I did well on Thanksgiving. My weight is up about 4 pounds due to rotator cuff surgery on 11.6. I no longer eat when I am sick, but I found that I am eating when I am in pain or frustrated with not being able to do anything.

On Thanksgiving, I filled my plate with a little of everything and started eating. I stopped eating when my grandkids (3 and 5 years old) were full, I was no longer hungry either. So I used them (they probably have the same size stomach as I do) as my indication to stop eating. I took a little of everything, but I still only ate 1/2 of that.

Now, Halloween is my downfall. Regular food not so much.

Hi LynnAlex,

Thanks for sharing!!!

What a great suggestion in measuring what you eat. Match little ones intake. OMGosh me and peanut butter cups My secret for Halloween was I bought all the kinds of candies I don't like. Yes, believe it or not there are some I don't like LOL Chocolate is my downfall so I stuck with licorice and other candies I don't like. Try it, it may work

I was traveling over the holiday so there was alot of eating out. I focused on being protein forward, but I did indulge on Thanksgiving in some mashed potatoes and dressing. Unfortunately I got pretty sick from it and ended up throwing out the leftovers. I also split a piece of pumpkin pie over 2 days and enjoyed it very much. Strangely that didn't make me sick. It seems that bread in particular swells in my stomach and makes me feel bloated and ill. I'm not sure that it is a good thing that I don't seem to have a problem with sugar, but it seems that small portions are okay.

I am up 1.6 pounds for the week, but I am okay with that since I didn't exercise much and ate more than usual. I plan to cut my portions back and eat much more meat and veg like I usually do.

My father cooks for TG. I had turkey, stuffing, 1/2 a dinner roll and one bite of potatoes. Then later I had 1/2 a piece of pumpkin pie. Ironically, I had my lowest recorded weight the following day!

Go Erin, Go Erin, Go Erin

my weight decreased. just had to watch the kinds of carbs and portion sizes

That is the magic formula

I made Turkey, mashed potatoes, Mac & Cheese, collared greens and crescent rolls. Apple Pie for dessert. This is huge shift from our typical meal which would have also had ham, roast beef, candied yams, rice & peas, stuffing and multiple desserts. The meal itself was no issue, I ate a little of everything.

Where I went overboard was snacking I grazed all of Thursday & Friday, in addition to having dessert. I'm up 3.5#'s, but that's still within in the norm of my regular fluctuations; it'll come back down. My exercise routine was unchanged.

Hi peacepie,

Yum! My DIL makes a mac and cheese and bless her heart I don't know what she uses but you can see the grease floating. It may be all the butter.... I take some but don't eat as believe it or not after 13 years I can't do grease/oil. Shhhh don't tell her

This year I made a roasted stuffed turkey (with meat stuffing), a spatch****ed smoked turkey and a small 3LB boneless ham. I paired those with homemade giblet gravy, dinner rolls, green bean casserole, roasted mashed butternut squash mixed with sweet potato, a pickle/olive tray and cranberry sauce. My in-laws brought lemon bundt cake, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie and apple pan dowdy with ice cream for desert. This was actually a much smaller menu that I usually have. Traditionally, I also used to make broccoli and cheese sauce, mashed rutabagas, a duck, roasted brussels and a non-meat stuffing and non-giblet gravy for the in-laws. The turkeys I cooked this year were also under 10 lbs each. I usually make 22+ lb turkeys and a full size bone in ham. Desert always included pecan, apple and berry pie.

I usually ended up with enough food to feed an entire high school football team or a small third world country. This year the left overs were manageable or close to non-existent. I've really worked hard on getting a reality based notion of how much everyone eats and cooking an appropriate amount.

I made sure all of my meals prior to dinner, were protein based and low cal. I was terrified that I would eat till I was sick. However, once I sat down, I felt in total control. I took about 3 oz of smoked turkey, a tiny slice of ham and the roasted turkey tail (a favorite from childhood, we used to fight over it). I took a teaspoon of stuffing, green bean casserole and butternut squash. Basically, a tiny taste of the carbs I really like. I ate very very slowly, making sure to chew, chew, chew and put my fork down between bites. I concentrated on both my eating and socializing at the same time. I stopped when my new tummy said it was full.

For desert, I had a teaspoon of everything and left half of the lemon and chocolate cake. And then I logged ALL of it.

I was soooo proud of myself. I ended up having 718 cals, 45 carbs, and 69 grams of protein and lost 4 lbs for the week.

I plan on doing the same thing for Christmas dinner. To quote H.A.L.A B., "I can eat or do anything I want to - as long as I am willing to deal with the consequences". So true, so true.