Ah - Thanksgiving! The one day a year set aside to express our gratitude. What happens to the other 364 days of gratitude? Oh well - let's concentrate on this one. where our gratitude is expressed once again by overeating. Wait! Not this year, you say? How many years did we say that? How many years have we "broken the diet" on Thanksgiving, or days like it? Not that we need an occasion, but this one just lends itself, as everyoe is overeating, and groaning, and vowing to "start" tomorrow, or after the four day weekend, or after Chanukah, or after, or after.....
But for those of us who REALLY want to stay in some control - here are some guidelines that I've found helpful:

First, timing of meals. Thanksgiving meals are usually served around 3-4 o'clock. I'll never understand this, but oh well. I think it's to give us the opportunity to eat a combo of lunch and dinner. It is crucial for us not to "save everything" for that meal. Eat breakfast at your usual time. Eat something every 3-4 hours (a fruit, a yogurt, a salad) so that you dont arrive to the big meal "starving", with your blood sugar on the floor and then eat everything in sight, too quickly and dont feel anything till you are too stuffed to feel anything.

Pace yourself. Take one plate, one time. Yes, put a lot on the plate and salad on the side and that's it. Seconds and thirds? You'll end up sorry!!

Eat slowly. Let your stomach and your brain be in sync and send the "full" signals to each other. Chew your food. Put the fork down between bites. Talk. Socialize.

Bring something to share if you are going to someone's home. YOU BRING THE SALAD! At least you'll have one thing you wont feel guilty about eating! it doenst matter if no one else eats it (and they may not), but you will have a filler - and you might need it.

Remeber anything that you dont make at home will be made with more oil, salt, fat, and sugar than you would use at home. DO NOT WEIGHT YOURSELF THE NEXT DAY! You dont need to see volume.

If you are on the "cleanup crew", don't pick at the leftovers - you will not be sitting down, and since WE ONLY EAT WHEN SITTING it is not conducive...

Make the Thanksgiving meal just that - a meal! Plan a small meal for when you come home - a day consists of three meals, not two.

If you want dessert - PLAN FOR IT!! Plan for ONE THING ONLY. Select something that is "worth it",PUT IT ON A PLATE, SIT DOWN, CHEW IT, TASTE IT and consider it part of a meal, the end of a meal and NO MORE!!

There's another name for Thanksgiving - it's called Thursday. It is only a day. We can be grateful (and should be)every day of the year. Overeating is exactly the opposite of showing our gratitude to Hashem for all of our blessings...consider another way.

May you be blessed with good health and all good things.
MarciaB

Hi all!
I just blinked and here it is mid-November. I meant to blog every week, but I didnt pay attention and it didnt get done. This is so like my food plans of the past - I didnt pay attention and they didnt get done. Did I think it would happen automatically with no effort? Or did I just push off what I didnt want to do? (Am I talking about the blog or the diets, or both?)
I could be so un-focused, paying attention to everything and everyone except what I need and then get resentful when it isnt done. So, what did I learn? I learned that no matter what, I will accomplish what I need to for everyone else in my life, so I'd better get what I need done for myself FIRST - before I get too tired or too busy.

So what have I been doing since August? Well, one of the most important things to me is that I spent the time doing some real self-care and reached a great, comfortable goal weight - one I havent been at in years. Have I been at a goal weight before? Yes. What's different this time is that NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!

Everything I did to get here, keeps me here - planning, preparing, writing it down, portion control, exercise (not enough, still working on that one), not weighing myself too often (so that I dont become a slave to the numbers) - basically continuing to get more comfortable with this lifestyle and loving it!!
Gave away all of my big clothes, or took them in - a friend of mine told me that if you keep the large clothing it's like making a reservation - and I am cancelling all of those reservations.

I also know that anything, ANYTHING can be a trigger to binge - so takethis morning, for example:
my new TV doesnt work (it's a week old)
my computer is crashing (not the one I'm on now)
our payroll service made (yet) another big error
a check that was given to me was returned for insufficient funds (it was a large one)
and
it rained the second I left my house (without an umbrella of course)
AND THIS WAS ALL BEFORE 10AM - boy could I have made an excuse out of that!!

But I realized that a danish was not going to fix my TV, computer or any of those other issues....big learning experience!!

I also know that everything will straighten out...but if I binge, nothing will be right, right?

So, now that I've caught you up on me, I look forward to hearing about what you've been up to....