Welcome to Turkey Day 2024!
For many of our patients, including our staff, this will likely be your first Thanksgiving while taking a GLP-1 medication. Some of you have just started your journey, while others have been with us for several months.
We’ve recently received a few questions from patients about how to approach the big event (or series of events, as this is the time of year for many parties, group gatherings, and so on).
We thought we’d try to address these open-ended questions with some thoughts and recommendations from the staff here at the clinic.
We’ll add a few short bullet notes here because we know people are short on time, but more detailed explanations will follow:
Only take small portions of items you know you can tolerate.
Stay hydrated.
If people know you’re on the medication, remind them of your progress. When they see you eating less while still looking full, smile!
Have a plan in place if you’re keeping your medication a secret.
Bring items you know you can tolerate well, especially if you’ve developed sensitivity to fatty or sugary foods.
Protein, protein, protein, and more protein!
In general, we recommend approaching the big event(s) with some foresight into how you’ve been doing in the recent weeks on the medication and with your efforts. Most of you know that while taking Semaglutide or Tirzepatide, you tend to feel full very quickly with just a smaller amount of food. That’s great! And it’s part of what makes your weight loss journey so successful.
Knowing this, have a plan for tackling the food. For most, my suggestion would be to try most food items, but plan on adding smaller portions to your plate. You can always go back for more. There will be situations where “Aunt Judy” will insist on filling your plate with her homemade stuffing. We can only suggest that you navigate that as best you can.
In general, add smaller portions of the things YOU KNOW YOU CAN TOLERATE. (We put those in caps because you all know by now that there may be some foods your body doesn’t handle as well anymore. It could be very fatty foods (so limit that gravy…) or it could be the sweet stuff (so limit or skip the pumpkin pies and minimize the marshmallows on the yams).
We know there are some of you that are keeping the fact you are on medication “on the down low”, so you can’t say outright, “You know, with my weight-loss medication, I just can’t eat as much as I did last year…” as some others will be able to. But it’s okay to say you’re being careful with what you eat because you’ve made great progress in losing weight, and you don’t want to blow it, even for the day.
Another suggestion, especially for those gatherings where each person brings an item, is to make sure you bring something to the occasion that you know you can tolerate well. This way, at least there will be that one thing you know you can eat. A second suggestion would be to bring a few snacks with you that you can munch on before and during the event—ones that you know work well for you.
And of course, we have to remind everyone that, when possible, focus on the proteins. For Thanksgiving, this usually means turkey, ham, or prime rib. The protein will fill you up, provide the good calories with limited fats, and thankfully is a focus point of these celebrations!
From everyone on the staff here at Pacific Northwest Medical Group, we all are thankful for our amazing and wonderful patients. We enjoy seeing you all each week or month and being a small part of the journey you are all on.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Daryl, Jennifer, Ayla, Tyler and Dynasia.
Pacific Northwest Medical Group
6622 112th ST E, Puyallup WA 98373
253-340-2270
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