rheanna

JohnR41,

auntjudyg has some excellent suggestions.

And you, John, have shown in your helpful posts here that you have an excellent grasp of food categories and portion sizes.

I am going to take the audacious liberty of changing the focus of your question (which means, of course, that you are free to ignore my audaciousness!). I have a few suggestions.

First, if your circumstances allow, bring a dish to share with lots of veggies and lots of flavor, but with little fat. You will know then that you will have at least one "sensible" dish you can eat.

Second, think of this as just another dinner. Really, it is. We are primed for a month beforehand to anticipate a feeding frenzy when everything is placed on the table, which makes it hard to ignore when we are in the middle of it. But another important part of the holiday festivities is getting together with other folks (hopefully ones we love and get along with, but, well, we don't always have a choice of who our family members are.) At this get-together, we have the opportunity to learn more about the folks in attendance, or watch a football game, or play charades, or whatever the other activities are. Concentrate on those other actitivies rather than on the food.

This might mean eating a healthy meal before you arrive so that you are not ravenously hungry. It might mean surveying the table and looking first for the veggies, and filling your plate with those, and then small portions of a few other things that might look like they vaguely fill those other food groups.

Eat slowly so that you are still going through your first plate while everyone else is on thirds.

Talk a lot. Ask other people questions so that they are so busy talking that they don't notice that you are eating slowly.

When the bowl of cheesy flippy snacky thingies is passed during the football game, say thanks and simply pass it on to the next person. Then shout out something rah-rah and footbally to get the crowd focusing on the game.

This is pretty much what I'm going to do, except for the football (we'll be traveling from Germany to England for the weekend, so American football isn't going to reach that far). Yes, I will probably eat more than I would in a normal meal at home. But I won't be eating nearly as much as I used to years ago. In fact, thank you so much for raising this question -- It's a reminder to me that this holiday is more about getting together with beloved friends than about stuffing myself into pain.

So my question for you is -- what does Thanksgiving mean to you?

--Rheanna