: 1 cup; Cal: 237, 2.5 mile run

Sweet Potatoes: Serving Size: 100 gm; Cal: 90, 1 mile run

Sweet Potato Casserole: Serving Size: 8 serving; Cal: 267, 3 mile run

Sage Sausage & Apple Stuffing: Serving Size: 4 dinner; Cal: 265, 3 mile run

Green Bean Casserole: Serving Size: 8 to10 dinner; Cal: 221, 2.5 mile run

Cranberry Sauce: Serving Size ½ cup; Cal:190, 2 mile run

Turkey Gravy: Serving Size: 14 serving; Cal: 47, ½ mile run

Pumpkin Pie: Serving Size: 1 piece; Cal: 320, 3 mile run

Pecan Pie: Serving Size: 1 piecel Cal: 480, 5 mile run

Fruit Salad (fruits, nuts and Cool Whip): Serving Size: 1 cup; 2 mile run

Honey Glazed Ham: Serving Size: 15 serving; Cal: 521, 5 mile run

Dinner Rolls: Serving Size: 1 roll; Cal: 120, 1 mile run

Beverages Calorie Count and miles to be run

Mixed drink: Serving Size: 1 glass; Cal: 250, 2.5 mile run

Wine: Serving Size: 1 glass; Cal: 120, 1 mile run

Soft drink: Serving Size: 1 glass; Cal: 250, 2.5 mile run

Coffee with cream and sugar: Serving Size: 1 cup; Cal: 50, ½ mile run

Cider or sparkling grape juice: Serving Size: 1 glass; Cal: 120, 1 mile run

Eggnog: Serving Size 1 cup; Cal: 343, 3 mile run

The last thing you are thinking of doing is running a Turkey Trot. So enjoy your day with family, and if you want to run, do it. Just note that many Turkey Trots raise funds for those who are less fortunate than us, so it's worth getting out there for a half an hour to an hour. Start a new tradition with health in mind!

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