As I am sure that many of you are, Thanksgiving is this week. Well, it is for us Americans, anyway. Which is very sad for the rest of you, I think. Unless your country has its own day some other time of the year. But still... Anyway, I'm looking forward to having a legitimate excuse to gorge myself on delicious food. Instead of the usual, "Hey, it's Tuesday! Let's eat two pizzas because one of them is free!" And I'm looking forward to it for another reason: come November 28th, it's back to WeightWatchers. For real. None of this meandering around, sometimes staying in the points, but usually chucking the whole program by noon. I figure it's ridiculous to try to start anything the week of Thanksgiving, but the FATNESS must END. So Thursday will be a Farewell Feast for my fat. Or something like that.
Our family's custom is to gather at Sister-In-Law's mother's house. This means everybody. Mom, Papa, Sister, Brother, Sister-In-Law, both her parents, her two sisters, their husbands and their children, and maybe even her father's brother and his family. Sister actually has three sisters, but one of them moved away a few years ago. Otherwise, they'd be there, too. It's always a packed house. And even though we have SO MANY PEOPLE, we always end up with more food than we can possibly eat. Oh, but we TRY! And even though I tell myself not to, I ALWAYS end up eating so much I'm in pain. And then I have pie. And then I have second pie.
So this year, even though Thanksgiving is going to be a kind of last hurrah, I have made a deal with myself: I will only have ONE of anything. I will try as many things as I want and will put decent sized portions on my plate. But after I have eaten the serving I have given myself, I WILL NOT have any more of it. In other words, no seconds. If I'm still hungry (okay, not hungry, just wanting more food) after my first plate, I WILL ONLY have vegetables. I think this is an effective strategy--no deprivation, but no pain in the end either. I'll let you know how it goes. Because apple pie may be my downfall...
As is also our custom, Sister, Sister-In-Law, and I get together at one of our houses the day before Thanksgiving to bake up a storm. I'm usually in charge of rolls, since bread seems to be my forte. Sister makes some sort of pumpkin-y whipped dessert or pumpkin muffins--yum! Sister-In-Law usually makes pies. This makes the house smell amazing! But this year, we're doing it at Sister-In-Law's house, since she has finally finished her kitchen remodel (complete with new counters) and she wants to test it all out. This means it will be her house that smells good, not ours (luckily, this also means I don't have to clean our kitchen).
So, in the spirit of the holidays, we've turned out house into an Apple Factory. We have a scented oil thing that plugs into an outlet. It needed to be changed today and Sister found last Christmas's impulse buy of cinnamon-caramel-harvest-holiday-spice-OMG-APPLES type of scented oil. So: APPLE FACTORY. We plugged it in about an hour ago and about ten minutes ago, I was like HOLY APPLES BATMAN! In unrelated news, I'm hungry again. Hmmm... I may have to rethink the Apple Factory and WeightWatchers combination.
When my mom found out she is on the verge of being diabetic, she and I went on a diet together we call "Moderation, Not Depravation" where we eat a moderated amount (aka, almost none at all but cheating is allowed) of carbs and sugars. It really worked well for me and I lost 14 pounds in about 2 weeks and have lost about 1-2 a week since then. It's super easy (when I'm not craving bread or chocolate!) and effective... not to mention healthy!
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