I haven't posted in a week, partly because I've been busy and in a place where the network connection is less than ideal, but mostly because I've fallen apart completely as of last Friday afternoon. We had Happy Hour (as usual) on Friday night, and then a wedding on Saturday (but I didn't think I did that badly; I had a few glasses of wine but otherwise my calories were good), and I'm not sure what happened after that -- I just couldn't get enthused, I guess, and that's no excuse. On the road I did get a salad for lunch, but since I got to Alabamaville I've done very poorly. There was a huge bowl of candy corn, when I thought I was done with that vice for the year. And a bowl of mini candy bars, which were easy to leave alone as long as the candy corn was there, but once the candy corn was decimated I delved into chocolate territory.
Breakfasts don't help. I'm making sure to eat some of the fruit that is offered every morning, but generally speaking, Alabamaville breakfasts are refined carbs and high-fat proteins (otherwise known as "pigs in a blanket", "French toast with bacon," and "banana bread and cheese"). I try to minimize the carbs -- how can anyone EAT this much white flour? -- but it's hard to eat appropriately without being completely rude.
Fortunately(ish), Thanksgiving has not been a huge calorie-fest so far. I'm venting about it here because I can't be rude on Facebook about it. But what is the deal with "dressing" and how can anyone think that it is good? Corn bread crumbled into gritty bits and cooked with fat and celery is not my idea of a Thanksgiving side dish. They should have just left the cornbread alone rather than trying to pass it off as a stuffing substitute. The mashed potatoes were pretty good (but too salty) and the turkey was also good, but the pleasure was lessened because the gravy is yellow and full of crumbled-up hard-boiled eggs, making them something of a minefield for me. Blargh. The green beans were Southern style (heavily salted and cooked beyond recognition) and the corn was oily. The South has apparently missed the "steam your vegetables" memo. The bread was excellent -- Sister Schubert's dinner rolls, and I actually used butter, because it's Thanksgiving, after all -- but I can't gorge on bread without making it obvious that I'm avoiding the homemade side dishes. I hate to be a Scrooge (or the Thanksgiving equivalent), but, seriously, popcorn and jellybeans would have been perfect today.
On this blog I'm supposed to be celebrating the healthy eating successes, not complaining about the wrong food. So, yay, me, I didn't overeat. But it's Thanksgiving, so where's the fun in that? I can diet tomorrow.
There will be pecan pie later. It doesn't taste like Mom's, but I've never met a pecan pie I don't like, so I should have plenty of opportunities to overeat later.
There wasn't any wine with dinner. I forgot that about Thanksgiving -- they always serve it early here, and that means iced tea, not wine. And Daniel and I had brought wine as our contribution, since we can't cook and bring it along for 465 miles. Fail.
I know this is very un-thankful of me. I am thankful for all the things that matter, and at least there's no shortage of food in my life. But Thanksgiving in Alabama always makes me homesick for Thanksgiving in Maryland. (But Thanksgiving in Maryland also means Christmastime in Alabama -- and I like New Year's in Maryland even more than Thanksgiving in Maryland. So I'm pretty much just a whiny, ungrateful person.)
Tomorrow we drive back home (another salad in the car) and then maybe I can get back on the diet and exercise train!
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