7 Tips For Enjoying Holiday Food Without Quitting Your Goals

Hey everyone, I know it's the day before Thanksgiving, so if you're traveling you may have some trouble implementing these tips.  But they really work any time you are headed someplace and you aren't in control of the food!

First things first, I want to say that I LOVE Thanksgiving.  It is my favorite holiday, by far.  The only expectation is cooking tasty food, and eating it - there's no stress about shopping or finding "the perfect gift."  Just getting together and telling stories and making memories!

But for many of us who've struggled with food addiction, we have a hard time with a food-centric holiday.  If you're on a weight loss journey, you may feel like food holds you captive.  And that can make you dread food-related holidays and gatherings.  Or, even worse, give up on your goals completely during those times.

You don't have to be a slave to food!  A lot of these tips are about food, and what to eat, but the idea is to set you free from the mindset of "well, I can't have anything on the table, so I guess the food plan starts over January 2!"  No!  One meal does not have to derail you for an entire holiday season!  Try some of these ideas, let me know if they help you!

1.  If you're invited to someone's home, offer to bring a side dish that you cannot resist - then remake it to fit your plan.  Pinterest is your friend!  Try searching "21 Day Fix friendly" or "Whole 30" recipes - these terms will help you makeover almost anything.  Personally, I'm making mashed potatoes in my Crock-Pot (love this method- no draining!!!), and mixing them up with coconut oil and coconut milk to keep them dairy free.

2.  Snack!  Especially if you're travelling to your meal, pack on-plan snacks (I would do raw veggies and some hummus, or apple slices and almond butter).  Just watch portions, and time it so you're still ready to eat at meal time.

3.  Get your veggies in.  So many holiday meals are carb-heavy; try to fit in veggies in other ways.  The fiber will help keep you full so you don't overindulge at the main table, and on most plans you can eat as many veggies as you want without ruining your progress.  Watch out for veggies-that-are-actually-starches (corn, green beans, etc.) and extra sauces!

4.  Portion control is your friend.  So you're sitting at a beautiful table filled with all kinds of amazing goodness, and you really just want mashed potatoes and gravy (or maybe that's me).  You can have some!  Here are the guidelines:

• Get the veggies first - green salad, raw veg platter, easy on anything with a sauce
• Lean protein - white meat turkey is actually really good for you (just take the skin off - sorry).  A serving size is about the size of the palm of your hand.  Keep that in mind when counting how many servings of protein you had.
• Fruit - if there's uncandied or not-sugared fruit, grab some.
• Starches - mashed potatoes, stuffing/dressing, yams and sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls - use the palm of your hand as a measure again.  Not literally, because that would be weird.  But as a general idea of appropriate serving size - try to stick to one potato-type and one bread-type.  Your plate should already be pretty full anyway!
• Fats - gravy, dressings, etc. - For this, I suggest measuring with a teaspoon.  The idea is to get the flavor of the gravy without going overboard on fat.  Fats and salad dressings are the number one culprit for hidden calories - if you control it here, you will feel so much better about yourself when the meal is over!
• Dessert - you have permission.  Enjoy one piece!

5.  Get out for a walk before or after dinner.  Collect some leaves or pine cones for a craft, see some new sights, make some new memories.

6.  Refuse leftovers.  This is more difficult if you're hosting.  I'm having visions of my children doing a Jack Sparrow impression: "But why is the gravy gone???"  But here's the deal - if you can't resist it or control portions in the days following the holiday, it's not worth keeping around.

7.  Remember that it's one meal on one day.  One meal does not have to throw you off for the entire day, weekend, trip, season....  You are more than the food you eat.  You get together with family and friends to make memories - so make some!  Let go of the guilt - it overshadows the time and takes away from your enjoyment of the actual day.

And whatever happens, you will get another chance to make healthy choices.  Even if you overindulge at Thanksgiving or Christmas, you can start over at the next opportunity.

I hope you have a safe and blessed holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

Happy Thanksgiving!

FYI, this is not what my table looks like.  I have a 7 year old, tablecloths just become shrapnel-slingers.

For me this holiday has always been more about the people I get to see then about the food on the table.  I've heard friends say they have to have such-and-such dish or it "just isn't Thanksgiving."  Aside from a turkey and gravy and stuffing, that just isn't how I feel. ;)

Like I said, it's always been about family.  This will be our fifth Thanksgiving in Idaho, but this year I'm really going to miss my family in Washington.  I know that traditions change and my cousin has hosted the dinner for the last several years.  But for me this will always be potluck, around my grandparents' table - telling the same stories and looking forward to an epic game of Shanghai (a 3-deck version of Rummy, similar to Phase 10) after dinner. There was no football, as grandpa really only cheers for one team, and the Seahawks rarely play on Thanksgiving.

I think what's bringing these feelings up is the knowledge that for my girls this year's dinner will be different.  Their father almost always worked on Thanksgiving, so they're used to him not being here.  However this will be the first holiday since he moved out, and it's always going to be "the first Thanksgiving without Daddy."  I hate that this is a part of their life now, but it's much better for them than pretending that things are fine, and making the best of things.

So my plans to make this day special center around desserts.  Yesterday we planned to make hand-turkey cookies.  Remember in kindergarten when you drew an outline of your hand and made a turkey?  I saw this cute idea from The Pioneer Woman, which Hallie immediately said could be turned into turkeys.  (We're also making the hand cookies for her birthday instead of a cake.)  However, the homemade sugar cookie dough was really soft even after chilling, and when I went to cut around the girls' hands the dough warmed even more.  So they made "snowballs" which is our way of using up leftover dough when they're done cutting shapes.  We'd already made the Thanksgiving colored eggwash (intended for coloring the "feathers"), so they painted them anyway.  They flatten when they bake, so with the colors on them they ended up looking like fallen leaves!

And I got some Granny Smith apples - the girls have been begging for caramel apples, and I'm doing this - an inside-out caramel apple - link takes you to a pin on my Pinterest recipes board, because the original blog it came from has been removed.  I'm also going to use my Pampered Chef apple-corer-slicer (that I had to have and hardly ever use) to make apple rings, that I'll cook with butter and cinnamon and sugar.  No pies at my house because I hate making pie crust.  But plenty of snacky dessert goodness.

And a very happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours.  I hope all are "safely gathered in" at your house and you're able to find at least one thing to celebrate!

Finish Friday Is Back!

Yes!  Not only have I revived this blog, but I'm starting Finish Friday back up again.  I had some submissions from around the time I disappeared, and some of these gracious stitchers are still willing to participate!

Remember, if you have a finish you want to share with the world, you can submit your finish, too!  I am looking for some Holiday-inspired finishes for December - these can either be for holiday decor (Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.) or items finished as gifts.

Redecorating with a purpose!

So in August we did some redecorating in our living room (again) and downstairs.  The last time I redid the living room was for Christmas, 2010, and I put my desk in the corner of the room near the sliding glass door.  This was great when my work was occasional and the kids were at school.  But as my business picked up during the summer, I discovered how difficult it was to concentrate with the work space in the main part of the house.  Also, we got a piano, and there just wasn't enough room for all that big furniture in that part of the room!

This is in progress, the filing cabinet was pulled out of the corner first.  You can kind of see the top of the piano behind the filing cabinet.

Unfortunately, moving the desk means losing my "finishing" space.  This was a lot of cleaning up, most of the things in this space had been in place for about 2 years, when we moved in!

Worth it! This is the first day of school pic.  We still need to get the piano tuned and have the key cover put back on - because free is never really free!  But I love having my 1910 Warner - I'm excited to get the girls piano lessons!

Here's how my workspace looks now - I've upgraded to a laptop, so you can see the "void" where it lives normally. On sunny days the light in this space is so great, I hardly ever use my desk lamp!

And because we don't have a fireplace in the living room, we used the piano for the stockings.  Love the way this looks!  Will love it even more when the cover is on the keys!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the USA tomorrow. No travel plans for us, since we just settled in to our house! We saw some family last weekend at the wedding, and some from the other side will be here in early December. So we're having a quiet family turkey-day - watching the parade, watching the dog show, starting birthday party invites for Hallie's party.

At some point I will post a tutorial for the star motif - I've typed the instructions, I just need to add pics and make sure it makes sense. So watch for that tomorrow or Friday.

Also, please sign up for the PIF for 2009! I'm focusing on giving to others this year, and teaching my kids to do the same. There are so many families in my area out of work, and not able to afford to give their families a special dinner or any gifts. I feel very blessed to have a warm home, and plenty of food. And while we've had to make sacrifices to make this work, I always have time and creativity to give to people. I'm looking forward to blessing some people this year!