Don't Diet on Thanksgiving!

Life is too short to diet on Thanksgiving. I used to try to watch what I ate on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, but not after what I experienced a few years ago. I was a dutiful Weight Watcher, and I attended my weekly meeting on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I listened as our leader Tammy instructed us on how to be “good eaters” on Thanksgiving Day. She explained the points of every typical turkey dinner component. How many points were in a tablespoon of gravy? The pumpkin pie was a no-no unless you scraped the filling off the crust—the crust was about a bazillion points.

I took my notes home and calculated allowed points. What would I eat on Thursday? What would I have to sacrifice? I honestly do not remember what I ate or didn’t eat, but here is what I do remember. The next Tuesday I went back to the group meeting and our leader Tammy was not there. Three weeks in a row—no Tammy. Finally, I asked the substitute instructor where our usual leader was. She grew quiet and then said, “She passed away the day after Thanksgiving.”

It seems that she had had a liver transplant several years before. Unexpectedly, after switching some prescription medication her liver completely quit working the day after Thanksgiving. The doctors could not save her in time to get a new transplant.

Now I know this doesn’t sound compassionate, but the first thing that went through my mind was, “I bet if she had it to do over again she would have eaten the pumpkin pie.”

So I don’t believe in dieting on days of celebration. Thanksgiving is a time to enjoy the blessings that the Lord has given to us—for me that includes mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie.