Thanksgiving, Blame-Laying

Last month a helpful member of the chapter emailed me a link to an article on ehow.com about “How to Eat Sensibly on Thanksgiving.” The article began by noting that “Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season that makes the majority of the world pursue dieting as their New Year’s resolution” and went on to suggest strategies for restraining one’s appetite. But the helpful member also had a personal comment:

Good information but SENSIBLE AND THANKSGIVING DO NOT GO TOGETHER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree. Thanksgiving is one of a handful of holidays that are traditionally celebrated by eating. A lot.

The word “holiday” is derived, of course, from “holy day.” In biblical times, holy days were marked by sacrifices of sheep and goats. Some were burnt offerings, totally consumed by fire, but others were roasted and eaten. Holy days were and still are feast days.

The word “holiday” has taken on another shade of meaning in modern times: a gap, a break, an absence. When the English go “on holiday” they are really going on what we call a “vacation”: a word related to “vacant,” “vacancy,” and “vacuum.” A painter’s “holiday” is a gap in a coat of paint where the brush skipped. A holiday, therefore, is a break from the daily routine. Everyday rules of conduct do not apply. What happens on vacation stays on vacation.

You might reply that the calories you put on at a holiday feast do not go away when you come back to your daily routine. But those calories are a drop in the bucket. If you doubled your normal dinner intake at Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, and the July Fourth cookout, you would increase your yearly caloric intake by less than one percent. Just a one percent reduction in your intake for the rest of the year would more than make up for it. But would you know how to do that?

If you notice a weight gain at year’s end there may be two reasons that outweigh (literally) your holiday dinners. One is that you didn’t eat sensibly the rest of the year. The other is that as the shorter days and colder weather set in you became less active.

So my advice to you, for what it’s worth free of charge, is that you develop good habits of eating and activity 360 days of the year and reward yourself by enjoying the holidays.