Does diet go out the window the day of a holiday?

[specialmom]

Do you go ahead and limit your food and practice all the good eating habits on Thanksgiving or do you go for it and just enjoy?  What's your philosophy?

[Barb135]

Annie, you're right; pretty radical exercise plan, but it worked so I'll take it - any movement is better than non... yesterday's "workout" had pretty much the same effect and I'm still sitting at about the same point I was yesterday morning, so I should be good by weigh in on Sunday as long as I leave the pumpkin pie and whipped cream in the fridge.  

I'm not a big salmon-lover, though it's "okay" but your Christmas salmon sounded good.  I don't cook any kind of fish at home, because my husband hates it and just the smell makes him sick, but there's a restaurant at which we eat, sometimes that has a blackened salmon that's pretty good.  That's what I, typically, order when we go there because it's wild caught (so it says on the menu) and I know fatty fish is really good for us.

dominosarah, I feel for you having had to work... our stores started opening at 3:00 Thanksgiving Day.  Not sure what time they closed; around midnight, I think, then were open at 6:00 or 7:00 again on Friday... When we went to get the disposal and faucet yesterday, Lowe's was a madhouse; we wouldn't even have gone out if we hadn't had to replace the disposal and faucet in order to be able to fully use the kitchen sink.

[AnnieBrooke]

You're so lucky that you know how to make the fix. My husband plays the role of "Hold this, honey," when I fix things, because he is so useless at any kind of household repair. He can't even pour himself a drink of sparkling water out of the fridge that has no countertop near it without spilling it on the floor. I can fix some things and am very useful in an emergency, but I could not put in a new garbage disposal. Hope you upgraded from 3/4ths horsepower to 1 horsepower! (I was touring a house recently that was being renovated, and the builder very proudly pointed out that he had done this. It was SO cute.)

[Barb135]

Well, having had our own plumbing and electrical business for 17 yrs in Iowa was definitely helpful and there's not much my husband can't do when it comes to plumbing and electrical.  I spent enough time with him to be able to do a lot of it as well.  In this case, he did the actual installation and we were lucky enough to find a disposal and faucet that actually fit the cutouts/water lines, etc that we already have so it all went smoothly.  

Nope, no 1 hp garbage disposal... the one we had was a 1/3 hp and it served us faithfully for almost 20 yrs.  The motor worked perfectly; the only reason it went bad was because it rusted out from age.  I can't imagine why a regular household would need a 1 hp disposal or even a 3/4 hp... that would be a little overkill as you could grind up some pretty hefty stuff with one of those.  I guess I never considered a garbage disposal as "cute"... lol

[Barb135]

I was actually down this morning from Sunday's weigh in, so I guess I did better than I thought yesterday.  I sent most of the left-overs home with my daughter because her roommate had to work yesterday and wasn't able to join us for dinner... that got most everything out of my fridge.  I did keep the pumpkin pie and whipped cream and had a piece at lunch time today.

In the midst of cooking dinner yesterday, I could hear water running where it shouldn't be so I opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink and water was "flowing" out of the garbage disposal right into the cabinet... ugghhh   That put a damper on after dinner clean-up since we couldn't run any water down that sink but we managed.  :-(

Anyway, I had to empty out the cabinet and dry up all the water - yep, I really wanted baskets of cleaning supplies, etc sitting around during Thanksgiving dinner, but there was really no choice as I had to get the cabinet dried out, although we realized we'd have to replace the cabinet floor in addition to the disposal anyway...

Guess what we did today!!  Fortunately, my husband is a plumber and electrician so we headed out to get a garbage disposal first thing this morning and while we were at it, we replaced the kitchen faucet as well, since it had leaked not long ago and my husband thought he'd fixed it, but apparently hadn't.  Also, fortunately, my husband and I are both woodworkers so we were able to cut a new floor for the cabinet.  

Anyway, maybe all that stretching and contorting while I emptied and cleaned out the cabinet used enough calories to help keep me from packing on extra pounds yesterday.  Hopefully, I've done enough of the same along with multiple trips back and forth to my work shop, today to keep the piece of pie and whipped cream from homesteading on my hips, butt and belly...

I'll just have to see how things turn out by weigh in on Sunday...

[AnnieBrooke]

Pretty radical exercise plan, but don't argue with success. :)

[dominosarah]

I had a gut ache today for awhile.  I think it was the piece of pie as i am not used to that!  Rich foods have not been part of my diet for a long time.

The salmon made my mouth water!!!  Love that stuff!

Our youngest daughter and family didnt make it to thanksgiving.  My grandaughter has pink eye!!

I got the pleasure of working 8-5 today.  People really should go to bed and then come shopping.  It was quite a day, people everywhere!!  Good day for sales but i am beat tonight.  I'm getting to damn old to be running around like a mad woman!

[AnnieBrooke]

I was impressed with the salmon. Salmon is usually almost too sweet and in a funny way, too bland at the same time. I eat it because it's healthy for me but don't love it.  But this treatment gave it a nice, piquant flavor. When we grill salmon it's always a fillet, with orange peel and mustard powder and dill in the butter we spread on it. But I'm thinking of going the whole-salmon route and using my nephew's recipe from now on. My sister said the fish was purchased frozen, nothing special, and it wasn't huge. We could do that.

[AnnieBrooke]

No eating disasters. We had 16 family members at my sister's, and everyone brought something. The main courses were turkey and salmon (which was grilled outside on the barbeque, stuffed with lemon, garlic and rosemary after marinating overnight). Three or four salads (a great green one with all kinds of interesting stuff in it, one of chopped kale, and a Waldorf salad too) and dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, and some stuffing were on the table, and vegetable-stuffed butternut squash. But nobody ate all of them, we just went for our faves, and nobody piled the food high on their plates.  I didn't eat the amount I served myself, and my plate wasn't more than 3/4ths full to begin with.

There is a problem, though, with a potluck Thanksgiving dinner in a family where everyone is a great baker. I think we had 7 pies, maybe 8? plus a fruited European ring cake. I didn't eat any apple pie, fruited ring cake or pumpkin pie (the plain kind) but my mom's pumpkin chiffon pie is absolutely a knockout. This year she altered the recipe and made one with milk in the filling mix and one with sour cream instead of the milk, one with a regular crust and one with a graham-cracker crust. So naturally I had to try each!

We did bring wine at my sister's request, but only a few people seemed to be drinking alcohol. I had water with dinner and coffee after (the coffee being just an excuse to float some whipped cream on top!). But all in all, I don't feel stuffed now, and we didn't bring home leftovers, so this was a pretty good eating day. I weighed this morning --  that pesky .6 of a pound that I put on from eating too much stuffing last week was gone, so we'll see what the scale tells me tomorrow.  :)

[AnnieBrooke]

My friendly .6 of a pound is back this morning, but that's pretty good given the pumpkin chiffon pie. :)

[Barb135]

I'd have had to go for some of that pumpkin pie, too and probably some of the apple as well since that's one of my favorites... lol   0.6 lb isn't much at all, all things considered...

[dominosarah]

I eat pretty good during the holidays.  We dont make alot of extra things either.    I did indulge in a piece of pumpkin pie today and it was delicious.  I decided that one piece wasnt going to raise my cholesterol.  Hope you all had a good thanksgiving~

[Barb135]

"The SEASON of eating is dangerous to me."  Add the metabolism of a slug and that makes 2 of us... lol

You posted earlier right when I was in the midst of cooking my dinner... I saw the post but hungry mouths awaited their food so I dared not stop to respond... lol  

About the only thing I have going for me is that I don't drink soda... :-)  but I know what you mean about those last minute trips to the grocery store; my daughter decided she wanted pumpkin pie for dessert and I hadn't planned on it, so I had go get ingredients - no, wait when we got to the store my husband told me to simply buy a frozen pie to bake... notice how I blame it on him?  lol  The store was nothing short of a madhouse... I can't believe the people Christmas shopping when they're supposed to be preparing for Thanksgiving!!

Anyway, you're probably at your sister's by now or maybe you've been there, had your family time, meal and are back home again... And I bet you didn't eat nearly as much as you anticipated... I know I didn't!!   I have that pumpkin pie in the fridge, along with the whipped cream and the brownies my husband made (he eats those, I don't).  The pumpkin pie only got cut so I could send a piece home with her because she was too full for dessert.  I'm wondering if it will still be good on Sunday when she comes back to introduce us to her new significant other...  :-)

So - all of that said, no matter how much you ate (or didn't eat), I hope you had a great time at your sister's... that's what it's all about.  You can go for extra long/fast walks for the next few days, get some new DVDs or search YouTube for a new exercise routine to help work it off.  I have an old favorite that I'll be digging out.

[specialmom]

The SEASON of eating is dangerous to me.  I will probably eat normal until I get to my sisters at which time I'll let it rip.  I DID drink pop yesterday because I was so tired and had a lot of things to do including facing the grocery store . . . oh lordy. You need a tram practically to get in the doors from parking.  Luckily, I'd done most of my shopping previously so just had a half cart load. My sister keeps calling me even this morning asking for me to pick up this or that.  This is the price I pay for her hosting.  :>))  Happy Thanksgiving.

[Barb135]

A little bit of both... Because I'm actively trying to lose weight, I'm not going completely throw my efforts to the wind but I'm not going to give up all my holiday favorites, either.  Common sense and moderation will be in order for me.

My decisions are based partially on health - meaning if I eat certain things I know I'm going to be sick afterwards, so obviously, I'm either going to severely limit or eliminate those things.  Other dishes can be made in a more healthful manner, so I can go ahead and enjoy them without remorse.  Other things, I'll simply be satisfied with smaller portions...

We're not having a huge gathering like some of you... it's only going to be my husband, daughter and myself for Thanksgiving dinner, so I can scale back on what I might otherwise cook and because there will only be 3 of us, I don't have to cook enough for an army, plus I can send leftovers home with my daughter and/or freeze some.

I think we should be able to hit a happy medium where we can enjoy Thanksgiving and still maintain good habits, but that's an individual choice.  If you're just doing a single meal and you know you won't have a problem with retaining any of it later, it shouldn't be an issue.  We've already done one Thanksgiving dinner and will do more dinners/meals over the next few weeks (between now and New Year's), so I have to be careful because my metabolism isn't normal to start with so I have to eat accordingly.

It's an individual decision; just enjoy whatever you decide and don't beat yourself up.  Once it's over, try to go back to "normal" eating.  If you're doing a lot of parties, you may have to adopt a new overall strategy.