Thanksgiving the Leanness Lifestyle Way

Thanksgiving History

In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World the Pilgrim’s fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.

The Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.

The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770’s) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.

In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

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Thanksgiving causes many well-intentioned dieters, not true, seasoned Lifestylers, a great deal of stress. In my opinion they worry needlessly over what is going to be served. Here’s how I view Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a holiday and one that can help us reflect on what we are thankful for. It also provides some of us an opportunity rather than a cross to bear with respect to meeting up with family. I recognize I am blessed in this regard but not everyone is and for many reasons. Whatever Thanksgiving means to you the one thing it does for too many is kick off the treacherous Thanksgiving through January 15th weight-gain phase.

Throughout the year I will eat about 2,184 meals. Over Thanksgiving and the day after I will eat about 10-12 times. That is one-half of one percent of the meals I will eat in a year. What impact might any of us expect one-half of one percent of our meals to contribute to our weight? Well, since the meals we may have on and right after Thanksgiving may be more calorie-dense and fat-laiden I’ll bump up the grand total of Thanksgiving to one percent of the total effect of your weight for the year. Doesn’t sound like very much does it? And it’s not.

A problem many people have is they don’t stop the day after Thanksgiving. They keep it going, as I said before, through mid January or later.

Thanksgiving is a time when the women in our family really get to show off how they cook–and we’ve got some good cooks let me tell you. Cooking has become something I expect to see in a museum some day on exhibit since it really seems to be going out of style and that makes Thanksgiving even more wonderful to me–it’s the day when most families, when schedules will permit, go all out cooking foods you never get at any other time of the year. It’s the day when cooking goes on for hours and hours and hours to get it just right. You have plenty of fingers on one hand to count the other occasions in a year when this might take place. I’m not about to short-change myself by giving up some sensible indulgence of these wonderful-tasting foods just so I can be a picture-perfect dieter and not gain 2 pounds of water weight. No thank you. On every Thanksgiving since I’ve been alive I have some of anything I want. I don’t go home feeling deprived. By not going home feeling deprived I don’t send out pity-party invitations.

I talk about pity-party invitations in LL V.4. This usually occurs when an internal mechanism inside you says you’ve been better than you should have been. You may be wonderful for a few hours but what happens is the pity-party invitations will have been sent shortly after you said “No thank you” for the fifth time and right about the time you chomped on your fourth piece of broccoli sans any dressing or sauce. When you send out the pity-party invites who shows up is quite ugly. Mr. Binge, Ms. Secret Eating, Mrs. Fields and more may arrive and the total caloric effect may end up being much worse than if you had simply eaten a little more at Thanksgiving and NOT gone home feeling too perfect. You see, this is important, you have to be aware of your internal switch that thinks you’ve been too good. When that switch is turned on it gets ugly–it just gets ugly.

With this said there is no reason for you to eat what you DON’T want. I am not a believer that because Aunt Matilda is trying to forcefeed you pumpkin pie that you should cave in and eat if you don’t like it. Take a bite. Be polite. Then say it’s good but it’s just not you. Eat what you want that you know isn’t a trigger. If you are unsure if it’s a trigger then you may just have to try it and find out. With all the normal Thanksgiving foods it could be really hard to figure out what’s a trigger and what isn’t anyway. Skip the foods you KNOW are triggers, that’s the message here. Have what you want. Don’t have what you don’t want. Personally I skip anything really splurgey unless I think I am REALLY going to love it. I’m picky with my splurges and that’s just because I know everything counts. I just hate wasting calories on mediocre food.

In part 2 I’ll discuss portions and every strategy important to enjoy this special holiday.