Thanksgiving Holiday:Greatest Success/Greatest Challenge...

[Clary]

Any experiences to share?

How are you doing? --The Thanksgiving preparations and Gathering for some of us is the beginning of the "Holiday Season FOOD/FOOD/FOOD Challenges" and temptations (if we don't count Halloween!).

I developed a running, weeping, swollen eye problem--possibly contagious, and did not go to the gathering of 22 people at my daughter's. Missed all the family and festivities (and the food temptations), AND, there were no left-overs to tempt me when I go back there for child care Monday!

I have been known in the past to cave for a "left-over" turkey sandwich on white bread with mayonaise, even when I don't pre-intend to eat it!

[funcrunch]

We made Thanksgiving dinner just for ourselves and another vegetarian friend, so we knew everything was safe to eat (all vegan, though not all McDougall-legal as some had oil). But everything was so delicious that pacing myself was still a challenge. I took small portions of everything and waited quite some time after the main meal before eating dessert to make sure I didn't get stuffed. Overeating isn't just bad for weight loss; it actually hurts!

The next day I couldn't help nibbling on leftovers all day long. I should have gotten out of the house but I wanted to avoid the "Black Friday" shopping crowds. Still, I managed to avoid gaining any weight, which is somewhat of a miracle...

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

We had a family get-together away from home, we all bring dishes to pass. I made two kinds of rolls, the McDougall friendly ones and the regular ones that everyone expects. Plus my bean salad, my two "feast" pies and some baked potatoes in-the-skin. I chowed down on the potatoes, a big helping of the bean salad, and one of my good rolls, then had three helpings of some fruit salad that was McDougall-legal and I was just stuffed! I was helping put things away and trotting up the stairs to the kitchen and noticed that I felt lighter and really good, as usual after eating this way. This is the first year I've stayed totally "legal" for Thanksgiving, and I lost 2 pounds this week!

I found it VERY easy this year to not eat the special foods like pies and blue cheese that I usually love to feast on. This time, I kept reminding myself of how much I could eat (as much as I wanted!) of the food I could have (that I love to eat!) and I did just fine.


I'm already planning Christmas! It will be another family gathering with the same people. We always have cream of potato soup in bread bowls, the soup is milk and cheese based and the bread has milk and oil in it, so very non-McDougall. This year I'm making the bread bowls and they will all be McDougall legal, probably some will be rye, some whole wheat, and some white. I will make a pot of my husband's favorite minestrone that is McD legal and also bring the ever-present baked potatoes.

[Anne]

He's having turkey sandwiches now, but on Thanksgiving, there were so many great side dishes that he filled his plate with those! Almost all the sides were McDougallized.

I would have an anxiety attack if I served high fat sides at Thanksgiving. I saw my dad have a heart attack after a heavy SAD meal and know that one meal CAN kill a person if they already have mostly occluded arteries.

The relatives must have their turkey, but I always make sure everything else is secretly healthy. The funny thing is that they like those sides more and more every year, which means they eat less turkey.

[Sher]

Any experiences to share?

Well, the good side, I just didn't cook as much as usual to take to MIL's house. Our *combined* 3 kids & their spouses/kids were not going to be able to show up, & because of that, I guess I just wasn't as enthused about going. I stuck with what I brought, & the veggie side of things that other people brought, but am sure I got some non-McDougall ingredients in the mix: I have had sinus drainage ever since. Since I didn't eat any *main dish protein*, I forgot to eat cranberry sauce! Without the kids, plus DH being knocked out from his allergic reaction the night before, it just didn't seem like Thanksgiving. Also good, I did not have the overstuffed tummy ache & drugged feeling. Just the sinus thing.

I brought VERY LITTLE leftovers home. One serving of the "usual" main dish of Thanksgiving for DH, and some veggies. So we have not had that bunch of left over food to nibble & pick on, even though we are tired of it. The only leftovers that I brought for myself, actually, was the very yummy vegan pumpkin pie from a Bryanna Grogan recipe.

Tomorrow I am hoping to make a pot of a new soup mix I picked up at the local Amish community store, and a pot of collard greens. I have never fixed collards, I am assuming it will be about like turnips.

For today, am going to visit my DD in Knoxville (and brave the traffic of a UT home game!). We will shop, & have dinner at some sort of Asian restaurant--my fav is Japanese or Korean. She likes Thai & Indian. So we will have to vote, I guess!

Sher

[havfaith]

Well, I think the only thing there that was McD-friendly was the platter of raw veggies. I was invited to a friend's daughter's where I'd never been before (I just moved to the area). The friend did make sure the dressing was vegetarian for me. I ate more junk than I should have but for the most part, kept my portions very small. I think a good amount of my weight gain this week was due to the extra salt so I'm hoping for a good loss next week now that I'm back on track. I'll plan better (and bring more good stuff myself) for Christmas...

[fiddler3]

Thank you for starting this thread.

I was very suprised how hard this was. This is my first holiday season after starting the diet last June.

Greatest sucess: I travelled to be with my college age daughter over Thanksgiving, and we cooked a totally vegan low fat dinner. She made a wonderful pumpkin pie, and I did the rest. I made Holiday loaf, Golden gravy, mashed potatoes, and acorn squash stuffed with rather conventional, but fat free, stuffing.

Greatest failure: I got back home last night, and went out to eat, very hungry, no food in the pantry at home since I had been travelling. We went to a Mexican restaurant and I intended to order my usual...rice, beans, lettuce and tomato and an order of tortillas. Instead, I ordered a chicken quesidilla, in spite the fact that my friend ordered rice and beans...I ate hungrily, and today, after my 6 mile walk, the joint at the base of my big toe is inflammed, proof positive that cheese or meat (my bet is dairy) causes my arthritis to kick up.

I am trying to still internalize the lessons here. Too bad, because I am meeting with my doctor Wednesday to tell him I have stopped my meds...

Well, that is my crash and burn story. Hopfully I can cowboy up before Christmas...

fiddler3

[Roxanne]

This Thanksgiving had its ups and downs.

Let me start by saying that my mom and I make up a very unconventional family. Not only are there only two of us, but I'm a vegan and she's lifelong follower of a SAD diet yet (yet she's thin as a twig, go figure). We had no guests to entertain and no one to visit so our plan was to drive around for an hour or so looking for an open restaurnant.

Our one choice was an Indian restaurant with PLENTY of vegetarian options. I ordered a chickpea and potato-thing mix that came in some sort of sauce (didn't taste oily, though the potato things seemed deep-fried) that came with saffron rice and a plate of naan. We had ordered whole wheat naan, too, so I ate mostly that, but they were extremely oily, especially the ones made with white flour. I also realized that they were probably made with milk and the rice made in animal stock, but I chose to be a bad vegan and a good daughter instead of complaining. My bloated belly proves me right.

At least the majority of my meal was vegan and otherwise healthy. Here's my downfall: I spent the evening at my boyfriend's aunt's house, where they were having a real family Thanksgiving. We came right as desserts were out, and I ended up having a piece of apple pie (no dairy). My boyfriend and his mom were amazed--they had never before seen me eat junk food. I was eyeing the pecan pie, too, but I couldn't do that to my stomach. The sugar from the apple one was enough.

Back on track. Haven't weighed myself yet and I'm afraid to. My biggest problem is, whenever I'm visiting my mom, I always overeat. All my food is vegan, low-fat, but not exactly McD friendly (bagels, beans, soynuts, Cheerios, etc). Wish me luck at my weigh-in tomorrow morning. I'm not looking forward to it.

[Roxanne]

And Mrs. Doodlepunk, that's a great idea about the bread bowls! Maybe I'll make those for my mom and I this Christmas if it's just the two of us again. The veg restaurant were I work makes an AWESOME broccoli-dill soup (so F-ing healthy) so I'll steal their recipie.

[DianeR]

The neat thing was that there were three other vegetarians there we weren't expecting to be in that camp, so we now outnumber the omnivores! The new three aren't vegan or low fat, but it's a start!

Just to be sociable I tried a bit of the desserts people brought (we were there from Wednesday to Sunday). Also people were expressing concern about how skinny I was and I wanted to show them I didn't have an eating disorder Anyway, I should not have done this. My sinuses went nuts, I had some abdominal cramping, and only now am I recovering. I won't be doing that again ... it's strange. Previous Thanksgivings I didn't have a problem with desserts and I've been McDougalling for 6 1/2 years. Maybe my body is increasingly unable to deal with the bad stuff