On Thanksgiving, trying to resist all the delicious food is futile.

To ensure a guilt-free eating experience, there are three things you can do both leading up to the holiday and on the day itself.

Exercise:

This is extremely vital to living a healthy lifestyle. You should already be exercising regularly, but if you’re not, then start as soon as you can.

A common misconception is that you have to kill yourself while exercising in order to get results. While for some this may be true, you need to do what is best for yourself. If you can’t run a mile, it isn’t a big deal. Walk a mile instead.

Make sure that you’re doing something. There are a variety of quick workouts that help when you’re in a time crunch. If you don’t have enough time in the day for a full workout, trying doing a “five-minute abs” workout.

There are a couple of ways you can do this: five abs exercises for one minute each, 10 abs exercises for 30 seconds each or one abs exercise for five minutes.

Healthy alternatives:

Once you’ve gotten exercising down, you need to make sure that you’re eating to support what you’re working off.

It’s important to make sure that you’re not eating poorly. There are certain things you can eat that taste the same but are actually better for you.

Great examples of healthy alternatives, specifically for Thanksgiving, are sweet potatoes versus regular potatoes. They have much more nutrient-rich centers verses the traditional potato.

It’s extremely easy to find healthy alternatives for almost all food, and even your favorite recipes. You can normally just Google what you’re trying to replace or there are also plenty of books on it as well. Or if you’re really into cooking, you can try reading a “Cook This not That” book, which will help you find alternatives to your favorite Thanksgiving dishes.

Portion control:

It’s extremely easy to over-eat on Thanksgiving. There are a couple of ways to prevent this:

1. Drink a lot of water. Water always fills you up. Add a lemon or lime to your water for a little extra kick.

2. Eat slowly. Your food will still be there in five minutes, don’t worry. Also, the slower you eat, the faster you’ll burn calories. If you eat slower, you’ll actually be able to eat longer.

3. Try to get three different food groups onto your plate: Turkey would be your protein; green beans would be your vegetables; and sweet potatoes would be your carbohydrates.

Thanksgiving provides everyone the opportunity to eat whatever they want, in whatever quantity they want and then sleep it all of without feeling guilty. Trying these tips allow you to still enjoy Thanksgiving, without feeling bad about it.