A day sans meat

Good Friday, a day to skip the meat.  I’m not really a believer in all the “skipping certain food” rules – as I tend to feel that they’re pretty made up and don’t really bring you closer to whatever is you’re supposed to feel closer to.  But yesterday, in a last ditch effort to keep my toe in the Catholic pool I decided to refrain from meat.  It was a little harder than I thought it would be.  Breakfast was matzoh with butter and cheese -natch.  Lunch a spread of linguini with clam sauce, fried fish and fish francese.  Good god, you’d think we were dying of starvation.  I mean, we really could have had a bit of grilled salmon or something, but instead it’s “Let’s make the fish as unhealthy as possible.”  I enjoyed the meal, but by dinner time I was coming up blank with plans.  Can’t have more pasta (can I?) for dinner.  Decided on a pizza half with pepperoni for Ran and half with black olives for me.  I had no trouble staying away from pepperoni slices – but I felt like a the goodyear blimp afterwards. So much carbs, and cheese and carbs!  Thank god I never tried to go vegetarian, I would end up 300lbs.  I didn’t do much better today, as I was running around NY all day seeing plays and playing with my little cousins.  I had pizza AGAIN – oy.  This time with the pepperoni.

I friggin’ hate holidays.  All the stress and craziness leads to all the eating I shouldn’t be doing.  Tomorrow, I get to have two Easter meals – one with mom, one with dad.  I just hope I can squeeze in a plate of vegetables at some point!  Oh right, I’m tasked with bringing the salad course, so at least I know that will be there.  I just pray no one sticks a plate of antipasto in front of me.  Or even worse (better?) I hope my step dad didn’t make the pizza rustica. Cheese pie with sausage bits floating in a ricotta crust.  I realize it sounds gross, but it’s awesome – especially cold.  And it only gets made once year, so you have to indulge in a slice.

Time for bed, having enough sleep leads to NOT overeating, so sleep is important.

Good luck with your holiday eating.  I don’t want to end up like the good year blimp again.  Maybe this time I will have the grilled salmon.

The Decline of the Office Xmas Party

Perhaps the worst day to have the office holiday party is the Monday after Thanksgiving when everyone is already feeling fat and grumpy.  And, of course, that’s when my office decided to hold the annual Holiday party (gotta remember to be PC here and not just call it a Xmas party).  I have been fighting tooth and nail to get back on track with counting points and tracking all my food (I bite it, I write it) and was absolutely dreading the enormous amounts of food I was going to be up against.

On Monday, I went to work after a weekend of eating with no abandon (hey the reunion was on Wednesday, so once that came and went I started to eat!) and was determined to get back on the wagon yet again.  I ate sensibly all day and then had an hour and a half between a doctor’s appointment and the start of the party.  I was stuck in midtown and ended up going to Moonstruck on 38th and Madison.  Moonstruck is a ridiculously overpriced diner that I used to eat at once in a while in my days at Lord and Taylor.   It was exactly as I remembered it, over priced and kinda crappy food.  I was starving when I got there at 5:30, no doubt because my stomach was used to the holiday weekend eating I had been doing.  I ate some crappy french onion soup and seriously bad zucchini sticks to pass the time.  I finished eating and immediately had this conversation with myself.

Marie 1 “What the hell are you thinking eating this crap?  It wasn’t even GOOD!”

Marie 2 “I don’t know, I’m bored and lonely and uncomfortable sitting in this diner by myself, so I ate”

Marie 1 “After nearly 2 years you still don’t know how to stop this? You’re an idiot.  I bet you’re going to let this ruin your day and your week!”

Marie 2 “Hmmm, you’re right.  I am an idiot.  But wait, I don’t need to let this ruin my day OR my week”

So, I went to the party.  I decided to walk the ten block there as a bit of a punishment for my feast at Moonstruck.  When I arrived at the party I saw some appetizers going around, but really nothing that tempted me.  I decided not to have any.  Thankfully, the appetizers were scarce (possibly, a sign of the economy??) so it was easy to say no.  I had a few sips of a mimosa, but decided it wasn’t worth it and ditched it for a diet coke.  So far, Marie 2, Holiday party 0.

Then the buffet.  Alright, I had some prime rib which was really delicious, a piece of chicken and salad.  That was it.  The buffet was pretty limited (read: no pasta) so again, easy to steer clear of it.  Then, THEN, the dessert.  OR lack thereof.  I mean, what the hell?  No friggin dessert?  What kinda party is this??

I stuck around just long enough to see that the “dessert” was cookies.  Cookies.  No tiramisu, no chocolate fondue fountain, no fruit!  NOTHING.  Just cookies.  I had one.  It was good.  Then, I left.  It was really lame.

Oh and I didn’t even tell you about the Lady Bunny look-a-like that showed up and the gay guy who attended the party with no shirt on and 6 inch heels.  It was really a sight.  The conservative finance guys were freaking out!

I said to my co-worker that I thought it was lame that we had such a stingy, tacky party and I would have preferred that they didn’t even have the party.  But then I thought, this was really great that it wasn’t a food overdose.  I was able to eat more sensibly than I have before at a party like that and I left not feeling like a fatty.  Maybe this shitty economy is going to help me lose more weight!

And, I didn’t let it unravel my day or week.  I’ve counted ALL my points this week!  So take that “Marie 1″.

Weighing in on Monday…

Are your stretchy pants too tight?

Today is Thanksgiving. A day of thanks and eating ridiculous amounts of food to prove to the world that here in the United States we can afford to eat ourselves into oblivion! Everyone dons their favorite stretchy pants for the occasion so that they can eat and eat and never feel the sting of pants getting snug, or buttons that need to be popped.

Think about this for a minute.

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This is disgusting. Am I right?

An old WW leader of mine used to say that his mom made the most amazing Thanksgiving stuffing muffins (I have no idea what they are but they sound amazing) and that every year on the big day he would gorge himself on them. As a means of avoiding this toxic behavior he finally learned to have his mother make them a few times a year – rather than once a year – so that they were no longer a “treat”, no longer something you must eat before it disappears for another 365 days. I always thought this was a tricky maneuver because I would think that if they were available to you MORE often you’d eat more.

Today I’m wearing jeans (not stretchy pants) and trying to pace myself throughout the day. All I’ve had so far is 3 Hershey Kisses and half a plate of ziti. We are about to sit down to some antipasto, which is my favorite part of any holiday meal.

I’m going to be thankful that I have food to eat, family to laugh with and that I have the awareness to take it easy today and stop eating when I’m full. Of course, that’s half the battle.

Have a great day today! Enjoy the food and drink and company, and, as always, thank you for reading.