🌾🍁🍂There Is So Much Food This Weekend!🍂🍁🌾

"Once upon a time, there was a caloric deficit..."

This is how my weekend sounds.  The long weekend in October is Canada's 'Thanksgiving', but since colonization has caused no end of problems for North America's Indigenous peoples, I'm going to call this weekend "Foodmageddon Before Christmas", or FBC. 

Just a general life update, I've been at home, applying for jobs, and scheduling interviews. It's been a good week, and I have been doing a great job of sticking to my caloric deficit and keeping my protein up.

I weighed in yesterday morning at 172.6 pounds. Just for fun, I've attached my weight entries from the last month, just to demonstrate that weight loss is nowhere near linear. 

Yesterday evening was FBC dinner #1. 

At my brother's request, mom made a full turkey dinner. It was AWESOME. It has been the running joke for...30 years or something...that my brother and I fight over the stuffing, though I am happy to let him have as much as he wants, since I only ever feel like having a scoop, in recent years. 

It has also been the joke that I am the "fatty" in the household, and my brother has, in the past, announced that others should fill their plates before I get to the table. 

Ahhhh, siblings. 

I'll also add here, that he nicknamed me "Fluffybutt" when we were much younger. 

But damnit, I'm not really that fat. And I only once ate like, the whole pot of shrimp that one New Year's.

And this year, the famjam knows that I'm eating "within means", so they took it a little easier on my fluffy butt, heckle-wise.

And I ate what I felt like, and I had wine and dessert. And I very likely exceeded my calories for the day, but I was okay with it. 

Because one meal isn't going to damage anything at all. 

But FBC is two days out of three of face stuffing madness (for us). Some have more, some have less. 

This weekend, we also visited friends who have a fresh baby, and we feasted on a late lunch there, too.  I will NEVER pass on an opportunity to eat Maggie's patties. Nope, nuh-uh. 

A huge thank you to Thom, Michael, and baby Q, who made us feel so welcome in their home.  Thank you for letting me snuggle your baby so much, and for letting Zach hold your peanut. We loved it, and we love you! ❤️

Tomorrow, we have a second turkey dinner at my sister's house. 

So, how is one supposed to make it through a weekend of seemingly endless food?

I am following a couple of suggestions made by Jordan Syatt in this video:

https://youtu.be/fixSEmNb_3o

Basically, I went into dinner with the following thoughts:

I will have one glass of red wine, and one glass of white wine. Outside of that, I will drink water and coffee. My brother brought Bubly water (🖤), so I had that, and coffee with dessert. And coffee after dessert. Coffee. ☕

Because I gave myself the okay to eat dessert. Mom made pineapple cheesecake, and it had been eons since we'd last had that. It's amazing.🍍

And I could eat a little of everything presented at dinner, but it all had to fit on my plate - once - no seconds.  

I made it happen. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, perogies, meatballs, Caesar salad, gravy. One plate. It was delicious, and I was gloriously stuffed. 👊🏻

Stepping on the scale this morning, I reminded myself that numbers are data, and that the 5 pound increase from yesterday was water, sodium, and what I expected was a lot of poop. 💩

Nothing to worry about. I hadn't gained 5 pounds in fat overnight.

Poop, like lead, weighs a bunch. 

Today's goal was to eat balanced, and drink at minimum, 3 litres of water. 

I pulled it off too; coming in right at my upper caloric limit - still in deficit. 🤘🏻

No damage done, two days of eating in the books. We haven't been to the gym since Friday, but that's okay. After tomorrow, we're back to regularly scheduled programming. ⏳

As for tomorrow's dinner, I'll apply the same boundaries for myself.

I won't be drinking, I don't feel like it. I will fit my meal on one plate, and I will have dessert. With coffee. A lot of coffee. Coffee. ☕

And it will be absolutely fine calorie-wise, because, just like Jordan says, I can't fuck this up. 

None of us can; unless we give up forever. 

Because there's always tomorrow. 

Because we can be kind enough to ourselves to step outside the lines now and again. 

Because life is too damn short. 

We just have to do it. 

Happy FBC, and soak up the energy of the Harvest Moon! 🌕

Hail yourselves,

S