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When your Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving) host is extra special to you, you’re gonna want to arrive with a little something — a sweet token to show your love and appreciation for the invitation and all the food. After all, your host was probably stressing out for days (weeks?) ahead of time, so this is really the least you can do. Whether you’re headed to your aunt’s, to your boyfriend’s parents’ house, or somewhere else, we’ve got a perfectly tailored suggestion for you.

Here are the best gifts for every kind of Thanksgiving host.

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We’re testing popular Thanksgiving recipes on Kitchn all month long, and between its five-star rating and Ina Garten’s reputation for perfection, Ina’s roast turkey is, arguably, the most popular bird on the internet.

Unlike the other turkey recipes I tried (here’s Ree Drummond’s, Martha Stewart’s, and Alton Brown’s), Ina opts for a dry brine instead of a wet one, and her turkey roasts at the same oven temperature the whole time, allowing you (the busy Thanksgiving host) to walk away to prep the rest of the meal. Would Ina’s turkey live up to all the praise? Here’s what I found out.

Recipe: Ina Garten’s Perfect Roast Turkey
Recipe: Ina Garten’s Brine

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‘Tis the season… for wondering “Seriously, what the heck am I going eat this holiday??”

I’m guessing that most Mark’s Daily Apple readers can relate to the angst that comes with trying to be a “healthy person” during the holiday season. Are you going to indulge? How much? How will you feel physically and mentally if you do? How will other people behave if you don’t?

Particularly if you’re somewhat new to a Primal lifestyle, it can be hard to figure out what will be best for you—and keto comes with a whole additional set of considerations. Compared to a more general Primal way of eating, keto requires stricter adherence to carbohydrate limitation. Moreover, it is possible to measure your ketone levels and tell objectively whether you have crossed the line (not that you have to do so). If ketosis is your goal, there is no chalking up that chocolate pecan pie to the 80/20 principle and being on your merry way.

Luckily though, it’s actually quite easy to stick to Primal and keto during the holidays if your brain doesn’t get in the way. In my experience, the struggle is largely mental—saying no to foods that don’t serve your goals and resisting social pressure—not a lack of delicious, healthy options. Of course, it’s up to you whether, and to what degree you are going to stay Primal/keto.

To Indulge or Not: A Few Considerations

It’s important to remember that there’s a huge range of options between 100% compliant and “I ate 2 whole pies by myself.” Just because you dip your toe in the water doesn’t mean you have to dive all the way in.

Many of us can probably indulge a little and be totally fine. To me, this is the spirit of metabolic flexibility. It means that your body can use different fuel substrates for energy. And…if and when you eat foods that are out of the norm, it’s not a big deal. In other words, your body can handle what you throw at it—within reason. That doesn’t mean you can necessarily stay in ketosis, but unless you have a medical need, there’s no rule that says you have to stay in ketosis all the time even if you consider yourself a “keto person.”

There’s a difference between “can” and “should.” Even if you can indulge without obvious negative consequences, whether you should really comes down to your health and your personal goals. You have to figure it out for yourself, and you might not know exactly where your line is until you’ve crossed it. It’s up to you whether you want to test it and find out.

While I’m a big fan of self-experimentation, there are people who are probably better off being mostly—or totally—compliant through the holidays:

• if you’re still dealing with Type 2 diabetes,
• if your gut health is suboptimal,
• if you have recently switched to Primal or started a Keto Reset,
• if you’re in the middle of an AIP or FODMAP elimination diet.

In these scenarios, indulging even a little will set you back more than it would if you were further along in the process (I can’t quantify how much). Also, if getting away from sugar and carb-dependency was a tough road for you, you might not want to risk it.

Primal and Keto Options Abound

Although a lot of the focus is on treats, the truth is that much of the traditional fare is Primal- and keto-friendly.  I bet you can find something you feel good about eating at almost any meal or party even if your family is as standard as the Standard American Diet gets. Of course, you can always bring your own food to a gathering (bring enough to share—it’s the holidays after all), or you could host and serve whatever you darn well please.

This holiday, skip the dinner rolls and opt for:

• Meat (Lots of meat—sugary-glazed ham being your last choice)
• Salad (Ideally, use your own dressing and skip the croutons.)
• Cooked Vegetables (e.g. broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, squash, etc.)
• Sweet Potatoes (not the marshmallow casserole obviously) for Primal, limit on keto
• Raw Veggies with Dip or Pâté
• Deviled Eggs
• Shrimp Cocktail
• Salami or Other Charcuterie and Cheese
• Baked Brie (bonus points if it’s wrapped in prosciutto, avoid sugary toppings)
• Olives
• Mixed Nuts

Then there are the traditional holiday foods that aren’t Primal/keto-friendly in their most common forms but which can be adapted fairly easily:

• Mashed Potatoes – Potatoes are a borderline food for Primal eaters and a mostly-no for keto folks (who wants a tiny serving?), but cauliflower, turnips, rutabaga, or parsnips all make decent substitutes. Throw some butter, sour cream, chives, horseradish, cheese, or bacon (or all of the above!) on there, and you can hardly tell the difference. (The secret with cauliflower is to squeeze out the excess liquid after cooking but before mashing.)
• Gravy (Thicken with arrowroot powder or gelatin instead of cornstarch or flour.)
• Green Bean Casserole (Avoid the canned soup and fried onions—you can make both with healthy ingredients if you want; check out the recipe in The Keto Reset Diet book).
• Cranberry Sauce (Check out this recipe and use your sweetener of choice; I like mine tangy.)
• Stuffing (see below!)

A word of advice: Try your recipes ahead of time! Thankgiving afternoon is not the time to discover that the keto gravy recipe you found online really makes gravy jello instead.

But what about dessert??

The best option is to help yourself to another serving of turkey and homemade cranberry sauce, but what if you really want dessert? There are TONS of blogs devoted to paleo/Primal/keto desserts made with honey, maple syrup, stevia, erythritol, monk fruit, and so on. Let’s not kid ourselves, however: these are still treats.

If you’re comfortable with paleo-fied pumpkin pie with a grain-free crust and real whipped cream, or cheesecake made with a keto-friendly sweetener, go for it. Dark chocolate and berries with whipped cream are always an option, or baked fruit with fresh flaked coconut. Or eat the “real” dessert if that’s what you choose, but do it mindfully and in an amount that you won’t regret when you’re finished.

DBS—Don’t Be Surprised

I know I harp on this point, but I really think it’s important to have a game plan when you know you’ll be facing temptation or have conflicting desires (e.g., stay Primal/keto but also eat the crescent rolls). Decide what you want, establish boundaries for yourself (even if they’re somewhat flexible), and prepare for foreseeable obstacles. Consider the following:

• What is your intention in terms of staying compliant (or not)?
• How are you willing to compromise if you find yourself in a situation where there aren’t any great options? (Salads with questionable dressing? Vegetables cooked in cream sauce if you usually avoid dairy? Not at all?)
• What will you say to pushy/nosy/disrespectful relatives and coworkers? (You don’t owe anyone an explanation, but “That makes me feel poorly, and I want to enjoy the evening with you,” usually works pretty well.)
• Are you going to imbibe?
• What can you do to manage stress during the holidays instead of turning to food?

If you are feeling conflicted, allow yourself to sit with those feelings. They’re totally normal, especially if you’re fairly new to this. Once you’ve been at it for a while, you’ll have a better sense of the personal lines you don’t want to cross. If you make a choice that you wish you hadn’t, the great thing is you’ll get a do-over at the next meal.

Lastly, don’t allow food to carry too much importance during this season. Instead, crank up the music, put on your coziest footie pajamas, and enjoy all the non-food related things there are to love about this time of year!

What’s your plan this holiday? Will you be eating keto at Thanksgiving or taking a looser approach? What are your favorite low-carb holiday recipes? Thanks for reading, everyone.

The post Holiday Eating: Considerations for Keto and Primal Types appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Martha Stewart is the queen of housekeeping. But especially when it comes to the holidays, some of her ideas are a little, um, much. Because there’s Martha’s level of precision and crafting skills, and then there’s the rest of us. Fortunately, not all of her ideas are that hard!

We went through her Thanksgiving table crafts and decorations to pick out the ones that we can all actually pull off (skill- and budget-wise). Here are a few to try this Thanksgiving.

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Welcome to Kitchn’s Food Budget Diaries series, where we show you how people around the country spend money on what they eat and drink. Each post will follow one person for one week and will chronicle everything that person consumed and how much it costs them.

Name: Maria
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee
Age: 41
Number of people in family: 1.5 (my son lives with me half-time; he is 12 years old)
Occupation: Data analyst
Household income: $67,000/year
Weekly food budget: $100

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Food is one the best gifts you can give someone (and not just during the holidays). Think about it: An edible gift won’t take up a ton of space (it even disappears eventually once it’s been used up!), it’s pretty likely to be used, and it might even expand the horizons of whoever receives it.

I’m not even saying you have to make something from scratch for anyone on your list. There are so many groceries and edible treats that make great gifts. I’m talking about cool and unusual condiments, snacks, seasonings, and more.

A lot of these items are things that people either didn’t know existed or probably don’t think to buy for themselves (meaning, this list goes beyond the standard chocolates or box of baked goods).

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If you’ve been following and writing for Girls Gone Strong these past few years, you’ve noticed an exciting shift in the GGS community’s conversations. Now more than ever before, trainers and enthusiasts are recognizing that women are more than just bodies, and that a truly inclusive approach to fitness means understanding how race, sexuality, sex, gender, class, etc., shape ideas around — and access to — exercise, food, fitness education, and fitness spaces.

In Who Gets to Be Fit? Working Out the Intersections of Fitness, I briefly discussed intersectionality and how the intersections of our identities creates different experiences of identity for each person.

The concept of intersectionality, as explained by feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, does not simply examine how identities interact with one another, but analyzes the interaction of oppressions. It is important to recognize the difference between the intersection of identities and the concept of intersectionality.

For example, a woman might include her identity as a tall woman as one of her intersections. While being tall might pose some challenges for women, for example, when shopping for clothes, this is not an oppression. Tallness has not historically caused women to be denied a job, experience violence, receive less pay, be politically marginalized, etc.

Understanding that there is a fundamental difference between being inconvenienced and being oppressed is the first step in practicing inclusivity, particularly with your marginalized clients.

Today, at the national level, we are having conversations about race, gender, and sexuality, among others, in ways that are unprecedented and that require that we have cultural literacy in all aspects of our lives and employment.

Having this cultural literacy would help us understand, for example, why after the most recent presidential election, women and people from marginalized communities were experiencing “post-election stress disorder,” as reported by Jennifer Sweeton Psy.D. in Psychology Today [1]. So what, exactly, does this have to do with fitness, and with how we interact with our clients?

Don’t Add to the Burden

As fitness trainers and coaches, you are invested in helping women achieve their health and fitness goals. You do this by getting to know your client and creating custom plans that, we hope, fit your clients’ lifestyles and needs, build their self-esteem, and help them achieve their best results.

However, to work toward a more truly inclusive fitness practice, it is increasingly necessary to go beyond questions about your clients’ goals, nutrition, sleep habits, and basic medical history. We need to be attuned to how the contexts in which our clients live interact with their identities and shape their experiences, fitness and food access, mental health, and motivation. In the midst of this political moment, trainers are asking themselves:

“What more do I need to know about my client in order to better serve them, and how do I get that information?”

While we want to be as knowledgeable as possible about our clients, their experiences, and their communities, we don’t want to burden our clients with relying on them to explain themselves.

Black feminist poet Kate Rushin describes this expectation in The Bridge Poem:

I’ve had enough
I’m sick of seeing and touching
Both sides of things
Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody

Nobody
Can talk to anybody
Without me

Right?

I explain my mother to my father my father to my little sister
My little sister to my brother my brother to the white feminists
The white feminists to the Black church folks the Black church folks
To the Ex-hippies the ex-hippies to the Black separatists the
Black separatists to the artists the artists to my friends’ parents…

Then I’ve got to explain myself
To everybody

Here you get a sense of the layers of translation Rushin engages in as she attempts to explain herself, her family, and the communities that she has to “bridge” in her work as a black feminist.

Though this was written in 1981, it still captures the sentiment of struggle that people, especially women from marginalized communities, are experiencing today. The work of explaining — of bridging — is exhausting work. Indeed, this work of educating those who don’t live on the margins is mentally and physically taxing.

When we expect our clients to do this work of educating us, we are increasing the emotional labor that they may already be engaged in.

As we well know, emotional stress also manifests in our bodies. If doing the work of bridging is also physically taxing, what can we as trainers and coaches do to get to know our clients while not contributing to physical harm?

Read, Listen, Learn

We don’t have to search far to find that women and conscious people of all genders and marginalized identities are sharing their knowledge and making it more available and accessible. They are detailing their experiences as people who are women of color, LGBTQ, disabled, poor, victims of sexual assault, and undocumented. They are giving us access to the realities of living in a world that does not see them as part of the majority or that denies their humanity.

Reading books, stories, and blogs by marginalized folks is one way to acquire more general information about the realities faced by marginalized populations. Importantly, reading with an open mind — and with the willingness to act upon your new knowledge — is essential.

Consider getting involved with local groups organizing around social justice issues. Our sense of “our community” is mostly shaped by who we see the most often.

How do you think others outside your immediate community experience your neighborhood or city? What are the issues affecting their health and safety? Working with local community groups in meaningful ways can make you more knowledgeable about the people around you and can give you opportunities to serve them.

Be prepared to commit yourself to the full duration of a project. Simply “parachuting in” and taking more than what you are prepared to give reproduces the injustices experienced by marginalized communities.

Bring It to the Fitness Industry

Talking with a diverse network of trainers and professionals in the field is critical, as well. There is still a lot of work that needs to happen in the fitness industry to give space to marginalized trainers and coaches and to dedicate more serious conversations to the impact of social and political contexts on our clients’ lives.

If you attend a conference and do not see speakers who look like your clients, raise your voice! If we truly believe that fitness is for everybody, we need to do what we can to create space for other bodies and perspectives.

In our journey to learn, it is important to be open to being challenged and even to feeling hurt.

What we read and hear might challenge our truth system, which shapes the lens through which we see the world and our clients. But as I tell my students in my university classes, we don’t learn in spaces of comfort. Just as we put our bodies through (relative) discomfort to strengthen our muscles and bodies, so do we need to challenge our minds to grow beyond what is familiar to us, and to act upon our new knowledge.

Getting to Know Our Clients Beyond the Intake Form

Before you start asking questions, ask yourself:

• Am I asking my clients questions out of curiosity or concern? The questions should be asked in support of the training, not to satisfy your curiosity.
• Am I open to being and feeling challenged?
• Am I open to making changes within myself?
• Am I motivated and prepared to find the appropriate resources for my client?
• Have I done what I can to create a climate in which my client feels safe sharing their experiences with me?
• Have I done what I can to understand some of the major issues related to my clients’ identities and communities?

Now that you taken personal inventory of yourself, you are ready to start asking your clients more serious questions. Here are some DO’S and DON’Ts for asking questions beyond the intake form:

DO recognize that your client is the authority on their own experience and identity.

Sometimes they may say about themselves that does not align with your assumptions about their identity.

Rather than challenge them, you can say “Thank you for sharing that with me. I’m going to remember that,” or a similar affirming statement.

DO make the purpose of your questions relevant to their training.

Otherwise, they might feel like you want them to be your cultural informant.

DO start some of your question with observations and structure them openly.

For example, if you are concerned about your client’s access to nutritious food, you can say, “I notice that when I’m in different supermarkets, the price of produce changes dramatically. The quality changes, as well. What have you noticed about the produce at your local supermarket?”

Asking for their observations will allow them to prioritize the issues that are most important to them and will give you information about the challenges that they face.

DO express that you are continuously honing your skills as a trainer.

Incorporating a short evaluation at the end of each session will create an environment of openness and will build trust (as long as you are willing to be open to constructive critiques!).

DO NOT attempt to relate to everything your client experiences.

For example, if your client of color describes feeling uncomfortable in an all-white gym, do not attempt to compare your own feelings of discomfort to theirs. Remember the example at the beginning? The social stigma of being tall cannot be compared to their experience of being a person of color. Their feelings are specific to a particular context and history of racism.

DO NOT try to minimize or “explain” their experiences for them.

This can come off as looking like you are trying to defend the person or situation that caused their feelings. Sometimes this turns into a form of gaslighting.

DO NOT impose labels on them that they do not use on themselves.

For example, if your client refers to herself as “Latina” do not refer to her as “Hispanic.” Recognizing clients’ terms for themselves — whether ethnic, racial, or gender identifiers — is a fundamental show of respect.

DO NOT think that just because you may identify with a marginalized identity that you identify with your client.

Be aware of your privileges and the important differences between you and your client.

A Last Word

As trainers and coaches, we must work to improve our social, cultural, and political literacies in order to better serve our clients. It is up to you to decide if you want to more actively know your client beyond the intake form. Every client is different and you can read your relationship, the quality of the community between you and the client, and your client’s progress to determine if there are questions that need to be asked.

But, something that we can all do is be attuned to the world around us and be critically reflexive about our training practices and the efforts we are making to model inclusivity, respect, and compassion.

Resources

• Read the GGS articles by Chrissy King, Sonja R. Price Herbert and Steph “Iron Lioness” Dykstra, who write about being women of color in the fitness industry.
• Read the GGS articles by Erica Smith and Polly Hawver about questions of gender in the fitness industry.
• Listen to podcasts such as the Chocolate Bar Podcast: Our Lives. Our Strength. Our Time., which celebrates women of color in strength sports.
• Learn more about marginalized people in fitness through social media accounts such as The Queer Gym, Wrong Is Not My Name: Black Feminist Fitness, and Decolonizing Fitness.
• Learn more about fat discrimination in a thin-normalized world thanks to work by experts like Virgie Tovar.

References

1. Sweeton J, Post-Election Stress Disorder in Women, Psychology Today, November 12, 2016. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/workings-well-being/201611/post-election-stress-disorder-in-women
2. Rushin K, The Bridge Poem, https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/thebridgepoem.html

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The post Beyond the Intake Form: Why Coaches Must Do the Work to Know Their Clients appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

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Pitcher cocktails are smart party choices; they easily serve a crowd and don’t require you to be constantly shaking and stirring. These pitcher margaritas are even wiser than the rest, seeing as this recipe isn’t even a recipe — it’s a ratio. Commit it to memory and you’ll have an easy, crowd-pleasing cocktail to stir up whenever friends drop by, which will probably be more often once they get wind of it. After all, few can resist the tangy, refreshing taste of a homemade margarita.

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Of all the dishes on a traditional Thanksgiving table, the turkey is arguably the easiest to mess up, especially if you’re newer to the kitchen. That’s where someone like Alton Brown comes in handy, because he’ll break down and explain every single element of a recipe, thus (ideally!) ensuring that your end result matches his. The perfect recipe to put that to the test? His Thanksgiving turkey.

Touted by the Food Network as Alton Brown’s most popular recipe — and boasting more than 5,000 reviews — this brined and roasted bird originated on Good Eats, meaning no instructional detail is left behind. There’s even a clip from the series where Alton teaches you exactly how to make it. But does Alton’s scientific method result in a tasty bird? I headed to the kitchen to find out.

Recipe: Alton Brown’s Good Eats Roast Turkey

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Kitchn’s Delicious Links column highlights recipes we’re excited about from the bloggers we love. Follow along every weekday as we post our favorites.

I order shrimp fajitas almost every time I see them on a menu. They’re one of my favorite dishes because I love seafood and vegetables, and shrimp fajitas are a best-of-both-worlds scenario that gives me just about everything I want in a dish. And they’re actually stunningly fast and easy to make at home as a sheet pan dinner any weeknight. This recipe for sheet pan shrimp fajitas cooks in just 10 minutes, with only one pan left to clean at the end of the night.

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