For those of us here in the U.S., turkey time is upon us once again. It’s absolutely my favorite holiday. I find it a heroic little celebration struggling to survive amid the premature Christmas decorations and Black Friday freak show. This day symbolizes gratitude, one thing I think many of us overlook in our day-to-day. But before I get all sappy on you, let’s get to the real reason I love Thanksgiving – the food.
I was all prepared to whip up a great post loaded with lots of clean Thanksgiving recipes and inspirational tips to get you through the day. I even found a fabulous Thanksgiving Feast post from one of my favorite clean eating blogs, The Gracious Pantry. But as I started I realized that I was faking it. I don’t really want to eat clean versions of my Thanksgiving favorites. This is my favorite meal of the 2,190 I will have this year. Why in the world would I cheat myself out of enjoying it?
I’m gonna eat. The carb-loaded mashed potatoes slathered with gravy, homemade bread with more than 1 tsp of butter, and the pie. Oh yes, my friends, I will partake in the pumpkin pie dolloped with real whipped cream. I’m even going to enjoy a few glasses of wine. Yep, you heard it right, that’s plural on the libation.
As I’m loading my plate, I will be mindful of the last time I ate with such abandon. It was my last night of a girls’ trip this Spring to my hometown of Austin, Texas. We don’t have a lot of authentic barbecue choices where I live now, so I really wanted to take pleasure in some good brisket and potato salad before I left. We dined at the County Line, and it was heavenly, as expected. I literally stuffed myself. The first few minutes were fabulous, but as I continued plowing through my meal, I began to regret my disregard for portion control. When it was over I felt like I was literally going to burst. I dealt with that misery the entire rest of the night and into the next morning. SO, I won’t be making that same mistake again, and will exercise some modicum of discipline this Thursday. You can see more about my philosophy on this in Anatomy of a Cheat Meal. In any case, I will be enjoying a little bit of everything I adore, which is what I like to call balance.
What is your plan for the holiday? What are your thoughts on getting through the season?