It’s been about a month since I’ve dropped in to update my blog. It’s a busy time of year in Athletics with all the fall and winter sports overlapping with each other as some come to and end and other are beginning.

Nevertheless, I love this time of year. I think Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s can be summed up by these 4 F’s:  Food, family, friends, and football. I can pretty much guarantee that on each of these three days I will be eating great food with friends and family and there will most certainly be football on the TV.

I think it can go without saying, but the holidays can be a very difficult time for someone who’s dieting. I guess I haven’t paid much attention in the past, but it seems like every news report this year talked about how the average Thanksgiving meal has about 3,000 calories in it… Wow! According to the American Council on Exercise, “A 160 lb. person would have to run at a moderate pace for four hours, swim for five hours or walk 30 miles to burn off a 3,000-calorie Thanksgiving Day meal.”

Seeing as how I’ve never done any strenuous exercise after a Thanksgiving meal (and probably consumed more than 3,000 calories at a time as well), the holidays have always been a downfall of mine.

One thing my doctor and I talked about heading into the Thanksgiving break was to have a plan when it comes to eating on Thanksgiving and Christmas. My intention heading to Sulphur Springs for Thanksgiving was to make my own salad I knew I would enjoy so I could eat a larger portion of that instead of a plate-full of dressing. That didn’t happen, though. In the mad rush to finish work at the office, pack, and leave town, preparing a salad did not get checked off the to-do list.

I still had a plan, though. Since I’ve started my diet, I’ve picked up a general knowledge of which foods are higher-calorie than others, so after seeing the spread laid out across 3 different tables, I began making a mental tally of what and how much I could eat.

I definitely stayed away from sweets. Although, that’s not terribly difficult as I’ve never been big on sweets. I did, however, load up on veggies, got a decent portion of turkey, and just a little dressing.

One thing that helped me this Thanksgiving was I had to leave Sulphur Springs right after I ate to come back to College Station for the A&M/Texas football game that evening. While it stunk having to cut family time short, I was able to pull myself away from all the food, which kept me from continuously snacking through the afternoon.

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As far as exercise goes this past month, I haven’t been as consistent as I would have liked. I can make a hundred excuses, but I just haven’t been getting the exercise I need lately. It’s been pretty cold lately, so when I do workout, I typically go run at the Rec Center.

One thing I really like running on a treadmill, my speed, distance, etc. is all laid out right in front of me. This may not be the case for everyone, but this has given me extra motivation to pick up my pace as I run… I’ve been able to knock my mile time down from ~12min/mi to ~10:30/mi.

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All-in-all, I’m happy so far with the holidays. I love seeing family and friends, eating great food, and watching football. All of which I accomplished on Thanksgiving. Christmas and New Year’s will still present their challenges. I imagine they will for the rest of my life… I don’t ever see this being easy.

So for any of y’all reading this that I happen to be around on Christmas, feel free to slap my hand as I reach for that second Sister Schubert’s dinner roll.