Thanksgiving is one of those rare holidays where you can eat the whole table and get praised for finishing your whole plate.

Except Thanksgiving is not complete without turkey. Turkey is the epitome of Thanksgiving. If you do not have turkey on your table on Thanksgiving, are you even an American? If you are a person like me and prefer delicious honey ham over dry turkey, your stomach sends its thanks for choosing the superior meat. Have you ever heard the saying “Never go to the grocery store hungry?” Well, there is a very good, scientific reason behind this saying. If you go to the grocery store hungry, you are more susceptible to all of the delectable delicacies the store offers. You go in expecting to get ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey and bread rolls, but instead come out with all of aisle four in your cart. Although if you are more of the DIY type in the kitchen, I have some perfect recipes for the best Thanksgiving foods.

Another Thanksgiving food favorite is stuffing. You can never go wrong with stuffing; even if you burn it a little, the crispness gives it a good flavor. Personally I pile my plate a mile high with stuffing, because why would you want to eat anything else? More Thanksgiving favorites include sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green bean casserole and the classic pumpkin pie! Some of the best places to go shopping for Thanksgiving food is Hy-Vee, CostCo and Sam’s Club.

Anything that has cranberry sauce in it has my vote to be on the table, but with cranberry sauce and all the other carbs on my plate, sugar is the last kind of food I want to eat. Instead I have a homemade cranberry sauce recipe without sugar to spruce up your Thanksgiving. You just need cranberries, orange or pineapple juice, organic cane sugar with added applesauce, water, orange zest and honey. Then heat up the cranberries with the pineapple juice, water and applesauce; let it simmer and mix in the juice and zest. Finally, let the product cool and place it in the fridge and you have a perfect homemade cranberry sauce recipe for Thanksgiving.

Last but not least is what to do after your Thanksgiving meal has ended and you have entered your food coma phase. Imagine having just finished your last bite of pumpkin pie and feeling your stomach about to burst. Well, I have some life hacks to help you with your food coma. First you have to understand: you just put lots of carbs and fats into your digestive track and that will take time to process. After you have understood this, go take a short 15 minute walk to speed up your digestive process. Drinking hot coffee and water throughout the day also helps you recover. Finally, just go sleep it off. This is your body’s natural way of telling you it needs to recuperate after your Thanksgiving feast.

Also can we just appreciate Thanksgiving in all of its glory and amazingness? Lots of food, family and long naps is just heaven. I mean name a better holiday than Thanksgiving. I’ll wait…

Correction: November 14, 2018

An earlier version of this story contained minor formatting errors. They have since been fixed.