The Burn Before the Buns: 6 Reasons to Do the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

“We'll all stay skinny 'cause we just won't eat…” –Nickelback, “Rockstar”

–Actually, we LOVE to eat around here. We won’t don’t like doing is feeling unhealthy and of not being able to fit those cool rockstar clothes. –Let’s face it; there’s nothing more rockstar than looking in the mirror and loving what you see, so keeping fit helps make that happen.

Notwithstanding all that, we love to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, complete with turkey, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, collard greens, corn, and—you’ve guessed it—buns. (—I haven’t started talking about all the dessert goodies!) Because we don’t want to deny ourselves this large family meal, we decided once and for all, as a family, that we would earn the right to just enjoy all that meal-time goodness without the guilt. After being a reluctant spectator at the America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for a couple of years, we decided that we would do something more fun, last year was the first time that we participate in the Turkey Trot that leads the parade down its route.

Here are our 6 reasons for participating in a Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot.

1. Channel the performer in me. While I know that this is not the rest of the family’s reason for doing it, for me, it is yet another chance to don a tutu and be a performer, leading in the rest of the parade. (—Bruce reminds me that even when I was tortured by having to sit through the Thanksgiving Parade, I always admired often costumed runners at the front of the parade. They are entertaining and always look like they are having a hell of a time.) Therefore, any opportunity to participate in having folks think I am the spectacle that I am is a good way to spend my time. Yes, count me in!