Thanksgiving: A Day off from a Diet
Experiencing the holiday through the lens of wellness
Today was an interesting Thanksgiving for me. It was my first celebration of this holiday after commencing a strict diet that I have maintained for most of 2018, a diet which made me thirty pounds lighter than I otherwise would have been as I write this. After committing to eating meat and plants only (no breads, starches, pastries, or soda anymore), Thanksgiving was the one exception that I decided I would allow myself this year, and I greatly looked forward to its arrival with every passing day. Finally, as I rose this morning, I was able to loose my self-imposed shackles and engage in free, culinary delight yet again.
While my swim in Dr Pepper and the feast itself sated some long-burning desires, something occurred to me. The reunion of my taste buds with these flavors was not as triumphant as I imagined it would me. I found that what I could previously swallow with ease difficult to finish. The soda and cookies, while sweet, have left me feeling a bit…off balance. Needless to say, I think the diet I adopted has changed me more comprehensively than I previously imagined.
Even as I write this, sipping my fizzy beverage, my mind returns to coffee and tea, both of which I scarcely drank prior to this diet but for which I have since developed quite a liking. Contrary to some of my more dreary fears, this day off has neither shattered my resolve nor sent me back into a bad habit. If anything, it is has confirmed how fundamentally changed I am by my decision to protect my lifelong wellness. In addition to a slim body, I have found new pleasures that, in some ways, exceed my previous loves.
My plan was to last for the rest of the year and reassess my diet for 2019, taking the first week of that year to binge on whatever I liked. I am beginning to second-guess whether or not I will actually enjoy that approach. Perhaps, at the end of it, a light treat but a general resumption of what works and what (apparently) satisfies me is in order.
I guess this means my diet is a smashing success, and if there is anything for which I should be thankful this Thanksgiving, it is that fact: I did not just fix my body; I truly fixed myself
