The challenge of Thanksgiving when you've just lost weight

So I've been regularly attending Weight Watchers meetings the last several Saturdays in an attempt to get back to (and stay around) my goal weight of 185 pounds.

After losing a great deal of body tonnage a couple of years ago and getting down as low as 172, then ballooning back up into the high 190s, I decided that 185 was probably a comfortable target for me.

Well, actually, Terry and I both decided it would be a good target for me. I value her opinion on matters like this, and she knows I can be wishy-washy when it comes to setting health goals. So she chimed in with a quick and firm "185" when I asked her back in September what number I should aim for on the scale.

So 185 it is, then. I finally reached that goal weight a couple of weeks ago. Yay for me.

Now that I'm back to it, I would of course like to stay there. Which isn't really that difficult most of the year but gets a bit harder over the holidays.

Those holidays, as I'm sure you're aware, include Thanksgiving. The idea of Thanksgiving is to show your gratitude for everything you have by eating unhealthy amounts of turkey and stuffing and putting yourself into a food coma. I'm not sure what the connection is there, but that's the way we Americans do it.

Yet I don't want to do it. Eat a lot, that is. I want to stay somewhere near my daily targeted allotment of Weight Watchers points. That's an awfully big challenge when a table full of calorie-laden goodies is staring you in the face and everyone is saying, "Hey, it's Thanksgiving! You don't have to eat so healthy every day. Splurge for once!"

For most people, that's sound logic. But not for me. I no longer splurge. I cannot splurge. I do not have sufficient self-control to indulge one day and shift easily back into calorie cutting the next.

If I give in and eat whatever I want tomorrow, I'll do it again on Friday. And again on Saturday. And probably Sunday. Then I'll just figure, well, I'm not cut out for this Weight Watchers thing so I think I'll just quit and HEY, PASS THE CAKE!

That's how I am. I know myself. And I also know that it's really not that difficult for me to limit my food intake, even when we're talking about Thanksgiving or just a trip to a nice restaurant. All I have to do it try a little and I'm fine.

Yet dinner spreads like the one I'll face tomorrow still scare me. I never want to compare my situation to that of an alcoholic, but it's the same principle: I cannot have just one big meal. There's no such thing as one big meal for me. I must constantly maintain a healthy diet if I want to maintain a healthy body.

So tomorrow I'll have a little turkey, a small scoop of mashed potatoes, some yams and a maybe a bit of stuffing. I'll eat it slowly and allow it to fill me up, and I'll be satisfied.

And Friday morning my pants will still fit and I'll feel great. I won't feel as if I denied myself and will look forward to my Saturday morning weigh-in at Weight Watchers.

A healthy life is a happy life, folks, at least for me.