Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that it will once again be Thanksgiving in just a few days! I have so much to be thankful for this year. I would of course start out with being so blessed to be a Christian woman who has the love of such a wonderful family. I am also thankful for our men and women who will be away from home this year due to their sacrifice for our country (my own nephew being one of the newest). And I am certainly thankful that this will be my first Thanksgiving at my goal weight! That still feels so good to say. My plan is to be really good all week so I can spend Thanksgiving Day NOT thinking about dieting or "being good". One day where I will just eat what I want, however, that is NOT to say that I plan to eat myself into misery. I want to eat all of the goodies but continue to listen to when my body tells me I've had enough. I think that is one of the most important lessons we need to learn on our weight loss journey, the art of listening to our body tell us when to eat and when to stop eating. The body is such a powerful tool and can be a tremendous help if we let it. On my own journey it was hard to get into that habit. I had gotten so used to finishing what was on my plate just because it tasted so good and I didn't want to leave it. I had gotten so used to getting seconds or thirds because I loved the taste of something. Or getting dessert because it sounded or looked good. In all of those instances I wasn't listening to my body. I could feel comfortably full, but I was still going to finish those last 4 or 5 bites on my plate because that was just what I was supposed to do. Where the heck I got that reasoning I am not sure. I could be to the point of really no longer being hungry, but my first helping tasted so good I still wanted more. I could be full from my meal but see the dessert menu and because the picture looked good, I still wanted that cake or pie. And once I got it, I would eat it all even if when I ate the last bite I was already saying I felt stuffed and miserable. Why in the world do we get to the point of ignoring the "full" signal and instead go right on eating more. Its not like I am a poor person who didn't know when I was going to have another meal and had to eat as much as I could. It's not like I couldn't have more of the leftoevers from a meal tomorrow rather than seconds today. It's not like I didn't know I could really and truly take home part of my entree at a restaurant rather than (gasp) let them throw it away. And its not like I couldn't order dessert and share it with my husband rather than having my own at any cost. But I never did any of those things. And in Jan. 2008 I realized the "cost" was the realization that I was on my way to a vast number or health problems and early death if I didn't change my way of thinking. Dieting for me hasn't really been difficult. The hard part was starting to listen to my body tell me I'm full, even when that means I've hardly eaten anything on my plate. As Thanksgiving approaches, let's be thankful for those "full" signals our body tries to help us with, and embrace them as we're surrounded by friends and family on Thursday. The food will be delicious....but it isn't going anywhere. We can have leftovers in the days after. Give yourself permission to splurge and eat whatever you want on that special day. But the next morning, its back on track. Still enjoy the leftovers, but do it within your diet plan. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!