Many dieters approach Thanksgiving with fear and trepidation, sure that the temptations of the day will destroy the good work they have done for the preceding days, weeks or even months. It’s really a needless worry if you keep a few things in mind.

One meal does not make or break a healthy diet or a healthy weight. It really is about what you’ve done the rest of the week or month or year that will determine your success in maintaining good health. It’s a regimen known as the 90/10 diet. As long as you are eating mostly whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables, very little in the way of processed foods (including sugar), less meat, caffeine and alcohol, and no junk or chemicalized foods 90% of the time, then it’s OK to do whatever you want for the remaining 10% of your meals.

So let Thanksgiving be your 10% and enjoy it. But really enjoy it. Eat whatever you want but pay attention to what you’re eating. Slow down and eat for pleasure and you may find that, despite the calories, you’ve actually lost weight.

That’s the thesis of Marc David, a nutritionist and psychologist, and author of The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure, Energy & Weight Loss. Dr. David believes that by slowing down our lives, we increase our metabolism and burn calories at an optimum rate.

A former nutritionist at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, and a workshop leader at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Dr. David advises dieters to stop fighting food and begin to embrace it by relaxing when you eat.

How do you relax when you run from one stressful task to the next and have all of 5 minutes for breakfast or eat lunch while driving down the expressway? For many, just gathering with family for Thanksgiving can also be very stressful. Whenever and under whatever conditions, when the stress response is activated, our metabolism shuts down.

Dr. David advises that even if you are not relaxed you can fool your body into thinking that you are, simply by taking ten long deep breaths before starting to eat. In one minute, he says you can shortcut the stress response and turn on your metabolism.

So take a deep breath and pass the turkey.