So that was Christmas! I hope you had fun.
Above all, I hope you got away without too much damage being done. To you; to those around you. You know how it goes when you're a food junky.
Me? Two pounds. Could have done without it, but it's hardly irremediable and I really, truly enjoyed the excellent and tasty food that put it back on me. I'm not going to be a hypocrite and complain, nor am I about to pour down imprecations or fiery coals on my own head. The real test is going to come over the next couple of days since, as of tonight, the celebratory shutters come down and it's back to the punishingly strict regime. Fingers crossed, I don't think it's going to give me a problem, but I'll be watching my step all the way to the scales.
The fact is, and I'm damned proud to be saying this, I cooked - and ate - supremely well across Christmas. It was all good stuff, nothing at all from a food factory, no tins, or packets, no frozen or other processed muck. Just very noticeably more of it than has been my measured and sensible norm lately. Same for you? Or did you manage to stay strictly within limits at all times?
Well, first up Christmas Eve. I cooked a good Gressingham Duck with all the trimmings: it disappeared with gusto and joy. Its sacrifice was not in vain.
There was another big production number for Christmas Lunch: turkey this time, all the usual plus a stunning sautee of brussels sprouts, bacon and chestnuts with a little chilli which was a subtle and nutritious masterpiece. Best Christmas Lunch I've ever cooked. The crab starter was a treat, too. Note, though that there's no mention anywhere of puddings. Skipped them this year. Didn't miss the things. No idea how I could have forced them down in any case.
The left-overs meant we were very well equipped both for sandwiches Christmas night and a wonderful lunch on Boxing Day, always my favourite meal, and this year no exception. And so the feasting rolled on, up to and including some good steaks at lunchtime today, cooked on the new Le Creuset grill that Santa dropped off here. But that's it so far as the gorging goes. No more. It's back to the reality programme.
The thing is, here in the UK, because of the way the public holidays sit, and the attitude of many businesses which impose a mandatory shut-down between Christmas and New Year, many of us get funnelled into a two-week Saturnalia of back to back feasting. Well, I've had me a few turns of the merry-go-round, but I've now said a polite thank you and jumped right off the wheel. Better to jump than to be tied to the bloody thing going round in circles of repeated bad behaviour. Buddha's fat. I got enlightened and decided I didn't want to be fat like Buddha.
Look, even when I was laying down the law to all comers in my wonderfully pompous pre-Christmas blogs, I KNEW that every word was a hostage to (mis-)fortune and that I'd not get away unscathed. I was bound to indulge well, hopefully managing to ignore the really bad stuff, but nonetheless scoffing enough to give my severely straitened system pause for thought. I knew I was bound to put on a bit of festive weight - but, please Lord, only a bit. At first, I thought it might have been four pounds. That really did not please me. After a, let's call it, sensible and comforting adjustment, it became evident that I was actually required to acknowledge a two pound gain. OK, so that's a two pound penalty I have to accept and now dispose of quickly to get me back on track: THERE'S PLENTY MORE WAITING TO BE LOST, and we've no room for backsliders!
I've had my bit of Yuletide fun. Loved every mouthful of it, but am severely chastened that it's just so easy to start unpicking all the good work of recent months. You'd better believe that there's no way on this jumping green sphere that I'm about to unpick any more. The self-indulgent party's over and the usual rigorous rules are back in play, with immediate effect: firstly the powerful Paresh Principle of SDCM - self-discipline, control and motivation, allied to the equally fundamental concept of Eating With Consciousness - being aware of what I'm eating and why, eating well for nutrition and delight, rather than feeding the dark side of my eternally clamouring addictions.
I hope you've survived your Christmas well, fit and healthy and are back determined to burn the fat out of your life in the weeks and months to come. There's no room for dilettante dieting at the Boot Camp. We're signed in to this thing to stop the demons from driving down our lives, and we're here to reassert our individual control over this basic but perverted urge to cram all available food and drink into our mouths and onto our guts.
Do let me know how you've got on over the holidays; I'm fascinated to hear your stories. And let's all get back on plan and watch those pounds melt away day by day till we're hit our targets. Then we'll bloody well stay there, right?
Till the next time, when I'll have tidied up the wrapping paper, paper hats and streamers,
Your old pal, in a very sea-foggy Worthing,
Fred
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