Last updated on April 12th, 2017
I was in neutral in November, both in terms of my weight loss and blogging. Will December be better?
This will be my first holiday season following a low-carb diet. Or any diet other than “eat, drink and be merry!”
Most people expect to pack on a few pounds over the holidays. I made it past Thanksgiving without gaining weight, but Thanksgiving is a single day. You need to watch it for one meal, ducking the bread stuffing and avoiding multiple slices of pie.
I did eat a sliver of my mother’s apple crumb pie. The woman is 84. She won’t be making pies forever.
It was about half the slice I would’ve eaten in the past, but it was enough. I declined taking the left-over pie home.
Even with about 30 grams of carbs in the small serving of Mom’s apple pie, my total net carb count for Thanksgiving was only 69. High for me these days, yes, but not a carb blowout. My total calories for the day came to 1845, a bit below my norm.
Christmas-New Years is a week, minimum, with office parties and get-togethers extending it even further. Indeed, if you pay attention to retail advertising, mass media hype, and the local radio station’s musical programming, Christmas is a whole month. Maybe five weeks. Or maybe six weeks considering that the college football bowl games, which used to have the decency to conclude on New Years night, now extend more than a week into January.
As we all know, eating and drinking are a big part of making merry. That, anyway, is the conventional thinking.
For me, the week between Christmas and New Years was usually spent eating my way through stacks of homemade cookies and other holiday treats. I won’t begin to guess how many carbs I used to eat between Christmas Eve and New Years morning. The week was a sugary, starchy blur.
Well, not this year. I am holding the line this year.
I don’t think the cookies will tempt me. I could eat a few if I wanted to, but I can ignore cookies — even the good ones — without much difficulty. I plan to eat a small dessert on Christmas Eve, and maybe on Christmas Day. Perhaps we will try out a low-carb recipe, and I can eat a larger serving.
Otherwise, it will be meat, shrimp, green vegetables, salad and cheese. Perhaps a glass of wine.
Deviled eggs are another possibility. Nuts for snacks.
That should do it. I think I can celebrate sufficiently on that diet and get to 2012 without gaining back any of the 50+ pounds that I lost in 2011.
As for blogging, I pledge to do more of that in December.
Sorry.
It will be easier for me this year, no way will I touch sugar, wheat, or any carby stuff that might increase the small, dense plaque to develop. As a reader of Dr. Davis’ blog, when he writes about the increase in such plaque so quickly from just one indiscretion, well, it just ain’t worth it.
October – November was a difficult time. Ended up in the ER with chest pressure, then an angiogram, followed by the insertion of a stent, and now I find myself on a damned statin and filled with trepidation as to what kind of “side effect damage” that is causing my body.
Been all over the net, trying to find an answer as to what causes this inflammation build-up initially and the more I read, the more I am doubtful that it is or ever was cholesterol.
So, I will stay away from all that stuff. It also helps that I am not a xtian and don’t observe any of those religious holidays. Always somewhat relieved when January finally gets here. I can only take so much “Silent Night” and “Frosty the Snowman”.