Grattitude in Gluttony

Well Thanksgiving was a great success here and I hope yours was as full of joy, chaos and good food as mine was!

We had 6 adults, 3 teenagers, 2, kids and 3 dogs gathered for a gluttunous feast of 2 turkeys, 2 stuffings, 2 yam casseroles, 2 pans of rolls (and the food came marching in two by two hurrah....hurrah!) as well as other assorted sides and desserts to cause a coma. I know you are pondering how on earth 11 people equals 46 pounds of turkey and the rest of the Thanksgiving ark....well so are we. Suffice it to say....leftovers abound!

Amongst the fun of family. games, over eating, stories, children showing off and dogs begging on every corner what stands out to me is........pie. To be specific a Marie Calendars Chocolate Satin Pie.

Let me explain......

It has been tradition in our family going back to when I was able to enforce it as tradition that a chocolate pie is one of the desserts at thanksgiving dinner. Although I don't mind the fruit pies like pumpkin, apple, razzleberry (ok not berry- ick), they aren't really my thing. What can I say my taste buds just aren't as keen for hot fruit on crust as they are for....well....decadent chocolate on cookie crumb! And over time tradition has usually dictated not just any pie, but a Marie Calendar's Chocolate Satin Pie (lovingly nicknamed the satan pie.) So the desserts are laid, all the fruit pies and whipped creams for the fruit pie eaters and then MY chocolate pie. However, every year MY chocolate pie gets devoured by all the fruit eaters! Every stinkin' time! Now mind you I love MY chocolate pie. It sits in the fridge with my name tattooed across it in permanent marker along with "DO NOT TOUCH" and a skull and crossbones until it is placed on the table and then holiday decorum dictates that I must.....smile.......and......s..sh..sh..share MY precious chocolate pie. Did I mention it happens every single time? Did I also mention that I tend to sulk every year too? Ok, yes, I confess I sulk. It is MY pie....I got all that fruit goo for the rest of you (pout pout.)

So this year, yet again, there sits my beautiful pie in all its chocolate decadence (I love you my little pie of yumminess) and this year, yet again, my pie ends up on every ones plate. Ah....but here is where this tradition becomes my favorite memory of this Thanksgiving.......As I said yes (of course) when people asked if they were allowed any of MY chocolate (because as much as it is tradition to have the pie it is also tradition to tease me over my obsession of MY pie), shared my pie and watched people eat my pie....for the FIRST time I felt no great loss. It wasn't MY pie, but just a dessert. I didn't feel a need to hoard the pieces and hide half in the fridge in the very back while considering how I could attach an electric shock to it so only I could have it. In fact I felt joy in SHARING it!

This was one of the first times I saw food as just food. I ate to be satisfied and simply enjoyed it! Ironically in the middle of this holiday centered around food I discovered freedom from it!

Yes it was a very good Thanksgiving and this year I am thankful to have taken one more step away from food addiction and into my life!

The Gateway Holiday

Holey Moley! Halloween is officially behind us, but in its wake it has left diet desecration and blasted open the gates to bigger and better holiday addiction! Like those supposed "gateway drugs" Halloween is the first door, the little starter wedge, a small "harmless" step that leads straight onto bigger and better things: grateful gluttony, noel naughtiness, countdown calories, lavish loving, liquid luck and last but not least hoppity happiness! Halloween throws open the doors and it seems I find myself eating my way through the next 6 months just piling on the treats from the current holiday to the stash from the last holiday till Mount Guilt of Goodies is sky high! Can't toss it, shouldn't eat it, but waste not want not, right?

So what is a chunky dunker to do, especially a chunky dunker really trying to chunk less? Ban it from the house? Bar the doors and windows and hide under my bed for 6 months? Try to find "alternative" (and supposedly better" options (tofurkey anyone?) No, no and no. I think the answer lies in moderation. A treat is just that, a something special to enjoy. And my weight loss journey is not about surviving a diet, but finding my life, and my life includes holidays, fun and treats. So as what I lovingly call "holiday season," that period of time that starts with Halloween and ushers in one holiday on top of another for 6 months, comes rolling in I am going to remember that my life, the one I ultimately want, is not full of deprived misery or overindulgent suffering, but moderate enjoyment! No holiday rehab for me!