The typical American holiday season begins on Thanksgiving and continues through New Years Day. During this time, a typical American gains 5-10 pounds. With parties to attend, shopping, baking, cleaning, and other holiday related demands, weight loss efforts tend to get reprioritized. This holiday season can be different and you can start by making Thanksgiving dinner a lot healthier. Here are some great Thanksgiving substitutions and recipes without the excess calories and fat.

When it comes to holiday eating at social events, the choices can be overwhelming. Most holiday foods are laden with fat and calories that might railroad your healthy eating plan. If you do not have a plan, it is easy to overindulge. The good news is that with some preparation you could stick with your weight loss regimen and even treat yourself to a few desserts without packing on the pounds this year!

Many times consumers classify foods as good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, or allowed or forbidden. Instead of classifying foods into positive or negative categories, try evaluating them based on nutrient density. Nutrient density refers to the amount of nutrients for the given volume of food; in other words, containing the most nutrition per bite. The opposite of nutrient density is energy density. By definition energy dense foods have more calories per volume and provide few nutrients.