Steve v5.0

Posts Tagged ‘Thanksgiving’

“Mmm-mmm, good!”
“Delicious!”
“May I have some more?”
“Passive-Aggressive”

I guess I should have posted the question first. Here it is: “Name three things I didn’t say and the conversation style of all around me during this past Thanksgiving.” Gotta love dysfunctional families and the appetite suppression that comes along with them. Nothing could have been better for me. Not to say that it was bad– the turkey was ok, everything was. It’s just that nothing was all that special, it just was… well… fuel, and for a guy who shouldn’t be cramming his piehole with pie, it was blandtastic! I don’t think anyone was all that distracted with food and there was quite a bit leftover. Not a lot made it home with us either. Bonus!

Rock on.

 

This time of year typically has us seeing a lot more of family than usual.  It’s good to catch up on what everyone is doing, how various kids have grown, and just stoke to coals of dysfunction.  Good times, good times.

Our gatherings have always been staged around a big meal; some holiday dinner, Sunday brunch, reunion picnic, potluck, whatever- always a meal.  That’s OK I guess, it’s kind of tough to yell at each other with our pieholes stuffed with… well, pie.

Here’s the thing though, I’ve often wondered why the meal had to be central to the activity.  Why can’t we just get together without the big production that goes into coordinating and creating some huge dinner?  I understand that we all have to eat, I just don’t think that eating is all we have to do.

We’re hosting the Christmas get-together this year.  We just hosted Thanksgiving- and that was a pretty big production meal-wise (though I maintained myself and ate a modest portion) and I really don’t want a repeat.  I’ve considered backing off a little food-wise and instead of huge sit-down meal, just putting out a variety of snack-sized things to nosh while people visit.

I wonder how that will go over…

Meanwhile…

Our family had an absolutely phenomenal time today.  We went up Mt Hood to hunt down a Christmas tree.   It was quite the adventure, we climbed hills and hiked all over the place through an incredible snow storm.  We found a great tree and at one point almost sank our car in a lake.  This little adventure lasted all day, everyone had a great time, and none of it involved a huge elaborate meal.

All the days of my life should go this way.

 

I survived Thanksgiving by maintaining modest consumption.  The simple dishes, turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, etc. made it fairly easy to figure out when enough was enough.  Leftovers, it seems, get a little more complicated and risky.

We’ve been creating some interesting combinations from the leftovers during the days since Thanksgiving.  I’ve made soup from the carcass and leftover vegetables and we’ve made sandwiches loaded with turkey, cranberry sauce, and cream cheese.  I’ve resisted over-indulgence most of the time.  The thing is, these creations of ours tend to rely on an ever-increasing variety of higher-carb foods to stretch or carry them.

My response?  Back to basics.  I’m going to pull back on the breads and starches a little and revert back to more easily quantifiable foods.  Instead of making sandwiches out of these awesome ingredients, I think I’ll plate-up instead.  It’s just so much easier to gauge how much of what I’m eating.

Eventually we’ll run out of left-overs- but with Christmas just a few weeks off, I’m thinking it will be sometime in February before I’ve seen the last of them.

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Image by roboppy via Flickr

Thanksgiving has traditionally been a gastro-blast of over-indulgence in my family.  We’d belly-up to a table that was piled eye-high with pork, poultry, lamb, and enough “sides” to fill a Vegas buffet.   We’d say a quick stomach-growl accompanied grace and shovel our plates full of food and drown the whole mess in gravy, then commence packing it in our pieholes like it was an IFCE sponsored event.

After an hour or so the frenzy would start winding down; belts loosened, eyes rolling back, conversation reduced to grunts and purging, people crawling to the den to soak up radiation from the friendly glow of football on the TV.

After a couple hours of yelling at the TV and each other- and a few commercial breaks to the library, we’d move on to the pie round.  Most would go for the sampler plate (four different pieces on a dinner plate) while I focused all my energy and remaining gullet-room on a slab of pumpkin hidden somewhere in the haystack of whipped cream covering my pie-sized plate.

I’m getting indigestion just thinking about it.

That’s what it was like for as long as I can remember- up until last Thanksgiving.  Last year I was six months into my weight loss transformation and already down over 100 lbs. — I was focused and hell-bent on eating healthy.   Thanksgiving had become different.  It had become better.  I ate what I wanted in moderation- actually chewing and tasting everything.  I ate slowly and responded to grunts, not with grunts but with intelligible speech.  It was incredible.  It was enjoyable.  I’m looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.

How about a little appetite suppressant? (I apologize if this offends in any way…)

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The holidays are close at hand and with that comes the opportunity to gorge.  Yippee!  Turkey, potatoes, and pie- oh my!  Whoa!  Slow down, dab the drool from your chin and just take a breath, Steve.  The last thing I want to do is follow the norm and add a few pounds over the next month or so (or ever for that matter).  So what am I going to do?  Plan ahead, baby.

1. Take advantage of the veggie tray but go slow with the dressing.
2. More turkey, less gobble.  Ditch the gravy and go light on the sides- especially starchy stuff.
3. Eat slowly to make sure my stomach has caught up with my eyes.  Actually talk to guests beyond demanding they pass the ________ .
4. Leave a little on the plate.  Momma‘s not going to slap me if I don’t lick it clean- this year.
5. Also go light on the pie and modest on the whipped cream (better for me than the pie).

The days of tryptophan-induced stupor and groaning from bloat while watching football and cramming lil’ smokies in my maw while waiting for “pie time” are behind me now.  It’s a time of thanksgiving, a time to share with friends and family and with a little planning and a quantum modicum-

I’ll survive and enjoy.

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