How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Has that changed since WLS, and if so, how? What's your plan for enjoying the holiday without overeating this year?

My answer:

Before my band surgery, my husband and I celebrated Thanksgiving with extra helpings of everything. Sometimes that included my mother; sometimes we invited foreign students who work with my husband at the Univ. of TN. Any old excuse to cook too much and eat too much, and then go on overeating the leftovers every day until the last crumb was gone.

Nowadays, Thanksgiving leftovers seem to go on for weeks even though I've scaled the feast down - a roasting chicken instead of a turkey, for example. Turkey (even dark meat) is hard for me to eat, even when it's buried in a pot pie or swimming in soup. I still make chunky homemade cranberry sauce (with chopped oranges & some grated orange rind in it), but since a previous attempt to substitute Splenda for sugar yielded inedible sauce, and I have to be careful with sugar to avoid dumping now, I'm not sure about this year's recipe. Neither of us care for pumpkin pie and I'm lousy at making pie crust anyway, so probably no dessert for us.

This year it will be a quiet day. My mom on Black Friday died 3 years ago, and this semester there are no foreign students on my husband's work crew. And of course, I have to work on Black Friday, though this year my shift doesn't start until 2 pm. 

Jean

 

in dead bird days past, the annual trek was six hours down to my best friends house and having dinner with her family. prior to the band we'd all stuff ourselves until you could practically see the dressing floating around in our eyeballs. (our excuse and still is for my husband is 'ma' is a darned good cook). now a days, i eat on a dessert plate and nibble on the things i won't get stuck on. i miss dressing terribly. it is so good, but the one thing that is certain to do me in. sometimes i can still eat a spoonful, and that's enough to at least get to try it.

my husband claims that i've ruined him though. he eats less now as well even though i'm the one with the band. i use smaller plates on him as well so he eats 2-3 times my portions, but he still can't eat the huge gargantuan platefuls of food any longer, which is good. i'd like to prevent the diabetes if i can.

still up in the air if we're going down there this year. if not, i'll just make a little tiny turkey here. (well as tiny as a turkey can actually be lol)

We are actually going out to eat this year, since it's just us. So, I'll order my plate, eat until I am satisfied and no leftovers!

 

Christmas is what worries me.

I am once again cooking.. this should be the last year at my house and after 40 years I am ready to turn it over to my son's wife!

they close on their house this Friday so Christmas is guess where? lol (fingers crossed)

I will cook the standard items, Turkey, stuffing, potatoes and Veggies. I will limit the sweets to 2 items and a low fat,low sugar item for me.

I eat on a small plate all the time now and since my fill I am eating less so won't be over doing it, I DO NOT want to have a stuck episode like last week.

I have appointment for the Dr on Tuesday the 27th I might just cancel since I am right were I want to be with my band right now.

I celebrate with family at their house. I live in a small apartment so nothing is ever done at my place. I always bring my grandmother's famous pound cake (it's her recipe and I make it). Everything is exactly the same. I just eat less and I love it. The attention I get from those who haven't seen me in a year is a little uncomfortable but after awhile every one forgets how much weight lost and we talk and eat and play games. It's the best.

I host, usually about 20 people. Nothing has changed for me since WLS, I make the same food I always did and in the same way. This year everything is going to be different though, after all the stress of dealing with the devastation of Sandy (we have several friends who lost everything, and just 10 miles away everything is literally gone, washed out into the sea, some of my favorite places are no more and it's so very, very sad) and then the follow up 14 inches of snow from the nor'easter, I am just done in and am having the whole thing catered, I am not cooking one thing.

I have family issues and I'm getting ready to move to Germany.  So, this year, I am doing what I do on years when I am on vacation on Orlando: I'm going to a theme park.  It's either going to be a Disney park or Universal.  It'll be me and my brother.

Normally I host dinner and fix the main foods while my mother brings a fruit salad and a couple of pies while I add another couple. It is very crowded in my house with 9 kids and 10 adults. My house has a lousy lay out so it is hard. This year our daughter wanted to host it in her new home. She will do the turkey, veggies, potatoes, etc. and my mom will bring her usual things. I will fix the rest. The problem is that she wants me there the day before while she works and the kids are home for the day. That way they will stay on task better and I can get things set up. I will have to haul tables, chairs, linens, my good silverware, some serving dishes, and the food I am bringing.

One of the nice things is that my sister and her husband come up from Tenn. (College Grove) and stay with my folks and spend the day with us. I usually see my sister two times a year and she loves to see our grandchildren.

How do I eat now as opposed to before my band? I used to eat enormous quantities, lots of pie, continue eating left overs until they were gone. You know the old stuffing and pie for breakfast thing. Now I eat small quantities and since I won't host it I don't have to deal with leftovers. The problem is that with this sleeve I can only eat such a small amount that I am not sure what I will eat. We'll see. I probably have a sliver of pie later in the afternoon but am sure that will be it for dessert. It seems good not to worry about the after Thanksgiving binge that continued to mid-late January. Whew! No candy making here this year, either.