I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Mine was very quiet and nice, and full of good food and quality time with my parents, because, due to the pandemic, it was just the three of us. Oh, and JJ. Can’t forget about JJ! Here he is licking his lips as my mom bastes the turkey.
I’ve been making good progress in my quest to lose weight, and I refuse to let a food-based holiday derail everything. That’s why I adhere to an annual pledge that puts up some guardrails. It helps me navigate the day, and still allow me to eat whatever I want. Read about the pledge here.
As part of the pledge, I’m supposed to photograph everything I eat as part of my Thanksgiving meal, but I usually end up photographing everything I eat all day, and that’s what I did this year, too – starting with two hard-boiled eggs and a pear, which was my breakfast.
After breakfast, I did my workout: my Sweatin’ to the Oldies 4 DVD. There’s nothing quite like spending part of my turkey day with my pal Richard Simmons!
Yes, that is the Sweatin’ workout that features a gospel choir!
This is a long workout – a solid hour – and afterwards, I showered and dressed and then headed over to my parents’ place. Even though it’s only about a 25-minute drive, I brought along a snack – some baby carrots and a protein shake – so I wouldn’t show up ravenous.
My mom had the meal more or less under control, but I helped out by peeling potatoes and folding our napkins into roses.
Somewhere in there, I ate a bowl of fruit and some cheese to tide me over until dinner, which was going to be around 5pm.
My mom simmers the turkey neck and organs to make a broth that serves as the foundation for gravy, so once the broth was done, I tried a couple pieces of turkey gizzard. Not bad!
When it got closer to dinner time, I made my main contribution to the meal: roasted purple Brussels sprouts, which I roasted on sheet pans with salt, pepper, olive oil, and a few herbs.
We sat down that evening to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner!
Oh, and this was the first year that I carved the turkey! I carved half of it before dinner (one breast, one thigh, one drumstick, and one wing), since the three of us wouldn’t need any more than that, and carved the other half after dinner, for leftovers.
One of the rules of my pledge is that I can take whatever I want, but no seconds, and I violated that rule, but mostly for more vegetables. I loaded up on the green beans and Brussels sprouts, and also another scoop of stuffing, because it was so good. My mom added sausage, apple, and a bunch of fresh herbs to it.
We watched the National Dog Show after dinner, and didn’t have dessert until a little later on, until after we cleaned the kitchen. My mom had made a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie the day before, and I had a small slice of each, with whipped cream.
No seconds on dessert, although I did pick a little bit at the leftovers as we transferred them into leftovers containers.
All in all, the pledge helped provide some structure and guidelines to my day, and I don’t feel like I sacrificed much at all. I also didn’t feel like I had to add a new hole to my belt, either, and that’s the point. I had a great day, and no regrets.
Keep it up, David!
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Keep It Up, David! 
That all looks amazing, but those Brussels Sprouts look insanely good.
Oh, they were!
I love brussels sprouts! Sounds like a great day. Thanks for the report!