Thanksgiving Day

I thought I'd give you a peek into my victories and slip ups for the holiday.

I'm always striving for transparency in life.  I want it to be true and I want it to be real.

So friends, here's a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of Thanksgiving Day.  :)

7:00 am wake up.  Already my mind is tooling over everything I need to do but mostly I'm thinking about getting my exercise done ASAP.

7:30 am I've finished coffee and e-mail and I'm on the treadmill.  I don't have the umph I wish I had this morning but at least I'm here!  I refused to get off until it read 3 miles and 500 calories burned.  I didn't run much of this like I usually do but at least I did something!!!  My shirt is wet with sweat and I feel good about myself for starting the day out right.

9:30 am I'm wet headed from my shower and at Mom's house.  Our Thanksgiving dinner isn't until 3:30 pm but my brother and his family are in town and I want to visit.  There are those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls mom has fixed and I have one plus one of my 4 pt breakfast sandwiches.

12:00 pm  My mom has bought a French silk pie, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie.  There's brisket, hamburger buns, chibatta bread, and chips everywhere.  I have a snack bag size of Doritos and a brisket sandwich.  I have to admit I already feel kind of yucky.  Also, if I'm being honest last night I had a piece of that French silk pie!

1:00 pm I'm back at home and making Hungry Girl's recipe for Naked Eggplant Parmesan that I posted previously.  I'm really bucking tradition by bringing Italian but I know my family won't care.  We have a couple vegetarians in the family too and they might actually appreciate it.
As I'm preparing it my husband comments on how good it smells and says half joking "Let's just stay home and eat that and call it good".  I think he's feeling a little yuck from eating rich food too.  Still, we only do this once or twice a year and it has been fun visiting with my family.

3:30 pm  I'm at Grandma's house with our huge crowd.  Mom is one of six kids and 5/6 are here.  It's such a great feeling getting to see all the little kids running around.  My son is playing with my cousin's kids and my niece and it's so heartwarming.
I had 4 of my mom's homemade chocolate dipped peanut butter balls.  For dinner I had one serving of my eggplant, one of Grandma's homemade rolls with gravy, literally about 1 oz of ham and green beans.  I skipped the potatoes and turkey this year because it just didn't even sound good to me.

7:25 pm  I'm back at home.  After I put my son to bed I start making Guinness stew.  It's an old recipe from Cooking Light magazine.  It's supposed to be made on the stove top and literally takes HOURS but I'm going to try making it in the crockpot tonight.  I'm hosting dinner for my brother and his family and mom and dad tomorrow.  I don't think a big enough crockpot exists to make a double batch so I'm making one tonight and got the second set up to start in the early morning.  This recipe is to die for good! It's thick and hearty.  This is where I first fell in love with parsnips.  :)

10:15 pm  All the work is done for tomorrow's dinner.  I got the kitchen cleaned up and am finishing up this post.  All in all it was a good day.  I know I went over but I don't feel bad about myself and that may just be the first time in my life I can say that.  I'm 5'6" and I have been weighing in around 150 lb.  When I was 21 years old I weighed 105 lb.  Back then I couldn't fathom weighing what I weigh now and being happy with that.  Today it feels good.  I'd like to get to 140 lb after the holiday rush but I'm not worried about getting there.  I know that I will have gained weight this week and that's okay with me.  I know what to do to get back on track and going to my meetings and surrounding myself with support means I will.
You know what else?  I felt really beautiful tonight.  Even at my most svelt I don't know that I would've ever described myself that way because I never felt perfect enough, good enough.  Now I feel more at home in my body.

And that, friends, is something to really be thankful for.

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!