A Healthy Thanksgiving

I actually lost weight over Thanksgiving -- I am impressed with myself. I ate turkey, gravy, dressing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole at least 3 times. By the 4th go-round Beau had eaten the last of the dressing, so I just had the other stuff. By the 5th (and final) time, it was just turkey and cranberry sauce.

I partially attribute the loss to making healthier versions of most of my favorites, and limiting the number of side dishes. For example, no need to have dressing, rolls and mashed potatoes -- one starchy side was enough. Easier to do, also, since there were just the two of us. The gravy was fat-free. It was appalling to me to consider using canned gravy instead of making my own, but there's really no way to make fat-free gravy. I have to admit, the canned stuff was really yummy. My turkey came out pretty moist already, but the gravy helped to keep it that way.

I used high-fiber, low-cal bread, fat-free, low-sodium broth and Brummel & Brown instead of butter in the dressing. It was otherwise pretty basic and traditional, with celery, garlic, onions and chopped nuts. The cranberry sauce included chopped apples, almonds and mandarin oranges. I made it with Splenda blend. The green bean casserole was the biggest offender -- no way to compromise on those delicious french-fried onions.

Even my pumpkin pie was healthier. I made a crust using high-fiber cereal. In the filling, I used Splenda blend, fat-free evaporated milk, Egg Beaters and maple syrup along with the canned pumpkin and usual spices. And of course I topped it with fat-free whipped topping. For Beau I made a chocolate pudding pie. The crust was made from sugar-free Oreo-like cookies. The pudding was made with Splenda and fat-free half & half. He really loved it, and he wouldn't have held back at all if he didn't think that it was delicious. I don't adore using artificial sweeteners, which is why I do a blend a lot of the time. But since Beau is diabetic and has a huge sweet tooth to boot, it's sometimes a necessity.

I never would've even considered trying to make "holiday food" healthier before. After all, holidays are for splurging! But I can honestly say that I thought everything was absolutely delicious and I didn't feel deprived in the slightest. Sounds odd to me, but it's true.

I did make some not-so-great choices for other meals...barbecue bacon-wrapped shrimp, hamburger and fries, tacos...sigh. But that's OK. Thanks to the band the damage was minimal.

I did miss one of my weight loss goals, which was 90 pounds by November 30. Kinda sad about that, but it's really OK. I'm almost to 90 pounds. I have 11.5 pounds left to go to reach 100 pounds. I don't think it'll happen by Jan 1 as I wanted it to, but it'll be really close. I'm also on the cusp of being overweight vs. obese according to BMI. That's exciting.

I'm going to do this. The band works, I tell you. It works!