Thanksgiving – the Morning After…I overate but I’m grateful.

So here I am the morning after thanksgiving after. And usually I would be thinking with regret if how much I overate,!how I had planned on avoiding the carbs, how I fell apart when I had worked so hard at building a daily routine and a meal plan to space out my eating and control my hunger. But I didn’t this year. I was truly grateful to get together with family after the whole pandemic kept us apart, or together with masks on at least six feet apart, and for the chance to eat together again

.when we made the choose to move other to NJ when we got married, we knew family would be left behind in Brooklyn. Except for my mom, and I am completely grateful we took the most valuable family member and friend in my life. She lives downstairs on the first floor where my son is now having a sleep over after the long drive back from Thanksgiving dinner at my sister in laws house, about 45 minutes away in Far Rockaway – yes it is far.

I sit here in my meditation/ motivation corner, having just listened to and observed at. Dushanbe meditation track on insight timer, and drinking green tea. Also. Few blueberries for good measure and energy as I had to the gym for 6am. I am grateful they are open today, just N hour after my normal time of 5am. I am so grateful that I can get up at the crack of ridiculous (as my very not so morning person husband calls it.

On Christmas day I know they will be closed, but this year I am going to get some videos, ready, maybe on the Halo app, or just on YouTube, and be prepared to do a work out here in my small corner. I am not going to do it in the living room where I normally would, because my crazy, ridiculous, boring hour wake up people below me and down the hall from me. Here it’s very silent and still. And I probably won’t use weights, maybe resistance bands. See? I am grateful already for the opportunity to work on some thing that I can do at home for Christmas. And it’s all because I have gratefulness in my mind before I even think of tackling some thing.

It’s put me in a new mindset being grateful. There are even health benefits of being grateful. I am completely sure that it lowers my own stress, and I have to go through my life that can often be frustrating, dropping things, always having to skirt things to not trip on them. I can be frustrating, but I am very lucky to be on my feet, and on my crutches, navigating my world.
But this year, with a mindset of gratefulness, I was lucky to indulge for one day, and was very lucky that everything was super delicious to break the non-indulgence spell. Wouldn’t it just suck to break the planning and eating right for some thing that was pretty crappy and didn’t even taste good, but was the only thing available?

My sister-in-law is an amazing baker. It’s something she loves doing and has grown Exponentially over the years in doing. Baking was never one of my fortes, because it is so precise and exact. I’m more of a slow cooker, girl, just throw it in and be forgiving to me please. I can follow a cake mix box, but making anything from scratch or even following a recipe? I usually put things in the wrong order or forget an ingredient. I would not want to throw out the window for some thing that I baked.
She was apologetic at first and letting us know that the apple pie came out tart because she used granny Smith apples. I was super thankful that the apple pie was not too sweet, because I really don’t eat much sugar in my life anymore. It tasted sweet to me. And I was thankful to have a piece of homemade apple pie with family. It was amazing. Even more so, it takes an amazing food photo. That’s one thing that I really love doing is making food art with my photos.

Before I sat at the table, I was sure I was going to be able to avoid sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. But how could I when it looked so amazing and was right in front of me. I had about three servings before I had to call me quick because I was absolutely four.

I loaded up on protein like turkey and ham so my stomach wasn’t completely full of carbohydrates. So that was the smart part of me thinking. But it all went out the window when it was right in front of me. No regrets at all. I’m going to the gym soon. Why would I ever regret having had an amazing night with family and awesome food. I did not drink, but that’s my choice. I don’t really enjoy alcohol anymore and I didn’t feel like I was giving anything up in that area. I can do without it, not having to feel like I was missing out on anything. I don’t really drink to the point where I feel it anyway. A couple of sips at most.

I was also in all of the table, decorations at Thanksgiving dinner. I want to learn how to make this bottle that’s stuffed with battery powered miniature lights. It’s decorated with paint and jewels and decals, and I know I can do it. I am thankful for this idea so I took a photo of it. I’m not much of a Martha Stewart to create things from scratch but I can pretty much follow an idea lol.

Which reminds me. I better get moving. Maybe start one motivation and rock with paint so I can finish it when I get back. This corner makes me creative, too!