Old Year's Justifications

The holidays are murderous. I can honestly say I tried to hold back on the food and the drink during it, but that restraint didn't stop a few floods. "Friend Christmas" was too much Food and Beer (mostly Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre and 90-minute IPA). Hosting Christmas, Christmas Eve, and cooking for Jessi's family brought a ton of food into the house with a timer attached. Just the meatballs, pasta shells, taco components, deviled eggs, pumpkin pies, etc. that I made was too much. Add what the families made, and tried to pawn off on us to take home, and you have a huge problem. Follow all that up with a NYE binge of Schlitz beer and whiskey and coke (could have at least went diet, dummy) in Chicago with an obvious hangover helper day after, and things can get out of hand.

Most importantly, I made an engagement dinner for Jessi, some stuffed chicken marsala, and that was waiting when we got back. Yep, I set up table, chairs, favorite flowers, learned to fold napkins all fancy, bought new dishes, etc. I kind of put on the ritz for her, but I'll keep the mushy details out of this blog since it's about health and running mostly. Mushy like those 3 Egg Nog shakes I had this winter. Thank you Halo Burger for a great big taste of heaven on earth, and at least an extra pound or two.

I know it sounds bad, but let's put things in perspective. Last year in the late November-December gauntlet, I probably gained 20 pounds. Impossible you say? Not when I gorge on everything. I limited the beer drinking except for two days. I tried to eat the healthy stuff at the dinners while they were live and skipping seconds, despite caving to left-overs later out of necessity. I also did my best to give away dessert whenever possible. It helped that I was able to have my family over again after Christmas for a left-over dinner. I was able to rework some of the food into other foods like a cafeteria lunch lady and make it work. What I could freeze, I did, to stretch the time and not have to eat it within my 3 day "it's safe" window.

All in all, though it sounds like I failed miserably, it's an improvement. Last winter I had to fight to break even in weight for winter. With only a 5 pound gain from the holidays, I'm in a better position to maybe even slim down. I'll divulge those plans later.