A blog posting a day keeps the pounds away

It’s over. Thanksgiving, the day, is done, and it’s on to the next five or so weeks of holiday cheer. C’mon gang, we can do it!

I did enjoy a wonderful afternoon with close friends, two turkeys, a honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, three types of gravy, cranberry-orange relish, stuffing, rolls, apple pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, homemade whipped cream and ice cream. And, I ended the day with three points left in my daily allowance and none of my 35 points touched.

It really wasn’t hard to do it, so I’ll tell you what I did. I didn’t arrive hungry. I ate breakfast at 11 because I knew it would carry me until about 2. We arrived at 1, and I grabbed a diet Coke and began socializing in rooms other than the kitchen. I ate three grapes that I found along the way.

When dinner was ready, at 3:30, it was a buffet, and I was one of the last ones to cross the finish line. I knew that if I let the others start eating first, then they would be back for seconds by the time I sat down for firsts. And then I would stick out like a sore thumb if everyone was finished, and I got up to get seconds.

I had enough time to study the buffet offerings, and I picked out my favorites. I used the “rule of two”…two slices of white meat turkey, two teaspoons of mashed potatoes, two teaspoons of sweet potatoes and two teaspoons of cranberry relish. The end.

I ate slowly, participated in the conversation and looked people in the eye instead of my previous buffet behavior of shoveling it in while staring at my plate and running back for more when the plate was bare.

And then, the most impressive part of my day came during dessert. I volunteered to be the one, and only one, to cut and serve everyone the pies, whipped cream and ice cream to prove to myself that I could do it without sampling a crumb. You see, the old me would have had slices of everything and then gone back to eating the crumbs off the table. The new me congratulated myself for having none of it. I went home to my faithful Weight Watchers Giant Fudge Bar who continues to be my best dessert friend.

Finally, I refused repeated offers to take home leftovers...and there were lots of leftovers, including some of those pies.

Using these tricks is keeping me from being the one who has to watch the diet commercials on TV on January 1. I’m glad I started in September.

Talk to you soon.