The Holidays are coming

Have any of you thought about this yet? This will be a our first holiday season post surgery. Halloween starts it off for me, so I think about it. So far no problems, I have little desire for candy, if I want a piece I get one small sugar free piece. Thanksgiving will be ok, once people stop trying to push food off on us. And I think I can handle the christmas goodies everyone brings, it is the baking that I love to do, that I will have to learn some new ways with. So my loved ones will be getting sugar free goody bags this year, give them a little health. How do you all plan on handling this time period? Jenn

Thats a great Idea, that way we won't feel like we are missing out on anything, splenda has become a good friend of mine lol. Joi

Hi Jenn, Well my holidays started before most of you... for my faith our "thanksgiving" (Mabon) was last month. So I got to go through it all a bit early. What I did was I threw down a challenge for myself and decided to go crazy and host a dinner party at my house! I sat myself down about 3 weeks before Mabon and got out the old family recipes and tinkered with them on paper, seeing where I could modify them to make them healthy for me to eat. Then I attempted to make it in a smaller batch. If it flopped I tried again, after two tries I would make a decision to scrap it and research a replacement for it. I kept at this and developed my meal plan for the next two weeks. The week of Mabon I got everythign ready and spent the whole day cooking by myself, listeningt o muci, burning some cinnamon incense, and just making it an enjoyable day. By the time everyone was there the house was ready, the food was cooked and warming, my kitchen was clean and I was in such an incrediably great mood! My final menu ended up being: * Smoked Turkey (12 pounds!!!) * Harvest Casserole (made with Sweet Potato & Pumpkin --faux sweet potatoes) * Curried Squash Soup (made with Carnival & Acorn Squash) * Cranberry & Winter Squash Bake (looked like stuffing and everyone thought it was...lol) * Sage & Turkey Gravy * Green Bean Casserole (LF cream of mushroom soup and skim milk make it healthy!) * Mabon Corn Bread (made with sweetened buttermilk) * Black & Green Olives * Cranberries * Spiced Apple Rings * Hot Mulled Cider (with a splash of Cpt. Morgan's Spiced Rum) * Jamie's 3-tier Apple Nut Spiced Cake w/Cinnamon Vanilla Frosting and Coconut & Pecan filling!!! YUM!!!! * Sage Stuffing (regular stove top for hubby, he is addicted!) * Croissants (a friend brought these) * Assorted baked breads (a friend brough these) So as you can see.... making a turkey dinner is possible and it was quite a spread! Splenda is my friend that is for sure! So is foodnetwork! I guess I am a step ahead of most folks, since cooking is a hobby of mine so I might now how to do substitutions a bit better than most, but it is not really something that is hard to learn. Basically, tips and tricks from other cooks help! I never knew that you could use the squash family in so many ways, now I use it A LOT! LOL! One thing that I learned about myself is if I try to deny myself then I end up getting depressed or I do somethign stupid lik over indulge. SO now I do everything in moderation. Yes, I made a 3 tier cake for Mabon but I also made as many substitutions that I could and I made sure that my slices were slender and I only ate enough of the slice to be happy and then I would pass my dish off to my son to fini**** Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. aka Lady Autumn Weight- 257/154/146 BMI- 44.1/26.4/25 Height- 5'4" Total Weight Loss: -103 lbs. Surgery Date- 1/19/05 Visit my OH profile or stop by My Weight Loss Journey Website at: home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-LadyAutumnsWLSjourney Visit my Live Journal at: livejournal.com/users/magickalmom Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. aka Lady Autumn Weight- 257/154/146 BMI- 44.1/26.4/25 Height- 5'4" Total Weight Loss: -103 lbs. Surgery Date- 1/19/05 Visit my OH profile or stop by My Weight Loss Journey Website at: home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-LadyAutumnsWLSjourney Visit my Live Journal at: livejournal.com/users/magickalmom

OK Jamie, just reading your post made me "hungry"! I'd love a copy of all of your revamped holiday recipes if you don't mind sharing. We share Thanksgiving dinner with another family and it is my year to "host" the dinner. I usually do a big spread, very similar to what you served, so any wls-friendly recipes will find a good home with me! Thanks! Vickie J. 277/163.5/152 PS - If you have any sugar free or low sugar cookie recipes please share those as well. I host an annual cookie exchange and I want to surprise everyone with a low or sf cookie that is delicious.

Here is some advice that I got from one of my support groups: H- Have fun and eat! * If you worry too much about what to eat, you will overeat in other areas. *Bring something that you can splurge on that won't hurt your weight loss! (I suggest bringing the recipe incase folks like it!) *Focus on having a good time that doesn't focus around food. O- Only do or attent events that you know you will enjoy! *Eliminate distructive behaviors like guilt and obligation; saying "yes" to everything means saying "no" to you. *Determine what traditions you need to change for your benefit and develop new ones. (If you traditionally give sweets, give low sugar gifts or something unique instead! Like a mixed music CD, a pampering basket, or something like that!) L- Look through a child's eyes for celebration *Keep it simple; more does not always mean better, don't stress yourself out with too many activities! *Determine what to celebrate: is a gift important or it is more important to spend quaility time with people? I- Invite the people you want to spend time with! *Having people that you aren't a positive in your world can only ruin a get together! *Don't have people over just to "keep them quiet"... they will still "talk" if they are there or not! D- Don't live up to anyone's standards but your own! *Determine what your idea of a happy holiday is and make your plans based on that. *You cannot make someone's holiday better than your own through a material gift-- only through the gift of you. A- Always celebrate as if it's your last holiday! *Try to stay "in the moment" and enjoy the process of preparing and expierenceing the holiday. *Do something throughout the holiday that is just for you (non-food) Y- You, your family and friends matter... in that order! *If you give everything away, you won't have anything for you. Balance your time, energy, and efforts. If you don't consider yourself a priority, no one will.