Thanksgiving Won’t Kill Your Diet
Thanksgiving is for celebrating food, not fearing it.
I love Thanksgiving. I love the celebration of tradition and of traditional foods. I love how this is the one day each year where all the glory belongs to the chef. I love the celebration of abundance for those that have it, and the spirit of sharing with those that don’t. But what I really get annoyed with at this time of year is all those lifestyle segments that talk about how you can survive Thanksgiving without killing your diet. Those segments are so contrary to the spirit of this holiday. Do we really need to run around scared of food on this big day that celebrates it?
It’s not the food that we eat on Thanksgiving that will kill our diets. It’s the food we eat the other 364 days of the year. And if we simply eat consciously all 365 days of the year, if we eat what’s good for us, and eat what we enjoy, but stop eating when we’ve had enough, we won’t need to worry about Thanksgiving killing our diets because we won’t need to be on a diet. I know, easier said than done. But let’s talk about this survival strategy 364 days a year and leave Thanksgiving alone.
Party Poppers (Oops, I Mean Poopers)
A movie without popcorn is just no fun.
The food police were at it again this week. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) decided to tell us that movie theater popcorn is fattening. The calorie content is high in all of the theater popcorns that were tested, although the saturated fat is worse in some because of the type of oil used in the popping.
Okay, let’s all pause for a loud, group, DUH. Why did you think movie theater popcorn was so good and addictive? Why did you think it was so much more interesting than the air popped variety all the diet plans tell us to make at home for a healthy snack? Because of the oil, the butter, and the salt.
Trust me, I know there’s a danger here. I know that if I had access to this popcorn on a daily basis, I would grow a few pants sizes in a month. I love it that much. But I don’t. In fact, we do make a healthy, microwave version of popcorn that needs no fat to pop (although we add a little melted butter for taste and to make the salt stick). And we make that version of popcorn at home quite often because my popcorn addiction has transferred to my daughter Annie.
All that this “new” information from the CSPI accomplishes is to make me feel a little guiltier about something I already knew. But we are going to go see “New Moon” this weekend, and maybe even “This Is It”, and you can bet we’ll be getting our requisite tub of that crunchy, crispy, buttery, salty snack. Because a movie without popcorn, just isn’t right.
Happy Hour By Any Other Name, Is Still Happy Hour
I wonder what nibbles this cocktail will get me.
I had to chuckle after reading a story in yesterday’s “New York Post”. They were reporting on the newest trend to hit New York bars, they call it aperitivo. Instead of merely serving peanuts and fish crackers with cocktails, bars are now offering Italian type nibbles with olives, cheeses, cured meats, and bruschetta. I’m chuckling because this is merely a relabeling of a custom that’s been around, forever.
Let’s see, a few years ago tapas were the rage. Tapas are a tradition from Spanish bars. Then, the Greeks have their own version that’s called meze, small plate snacks that are served in bars for the cost of a drink. So now the Italians are the snack experts with aperitivo.
To be honest, I don’t know if there were charges for the tapas or meze plates. But these trendy, new, free aperitivo snacks come with a price – cocktails that average $12 to $13. Frankly, take me back to the prehistoric days when I worked in NYC. I often made my dinner at happy hours. There were free rumaki, cheese, crackers, veggies, etc. for the cost of a drink that was less than $5 apiece. I didn’t need them to tell me the snacks were imported from another country. All I needed to know was that my meal for the night was covered by the cost of a cocktail.