Jewish musings, Wed., Nov. 22

[gazelle18]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.


Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:


Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy




And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[gazelle18]

Hi everyone,
Today’s topic: splurging on holidays.
I used to be annoyed when I’d read weight loss advice when a holiday was approaching. Invariably, the article would suggest ways to navigate the celebration without “getting off track.” This never resonated for me. I always considered holidays like thanksgiving to be food-worry free. I mean, if you are commanded to get drunk on Purim, why shouldn’t a food lover like me feel ok about splurging at the buffet table on a holiday?

How do you feel about this topic?

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Re today's topic: I have been thinking about this very thing, with Thanksgiving happening tomorrow. My family has been making preparations all week. gazelle18, I totally agree that the "advice" about dieting through a holiday is extremely annoying. When there is a special day, for which we make special foods, I want to enjoy them and not feel guilty because I like the work of my/our hands!! Holidays don't mean I have to stuff myself, but a big part of them is the special food. For example, we always make spanakopita, just because we all love it.

Yesterday, DS and I made two pies (lemon chess and pecan). I'm not going to eat both pies (!!); I'm going to have a slice of each, probably a few hours after our Thanksgiving meal.

The diet industry and mentality are widespread, and many people are brainwashed that they are supposed to feel guilty about enjoying their food. I think that is (fill in the bad word).

I am blessed to have plenty of good food with family to share it with; why not enjoy it?

I used to eat until I was stuffed; I am not going to do that. However, I do plan to have whatever I want! Just less of it.

Today, DH is getting home early from work, and we are going to cook our spanakopita, also a homemade green bean casserole with fresh green beans and onions. BTW, google Alton Brown's recipe if you want a treat! There is no comparison between canned stuff and making the casserole from scratch. It's not difficult.

Anyway, I feel happy, and hope you do too.

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[hollygail]

I frankly do not remember a time I felt "guilty" about having eaten something/anything. I never took/take the advice around holiday eating personally. So I may be in the minority here, but that's okay with me. I do pay attention to what's on the table, partially because I don't mix dairy with fleish, but also because I can't eat as much as I used to. I think I've mentioned before that when I started attending Weight Watchers meetings, I learned that a "serving" of meat for women was 2 to 3 ounces. I laughed (to myself, not out loud) because my servings had always been twice that size. So I automatically thought, okay, let's try 3 to 4 ounces. At this point in my life, I am eating 2 to 3 ounces of broiled or grilled boneless skinless chicken breast, and at Thanksgiving, I have the smallest possible piece of thigh and a pretty small slice or two of breast meat. And that's after I've tried all the dairy items on the table that look interesting to me. (Often, that means little or even no mashed potatoes; I really prefer baked to mashed when it comes to spuds). And then dessert time rolls around. I wait a couple of hours to have anything dairy once I've had turkey (or, on other days, chicken). So I ask each person who baked something that looks interesting to me about her/his recipe; I never say I can't have "what you made for two hours." I always make it sound like I'm interested in how the finished product came to be. And that's how I handle the dairy/fleish part of eating.

And I don't overeat. There's no reason to. I know how much will be available as leftovers, and I love leftover Thanksgiving foods as much as on the Thursday of the large get-together.

[louise]

My only goal is not to feel STUFFED. Enjoy it all but not to go beyond that. This is once a year guys! Go for it.

I had a major fiasco making my torte last night. Short story is I was mixing 1 pound of good chocolate + 2 sticks of butter in a glass bowl to finish the melting and the bowl cracked. I was too afraid to risk there might be some glass in the mixture so threw it all out. This did not go so well as the bowl fell apart when I picked it up. And so on. Bottom line is that my nephew is picking up a birthday cake for my brother and we can still use the raspberry sauce. Ugh. Everything else came out well - one can only hope for no further mishaps!