Tuesday, November 3, 2009

And now for something completely different...


FOOD!

Why? Because it's my favorite topic, that's why. LOL!

And to some, Saturday's Halloween festivities marked the beginning of the Festival of Eating, also known as the (dun-dun-dunnn) Holiday Season.

Here's the thing, I do have a whoooole basket of "get over it's" sitting here beside me that I would just /love/ to fling around. I mean, over the next 58-ish days, give or take, (not so much wanting to actually count it out ;) that will take us to the close of 2009, there's a few holidays stashed in there: Veterans day, Thanksgiving (You smart Canadians already had this covered!), C/Hanukkah, Christmas, Tevet (oh wait, it's a fast, doesn't count. ;), and New Years.

So that's 6-10 days of actual celebration days (I know, Hanukkah is 8 days, but really, do you go to a party EVERY night? If you, rock on & have a latke for me!) If you factor in a couple of work/family/friend parties, you're looking at /maybe/ 14 days.

That leaves you with 44 days to relish in your fabulous clean eating/kick butt exercise habits that you've developed over the past 11 months.

Oh wait, you haven't developed those habits? Thinking you're crazy for even thinking of getting a grip on your health /now/, even though the guilt of your forgotten 2009 resolutions is crushing you? You're right - you are crazy...

Crazy brilliant!

You have 44-50 days to focus on adding in a few more veggies per day, slip in incidental exercise like parking further away from the stores during the mad shopping sprees, taking an extra trip to and from the mail box, walk the dog around the block one more time, etc. Taking the baby steps now will keep the January 1st inspiration from jarring your system too much.

Get over your fear of not doing /enough/ and allow yourself to do /something/.

So there, I flung one. I didn't mean to, it just slipped out.

ANYWAY, the real reason for all this is to share a great resource for you for the up coming season, or for any old time that you feel like it.

We all know (or if you don't, I'm going to tell you. LOL!) that planning meals and cooking at home is not only a great way to cut down on expenses, but it's also a fantastic way to get a grip on what you and your family consume. YOU control the ingredients and the calorie/fat content, and the flavor. It's awesome.

The other thing is that, by planning ahead, you have less of the "OMG you mean there's another dinner time tonight?! Didn't we just have one? Guess we get to call Carl, our pizza guy again" and more of the, "TA-DA! Dinner is served!"

OR, if you get invited to a party (or are silly enough to host one) you don't have to search the meager selections of meat/cheese trays at your local deli.

If you're like me, and always want to bring something to a party that seems fancy but really isn't, have I got a linky-poo for you: crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/10/slow-cooker-fall-favorites.html

I fell in love with crockpot365.blogspot.com last year and love that the past few months she's been doing 'best of' posts, with a lot of theme recipes are grouped together. (All of her recipes are also gluten free if that's a concern to you.) There's no nutritional info but most of the recipes are reasonable calorically, and the ones that aren't? well, save those for the 6-10 days, or feel free to "healthify" them to your heart's content... (just don't tell me about it, ok?)

So pull out that Little Dipper you got for Christmas last year and had NO idea what to do with it, whip up a batch of pizza fondue (way tasty, BTW!) and host a game night with your family.

Bon Appetit!


And remember: It's not what you eat & do between Thanksgiving and New Years that's the issue... it's what you eat & do between New Years and Thanksgiving.


1 comment:

Trainer T.s Fitness said...

Thanks for that blog link I just added it!

I love fast and easy and winter is here so I am on board.

As far as the tips on that partay as you said don't forget to add some water with that LONG walk on the parking lot :-)