Thanksgiving Report Part II

On the day of Thanksgiving, I did well, with only slight variation from the WFPBNP (It's too hard to type these initials, so from now on I'm going to refer to it as "the Plan" or "my Plan" or "our Plan.") But I knew the real challenge would be the following Monday (yesterday), because that was the day of the huge Thanksgiving meal that Beverly and I were in charge of.

So here is a description of my plan (not to be confused by my Plan): Eat the various types of typical Thanksgiving foods, with an emphasis on plant-based foods, and keep the portion small. Avoid dessert. Get back on our Plan right after the (second) Thanksgiving dinner.

I give myself a B grade on executing my plan. I ended up failing on two counts:

• Beverly and I were at the table of the woman--Miriam, a good friend and regular travel companion of ours--who made a huge apple pie and bought ice cream to go with it. She was worried that it didn't turn out well and that no one would want it. So I caved. I had a small piece with a dollop of ice cream.
• After the event, we had tons of nuts left over from our centerpiece displays--and I kept eating them. All. Afternoon. And. Evening. The caloric intake of nuts probably didn't exceed 400 calories, and I did have a light, Plan-approved dinner otherwise, but really, I didn't need that many nuts.

The bottom line?

• I gained a 0.6 pound. This tells me that most of my plan going into the day worked.
• I varied only slightly from the Plan, but I don't know what health effects on my heart the small amount of turkey, turnkey gravy, and butter-filled potatoes had. Because I'm doing this for my health and not so much (now) for my weight, I'm actually more concerned about the health effects that the weight effects.

I have come to the conclusion that Suzanne and Andrea have come to: I just don't need a "free day." It's too risky, because it's too hard to get back to our Plan in full force.

As a side note, my current goal is to get my BMI down to 25.0, which for me is 169.6 pounds or less, by Christmas. (A BMI above 25 is considered overweight.) I have only 2 pounds to go. (BTW, I'm already at my "satisfied" goal weight of 175. My "happy" goal weight is the 169.6. And my "thrilled" or "ecstatic" goal is 165 lb, which would be the lowest I've weighed since 1981 and below the weight I had when I graduated from high school.