Gluttony, step to one side please

I like turkey. I don't like turkey. I like turkey when it is cooked whole and eaten with all the usual trimmings of fluffy buttery mashed potatoes, silky gravy, sweet cranberry sauce, stuffing and candied sweet potatoes. Turkey breast? Then I don't like turkey. Because turkey breast is served with baked potatoes, dry and boring. It's served with steamed broccoli. There's no crispy skin or wing bones to gnaw on. So I really only like turkey during the holidays when I would never consider restricting my intake or cooking just a low fat healthy turkey breast.
This year was wonderful. We brined the turkey in a new way that resulted in moist but firm white meat. We (the "we" is my daughter and I) rubbed the turkey with Kosher salt and left it in a plastic bag in the frig overnight. I'm sure a longer brining would be better but we only had about 36 hours.
We laughed as we cooked: Each dish used at least one stick of butter, sometimes two. Butter here. Butter there. And lots of brown sugar.
The meal was amazing. Every dish was perfectly cooked. And I ate very little. Why???? I wish I could have a redo right now. But I wasn't hungry. Or at least not hungry enough to stuff myself. I may have a history of eating past "fullness" but I have to be hungry at the start or I cannot do it. I just wasn't hungry. Perhaps it was the bag of potato chips I ate while cooking? Or the real sugar Pepsi I drank to wash down the chips. Or the delicious breakfast my husband and I had at a wonderful place in Venice, CA. I don't know. I just know that I only ate one small piece of turkey and a tiny spoonful of all the accompaniments. Now I lament that I didn't have more. Another lamentation to add to my tally for my life. Usually it's that I ate too much and I'm sorry. This time I'm sorry I didn't eat more!
So back home, Thanksgiving over. A decision by my husband and me that we have to stop. Eating isn't as much fun as it used to be when we were younger. It's getting harder to stuff ourselves. It doesn't feel as good. It's down right painful. It used to be a joke to come home with the top button my pants opened. Now I wear pants with elastic waists but still, the expansion is not funny.
So, dear gluttony, please step to one side. We're not proposing diets but we are proposing reduction. We're going to continue to enjoy the gastronomic wonders of the restaurants we love but we're going to do so in smaller portions. Sharing perhaps. In fact, last night we shared dinner and it was lovely. Also, it cost way less! We shared an appetizer and we shared an entree. It was enough food. And it was good.
Getting older sucks. We can't eat as much as we used to. Forget the aches and pains upon awakening, the loss of hearing, the failing eyesight, the sagging skin. We can't eat as much as we did when we were young. That's the lament for the day.

Turkey Day Feasting

Joy Bauer, a tiny dietitian who appears regularly on The Today Show, informed us this morning that the typical Thanksgiving dinner is worth (and I say "worth" because it is a valuable commodity) 4,000 calories. I love it. 4,000 calories. One meal. Not even one day. Just one. And I'm presuming that its not even a gluttonous meal but one offering the typical turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie (with maybe a little whipped cream).
Here's my plan: I'm going to eat it. All. I'm going to love it. I'm going to savor every delicious bite. I'm going to memorize the flavors and textures. I'm going to eat until I have to open the top button on my pants. I'm going to linger at the table with my family, watching them enjoy the meal.
I'm not going to worry about the calories or the fat or my waistline or the effect on my cholesterol. That one day isn't going to kill me (the ones leading up to it and the ones following might!).
Then Friday, I'll do my best to return to my normal gluttony while we ponder the leftovers and move on to a more normal eating regimen.
How many feast days do we have? Birthdays. Anniversaries. Thanksgiving. New Year's Eve. Not that many. I'm not going to worry. No doubt I will weigh more next week than I weigh today but it won't be because of one meal. That's for sure.
Enjoy.

My body has a mind of its own???

I found this on the Internet:

"The Calorie Shifting diet confuses your metabolism by eating in a way that you've never eaten before. You are going to eat in a way that is opposite of what your body expects you to do. On this calorie shifting program, you are not going to eat the same types of calories for more than a couple of days at a time and you are going to lose a lot of weight by using this method."

Puleeze. Okay. Puleeze. Isn't any diet eating in a way that you don't normally eat? And I didn't know that my "body" had expectations about how I was going to eat.
"I wonder what she will eat today", muses my body.
"Carbs? Protein? Fat? A combination? And will she exercise?", ponders my body to itself.

The only way I'm going to lose a lot of weight is to eat sensibly, once and for all! To cut out the large portions. To smile and say, "No, thank you. I've had enough."

Potato chips and other snack foods

Potato chips. Crunchy. Salty. Tasty. I like them when they're rippled. I like them when they're thick. I like them when they're thin. I like them anyway except flavored. I like my potato chips to be potatoes, salt and oil. No flavorings. If I want flavorings, I'll dip them.
Today I had potato chips. Not a lot. Just a handful. Maybe not even a handful because I ate them one at a time out of the bowl and I know I didn't eat that many. They were particularly light and crunchy. I don't know the brand. I was at a friend's house and we stood at the kitchen counter eating out of the bowl discussing our upcoming road trip to LA. It was a girlfriend moment made even better by the lovely chips.
Corn chips are good but not as good as potato chips. Cheetos (ooops, no idea how to spell that!), not so much. Pretzels....yes, if they're the rod kind. I mean, I'll eat the other ones but I prefer the rods. Oh, but best of all are the big NY style pretzels. Excellent. They sell them in movie theaters now but they're never that good. Still, I do eat them. Love the salt against the bland bland thick starchy pretzel.
Lately I've been enjoying bagel chips and pita chips. But nothing can compare to potato chips. Sounds like an "ode to potato chips".

Apples and Candy Bars

I just read a post on a list serve about a gimmick to determine if you are "hungry" or just craving a candy bar when you seek a candy bar. Just ask yourself if you'd eat an apple if there were no candy bar available. Duh. No. I wouldn't. Apples do not take the place of candy bars. Does anyone really think they're "hungry" when they think about eating a candy bar?
Well, sometimes they may indeed be "hungry" and choose to eat a candy bar because they want the taste or texture of that food to satisfy the emptiness in their gut rather than a bowl of bright green broccoli.
You know, my mother believed "if you're really hungry, you'll eat anything." Uh, no. I won't. In fact, I won't even eat something I like when I'm hungry if I don't "feel" like eating it.
There are times when hunger and craving are very distinct with no overlap. If you've just eaten a lovely meal and you're feeling satisfied in your tummy but not in your head, then I think you realize it's a "craving". But if it's 4 p.m. and I haven't eaten since noon and I'm thinking "bowl of pasta" and nothing else will do, that's a combo craving/hunger need. Don't you agree?

Dear Public Diary

Yes, I know. Blogs are public. And I've done a little to get the blog "out there". Still, I kinda thought just a few of my friends were reading it. Then the other day I received some comments...from strangers (or at least people who did not identify themselves as acquaintances). Thinking that no one but a few people with time on their hands is reading my rantings and ravings about being fat, losing weight, and finding clothes that fit made it easy to be open and honest. Now that I know that other people are reading this, I don't know. That's weird...but welcome.
Here's the thing (or better said, one of the things): I know all the angles. I just get trapped in the corners of the angles sometimes. Like now. Like this month. Like today. Like yesterday when I had M&Ms at the movies (BTW...great movie...Rachel Getting Married). Now, I didn't have M&Ms mixed with popcorn (which is one of my favorites....salty crunch popcorn with sweet chocolatey M&Ms). I didn't wash the candy down with a Pepsi. I just had a handful of M&Ms. But, why? I was fine. Not hungry. Not actually "craving" anything. And I'm not so much a fan of M&Ms. I mean, they're okay. But they're not exactly a favorite food. So, why? Why? Just because. I felt like it.

Feast Day Gluttony

Just found this quote from an article I wrote last year. It's from the book, "Beyond the Shadow of a diet" by Matz and Frankel.
"...a healthy relationship with food means eating in response to physical hunger most of the time. However, normal eating can also include experiences such as eating occasionally because something looks good, eating past fullness at a special meal, eating in response to an emotion once in a while or choosing foods based on nutritional content because this feels care-taking. Attuned eating means that eating for satisfaction is predominant, and experiencing deprivation is virtually non-existent. Attuned eating is a natural skill. It can be relearned by people who have lost touch with their hunger and can be reinforced and nurtured in children so that they maintain this healthy relationship with food throughout their lives."

So, how does Thanksgiving fit into this model? It's okay to eat a lot when something looks good or to eat past fullness at a special meal. So it's okay to look forward to stuffing myself on Thanksgiving? It's not perverted to plan for a gluttonous day? I can feel safe eating thousands of calories at one meal just this one day? Candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce...oh, and let's not forget the turkey. Lots of butter and cream in the mashed potatoes and maybe even in the gravy. Dessert? No decision yet but whatever it is, it will be calorific!

Should we include a veggie to be "care-taking"? Something of good nutritional content?

I'll think about it. But not obsessively.