'Tis the season

at 8:50 AM

I went to HEB yesterday to get some groceries for the dinner on Christmas night. What a mad house! People were pushing and shoving, rude and in a crazy hurry which pretty much puts everyone in the Christmas spirit. I was asking myself, is it Thanksgiving all over again? Why is everyone buying SO MUCH? Are we going to run out of food? Why turkey, stuffing and pie all over again? Don't we have an obesity epidemic and aren't millions of people either diabetic or pre-diabetic (which is a euphemism for...'I am diabetic, but don't really care!'- now pass the mashed potatoes). Are we actually celebrating Christ's birth or simply spending too much, eating too much and being lavish?

In my family, our tradition is not to have a tradition. And by that I mean we experiment with different types of meat and veggies, and there is something different for dinner every year. This year, I'm grilling fish and making a big salad with mixed greens, olives, almond slices, cucumbers and crab apple slices. We are also having steamed broccoli and brussell sprouts. We do have some wine before and during dinner but NO APPETIZERS. The reason appetizers are named as such is that most times they are purely made from refined carbs that will make you hungry for more refined carbs!

If anyone is hungry they can grab a piece of fruit before dinner. You may wonder, fruit with wine? Well, why not? Your taste buds can get used to anything. We have had crackers (refined carbs-aka bad carbs) and cheese or those little sausages cooked and wrapped in partially hydrogenated soybean oil, or palm oil for so long that we can't fathom fruit with our dry wine. Well, for your information, they go very well together. Look, you can't be lean and have your cake too.

And while I am on the subject of being frustrated with the American diet, let me just tell you that those thin crackers that are 'low-fat' and multi-grain will only make you fatter and there is nothing healthy about them, unless you have one! Who can have one and only one? Bread sticks in a restaurant? Same story, they are nothing but refined carbs and that will cause an insulin spike in your system which is the fastest and most efficient way to store fat!!

So 'tis the season to choose! What are you willing to give up for the thinner, leaner body?