Do you cheat on you diet for Thanksgiving?

Lately I've been pushing my diet limits and nothing terrible has happened but if I had a long car trip to/back I'd behave the day before as well as on Turkey Day. Then safely back home I'd have ice cream and other desserts that trigger BM's and be happy happy.

My symptoms now are temporary IBS-like (GI doc thinks it's UC) triggered by some foods (chocolate, citrus, ice cream, caffeine, etc).

Before UC I was a vegetarian and never asked for special food, just ate what I wanted and no one cared. If I was going to someone's house I'd do the same with UC, skip bread/rolls and dessert which would not be gluten-free or dairy-free saying I was too full right now. I love turkey and mashed potatoes and veggies so good day for me.

I practice a "see food, eat food" diet on thanksgiving. Although, I'm trying to loose 5-7 pounds as a longterm goal, that's on temporary hold for the holiday. Food generally doesn't affect my uc (so I'm not eating any forbidden foods, as I have none). I'll be going continuing to go the gym but putting in extra effort and time in, to try and burn off extra calories from the holiday and hope to come close to breaking even (but realistic that I still might not break even lol).

I don't do the SCD diet, but I have been dieting in general. I plan to eat what I want but not go overboard to where I feel sick. I'm not used to eating HUGE quantities of food at once. I can't wait for some apple pie though. :)

I'm like iPoop. I'm not on any kind of diet for UC but just to lose weight. I cheated a wee bit for Thanksgiving (we had ours already) but the real cheat comes at Christmas.

When I flare I do restrict my diet, I eat very low fibre and I would not cheat for that. So I would be able to eat turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes.. just avoid the veggies. So I could eat all the good stuff anyway, no need to cheat! :)

I cannot deny myself on Thanksgiving.

I'm glad you asked this! Since this will be my first Thanksgiving post-diagnosis, I was wondering the same thing. I do plan to totally cheat. I want banana cream pie with Coolwhip, celery sticks with cream cheese, and other stuff I can't think of off the top of my head.

What I'm also wondering is if I should have chopped walnuts, because at Christmas time we make kolachky with a walnut/brown sugar filling that is to die for, and I would seriously be devastated if I couldn't have those. And lots of them.

Oh - and the trick I learned to help stay strict and not cheat was to eat a LOT of SCD food before actually going somewhere for dinner... But that really sucked.

GloGirl504 said...
I'm glad you asked this! Since this will be my first Thanksgiving post-diagnosis, I was wondering the same thing. I do plan to totally cheat. I want banana cream pie with Coolwhip, celery sticks with cream cheese, and other stuff I can't think of off the top of my head.

What I'm also wondering is if I should have chopped walnuts, because at Christmas time we make kolachky with a walnut/brown sugar filling that is to die for, and I would seriously be devastated if I couldn't have those. And lots of them.

Uc robs us of so much, feeling normal for a day is priceless.

If you've demonstrated a lot of food sensitivities then be careful. If you haven't then it's likely safe to experiment. There's only one true way to find if the thanksgiving dinner bothers you, to try it out for yourself. Food never does much if anything to my uc symptoms. For some, eating problem foods might add an extra bm or two to the next morning (usually worth it for an occasional, guilty indulgence). For some it's a real bad morning and not advisable. Knowing yourself and what affects you, is key in surviving uc.

If you're not having bad symptoms, I don't see anything wrong with a cheat day. Just make sure those cheat days don't turn into weeks and then months (if your diet is working).