This weekend is the first weekend in over a month that we haven't had a million things to do all weekend. Ah, the holiday season. Party after party, errand after errand, all while bundling up against the cold and trying not to eat your way across America. And also not blogging, obviously.
"They" say that Americans gain an average of 5 pounds every holiday season; I think I've probably beaten that estimate pretty much every year since I was 18. Cookies are my kryptonite, and spending a month surrounded by them (and boxes of See's candy and cans of Almond Roca and cups and cups and cups of eggnog lattes) meant spending a month filling my face with them. I want to say I didn't eat any of that stuff this year. I wish I could say that I said no to every offer of dessert, that I walked by the treat table at work without ever tasting something, that I was a perfect WLS patient throughout the entire holiday season. But I can't, because I totally indulged this month, and I indulged more than once.
I did not, however, eat the pounds and pounds of cookies that I have eaten in the past. I had one or two Hershey Kisses every so often, instead of handfuls every day (because those candy cane ones are awesome). I baked 4 kinds of cookies and made rocky road fudge with my Little Sister, and I shared a couple of cookies with her while we baked. And then all the baked goods got sent out of the house, gifts for people at work. I made a kick-ass apple pie for Christmas dinner...and then skipped a slice in favor of a couple of my favorite cookies ever during the day. I broke my no alcohol rule and had a few glasses of champagne at one of my friend's parties. I drank numerous lattes but this year, they were sugar free cinnamon dolce or sugar free gingerbread lattes instead of those luscious eggnog lattes of Christmases past.
In other words, I still enjoyed myself and enjoyed the treats of the season but I did it with an awful lot of moderation. For once I didn't slip into my usual holiday stressfest habit of surviving on fast food and baked goods, and it's amazing how much better I felt through it all.
I won't lie and say that all this moderation has been easy. I still have a lot of intense guilt surrounding cookies. And Hershey Kisses. And champagne. Empty calories! Sugar! Fat! BAD FOOD! More than once I had to talk myself down off the ledge about the whole situation. I had to remind myself that I had only eaten ONE cookie, not ONE DOZEN, and that one cookie is okay as long as I'm doing everything else...the water and the protein and the vitamins and the working out. (Okay, the working out did not happen as much as it should have but hey, I was sidelined by some lovely acute bronchitis so there's no guilt there.) It helped that at least once a week, someone would load up our treat table at work with a plate of cheese and summer sausage. It was protein! And a treat! Perfection!
The hardest part was being given food gifts. A huge can of Almond Roca. A pound of See's Candy. Homemade fudge. A gift basket from Harry & David. And some of that was from people who knew I had the surgery! So the Almond Roca was regifted to my mom, who likes it as much as I do. The See's Candy was given to my Little Sister's family. The fudge and the gift basket were nibbled a little by my husband and me, then thrown away.
As whacked out as my head got, and as off kilter as my schedule and eating habits were, I survived. I survived by making a huge pot of turkey chili that was loaded with beans and protein at the beginning of the month and living off of that. I survived by making my pink salad a couple of times, and eating that for breakfast (or lunch or dinner or whatever). (Pink salad is a family recipe that is actually perfect for weight loss surgery patients...sweet and fruity and creamy but high in protein. Tastes indulgent when it's really not. Try it, you'll like it!) We're staying home for New Year's Eve, because we're socialized out. I'll cook up some Marinated Chicken Skewers from Trader Joe's, and some pink salad for me and cheesy broccoli rice for Kevin and we'll survive on that for 24 hours.
And I resolve to not feel guilty about it. Happy New Year indeed.
"They" say that Americans gain an average of 5 pounds every holiday season; I think I've probably beaten that estimate pretty much every year since I was 18. Cookies are my kryptonite, and spending a month surrounded by them (and boxes of See's candy and cans of Almond Roca and cups and cups and cups of eggnog lattes) meant spending a month filling my face with them. I want to say I didn't eat any of that stuff this year. I wish I could say that I said no to every offer of dessert, that I walked by the treat table at work without ever tasting something, that I was a perfect WLS patient throughout the entire holiday season. But I can't, because I totally indulged this month, and I indulged more than once.
I did not, however, eat the pounds and pounds of cookies that I have eaten in the past. I had one or two Hershey Kisses every so often, instead of handfuls every day (because those candy cane ones are awesome). I baked 4 kinds of cookies and made rocky road fudge with my Little Sister, and I shared a couple of cookies with her while we baked. And then all the baked goods got sent out of the house, gifts for people at work. I made a kick-ass apple pie for Christmas dinner...and then skipped a slice in favor of a couple of my favorite cookies ever during the day. I broke my no alcohol rule and had a few glasses of champagne at one of my friend's parties. I drank numerous lattes but this year, they were sugar free cinnamon dolce or sugar free gingerbread lattes instead of those luscious eggnog lattes of Christmases past.
In other words, I still enjoyed myself and enjoyed the treats of the season but I did it with an awful lot of moderation. For once I didn't slip into my usual holiday stressfest habit of surviving on fast food and baked goods, and it's amazing how much better I felt through it all.
I won't lie and say that all this moderation has been easy. I still have a lot of intense guilt surrounding cookies. And Hershey Kisses. And champagne. Empty calories! Sugar! Fat! BAD FOOD! More than once I had to talk myself down off the ledge about the whole situation. I had to remind myself that I had only eaten ONE cookie, not ONE DOZEN, and that one cookie is okay as long as I'm doing everything else...the water and the protein and the vitamins and the working out. (Okay, the working out did not happen as much as it should have but hey, I was sidelined by some lovely acute bronchitis so there's no guilt there.) It helped that at least once a week, someone would load up our treat table at work with a plate of cheese and summer sausage. It was protein! And a treat! Perfection!
The hardest part was being given food gifts. A huge can of Almond Roca. A pound of See's Candy. Homemade fudge. A gift basket from Harry & David. And some of that was from people who knew I had the surgery! So the Almond Roca was regifted to my mom, who likes it as much as I do. The See's Candy was given to my Little Sister's family. The fudge and the gift basket were nibbled a little by my husband and me, then thrown away.
As whacked out as my head got, and as off kilter as my schedule and eating habits were, I survived. I survived by making a huge pot of turkey chili that was loaded with beans and protein at the beginning of the month and living off of that. I survived by making my pink salad a couple of times, and eating that for breakfast (or lunch or dinner or whatever). (Pink salad is a family recipe that is actually perfect for weight loss surgery patients...sweet and fruity and creamy but high in protein. Tastes indulgent when it's really not. Try it, you'll like it!) We're staying home for New Year's Eve, because we're socialized out. I'll cook up some Marinated Chicken Skewers from Trader Joe's, and some pink salad for me and cheesy broccoli rice for Kevin and we'll survive on that for 24 hours.
And I resolve to not feel guilty about it. Happy New Year indeed.
