Eating Less of the Thanksgiving Goodies
Thanksgiving Goodies
Thanksgiving is officially over. Only half the leftovers remain and I have my eye on them for pocket pies. The eating frenzy has continued days past the actual holiday. Today, breakfast was “Grandmother Elkins Caramel Cake”. Lunch was chips and dip. Dinner was an amazing Thanksgiving strata (think everything on the plate smushed into layers and casseroled). Not good for my goal of eating less, not good at all.
I frequently turn to food as my drug of choice, this holiday I was like an alcoholic spending her days in a vat of Jack Daniels. I, shockingly, found no need to medicate. I was happy. I was full. I was satisfied.
Aside from aching joints and a second trimester belly, I remain disturbingly in good health despite my eating frenzies. I can be thankful that I still have a chance to right this ship and set her on a course for greener pastures and slimmer silhouettes.
At the blog, The Story Project, Ashley Beaudin, describes how she is building a better relationship with food. Check it out here: Food and I Have An Ugly Relationship
When I read the blog, for the third time, one line stood out in three-dimensional relief: “I am not going to starve and heart doesn’t need donuts and pop to survive.” I am still dubious on pop not being necessary. However, the two points remain powerful.
First, I am not going to starve. Even if all the food suddenly disappeared from my house today, I have enough reserves in my body to last a very, very long time.
Second, my heart doesn’t need junk to survive. It needs the divine embrace of grace. It needs to laugh and chase kids. It needs sleep. It needs to play and pray with friends. It does not need donuts.
It’s my relationship with food which is the problem. It’s my relationship to myself and the role food plays in it which is the real source of the challenges.
As the holidays continue to barrel towards me like an Accela train, I believe I will gift myself something. I’ll give myself the gift of loving myself more abundantly and praying more so that I can finally-eat less.
What gift will you give your heart this holiday season?
Less. More. Abundantly. 
Yeah, I went off my sweet fast for the holiday, hard to chase down that wagon to hop back on when my knees are weak and I am lugging extra pounds.
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1) This holiday season I will give my heart some quiet time. 2) And I will feed my body the kind of food it needs. The kind that gives it energy and doesn’t leave it feeling like Jabba the Hut on a hot day in tight pants. 3) I will also stretch that body, and let it sleep eight hours a day, I will take it for walks and give it recess every day. Basically I will treat me like a child I want to grow up strong and healthy – or a dog I really love. I’ll do what is best for this heart and body, even if I have to walk past the bakery window drooling like when i drag my dog away from bacon.
Does that mean I’m never going to cheat with holiday cookies? Chocolates? A spectacular holiday meal? Of course I will. It just means that rules 1, 2, and 3 come first.
(PS – For me there was a secret to actually implementing this plan. Being a stress eater, I had to find something to replace food in that scenario. So I had to ask myself a really hard question, what do I like better than a dark chocolate, raspberry mousse cake with ganache and dark chocolate curls on top….)
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