WEEK 18: Progress Report

My Thanksgiving food plan went great! I ate just a little bit of everything at dinner, just reaching a pleasant fullness and not feeling deprived at all, and then I had only a slice of cake for dessert. I felt slightly deprived then -- the pies and ice cream looked so good! But the cake filled me back up again, so I wasn't really tempted to have any more dessert. It made for a lovely Thanksgiving, this first year where I didn't feel the need to change into pants with an elastic waistband!

So my food plan was a success, as far as it went... I realize now I failed to plan for the aftermath of Thanksgiving: the leftovers. As is my wont these days, I tried to give away food, but there's still so much left. More food than I would ever think of throwing away, usually, but I'm afraid I'm going to end up eating it all.

It was fine at first; I packed up all the leftover food and stowed it in the fridge. The only items left out on the counter were the leftover rolls and the pumpkin-raisin cake with cream cheese frosting. Unfortunately, bread and cake are two of my biggest weaknesses. Still, I was doing OK when I was still full from dinner. By the end of the evening, when I was starting to feel a little peckish, I combated the urge to eat by pulling out my ARC and Response Cards. I didn't read them, I just set them beside me, glanced at them when I felt like eating, and that stopped me. For a little while. Then I decided that I was hungry, it was a long time since dinner, and one roll with butter wasn't going to hurt anything.

Except then I decided that another slice of cake wouldn't hurt anything either. The truth is, the calories probably weren't a big problem. But going back on my word to myself hurt. And all that sugar hurt; I'm feeling a little queasy from the insulin spike.

So I'm ending a successful day on a note of disappointment and nausea. That cake should go into the garbage right this minute!