Keto Cravings

Here in the US, the cravings, I mean holiday season is about to kick into full swing with the arrival of Thanksgiving next week. Or maybe it already hit your house with the baskets of Halloween candy you couldn’t dare not test for safety. You wouldn’t be a good parent if you didn’t protect your children by sampling your favorite ones, right? (My kids are fully aware that Reese’s have the highest likelihood of being laced with poison…but I digress)

We are fortunate that the marquee item on most Thanksgiving tables is a Keto-friendly bird designed by God to render us comatose while a bunch of football players battle it out to see who is more hangry. Not even a presidential pardon will keep most of us from eating turkey on Thanksgiving. And having gone keto, you can now guiltlessly partake of the tender succulent dark meat, rather than relegating your taste buds to the desert wasteland that is the white meat. (I’m sure I’m not the only one whose taken a bite of white meat and wondered how it dissolved into sand after being chewed for a couple seconds.)

So it is not the main course that we fear, but those delicious sides and desserts. In my family, bread rolls made from scratch have always been a tradition and no one can fix a plate without Granny’s mashed potatoes. Maybe for you, the holiday highlights include pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce.

*Another brief aside for cranberry sauce – the natural state of cranberry sauce is to look like the can it was taken out of. It shouldn’t be mashed up and presented in some ornate dish to look as if it was found on a bed of wheatgrass somewhere out in the wild. If anything, the outline of the label on the can should be etched into the gelatinous cylinder still standing upright on a plate. This concludes my opinions on cranberry sauce.*

Whatever your cravings may be, whether holiday-related or common everyday itches, you should take the following options into consideration.

1. Eat the right thing and see if the craving goes away. Tell yourself you’ll consider eating that sugary treat after you’ve had a few bites of bacon, guacamole, dark turkey meat or some other favorite fatty food. You’ll likely find the craving gone.

2. Limit your indulgence. Put a time-box or geographical fence around the splurge. Save the craving for your weekly cheat meal. (Please note that reads meal, not day, or weekend, or week, month & season…Jason looks at the four fingers pointing back at him…try to make it dinner and a dessert once a week.) Also, this is key – don’t bring it into your house. Let the fact that you have to leave the house (and put on pants) be a limiting factor for you.

Or

3. Go full bore and revel in a Bon Jovi-esque Blaze of Glory. Just follow it up with some intense exercise and/or a fast.

I plan on fully committing to giving thanks with my family next Thursday by enjoying whatever’s on the table and to follow it up with a Black Friday fueled with coffee, discount blood-lust, shopping cart acrobatics and little else. Those other shoppers won’t even stand a chance!

I’m thankful for everyone who gives my blog a read, sends a note, submits a comment, or shares it with a friend. Feel free to comment below on your favorite holiday cravings and how you plan to deal with them. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash