so aware of how difficult this time of year can be for people, who for whatever reason, cannot mindless indulge in all the holiday food. my daughter is terribly allergic to red dye. almost all holidays have goodies with red dye. so hard for a 6 year old. we have had tears several time this year.

my husband is spending his first holiday season gluten free. work has been so hard for him. so much stuff he cant touch. its been a real struggle that has resulted in him over eating other things.

yesterday i spent the day at my MILs, cooking and washing dishes so i didnt sit at the table and just eat all day.. like everyone else did.

we need some different holiday traditions. food food food is making us all fat and sick.

Be the change you want to see!!! Come up with your own traditions that don't center around food. Spend some time volentering or something!

before long that will become your "normal" and food is not at the center of it!

good luck!

shannon

we do. everyone around us does not. my MIL is all about food food food. my husbands work is full of grandmothers baking and cooking all year round. my daughter's gymnastic gym gives out candy!

as a culture we need new traditions for the holidays. esp for kids. we do games and movies or new years. we dont even Celebrate xmas... but my husbands whole family does.

more than 25 years ago i went for chemical dependency training in another state. there was a guy there who was a chaplain in an eating disorders unit. he was eating a cup of nuts and seeds for lunch while the rest of the group debated for 20 min where to eat for lunch. he mumbled "they're all food addicts." i laughed, but how true his observation was.

I agree. I hate how food centered all the family gatherings are. And I never noticed it till I got sleeved. Now it sickens me. Tomorrow I leave for the inlaws annual Xmas extravaganza and food orgy. It will last the whole weekend. People sit around eating till they can't breath. Then unbutton their pants and wait till there's enough room to breath and eat again. As soon as the clean up is done from one meal, it's time to start cooking the next.

My wife and I made our own traditions this year. We went for a trail run before even opening presents on Xmas day.

Edited December 26, 201312 yr by Butterthebean

Thanks to my surgery date 12/23/2013, I was able to avoid the family Christmas food fest this year. I bought my presents online and had them shipped to people's addresses early. My daughters moved their celebrating to other in-laws. I was discharged Christmas morning, so the house was pretty quite....just me and my gentleman and my full liquids and my meds. Very peaceful.

I agree. I hate how food centered all the family gatherings are. And I never noticed it till I got sleeved. Now it sickens me. Tomorrow I leave for the inlaws annual Xmas extravaganza and food orgy. It will last the whole weekend. People sit around eating till they can't breath. Then unbutton their pants and wait till there's enough room to breath eat again. As soon as the clean up is done from one meal, it's time to start cooking the next.

My wife and I made our own traditions this year. We went for a trail run before even opening presents on Xmas day.

I'm kind of grateful that we're not at my parents' this year. My father is fond of saying things like, "Food should hurt."

Strangely, my menu was similar but it wasn't at all the same. I had a two pound beef tenderloin; at least one and a half pounds are still in the fridge. Everyone had *a* piece of meat, that's it. A small serving of creamed spinach, and half a gourmet grocery store twice-baked potato. I made exactly three dinner rolls. They'd had light apps around lunchtime.

I was curious to see how everyone would do with this, but you know what? They did fine. Without being in the physical location where food should hurt, everyone in the family ate pretty normal amounts. No one went back for seconds. (They all would have eaten as many rolls as I made so I just didn't make that many; used the frozen ones you pop in the oven.)

It was kind of a revelation to me. Like I said before, every day I learn something new with this.

Butter, I hope you and Mrs. Butter can break away and spend a little time away by yourselves. I know from personal experience how hard this is though...

food orgy. good term butter. honestly, i understand how this evolved in american culture. so many of us came from families that knew hunger, either in the old country or here. or both (like my dad's family) huge feasts were a sign of affluence. and for farmers, a sign that the harvest was good and people could relax for a little while until it was time to get ready for the business of animals being born and fields being tilled again. but most of us eat very well now year round, so it's become unseemly now, yk?

my MIL did put out platters of fruit and fresh veggies with hummus. she's getting better. but the fact that ALL there was for the adults to do was eat.... it seems our traditions have gotten a bit shallow...

We cooked for 20, all the traditional "mustives". I did OK (I do OK if I don't start). Had eggs and sausage at B'fast. And for the dinner had ham , turkey and a chickpea and lentil dish. I went to bed before the Desserts came out.

I was not perfect, by far... over the afternoon had wine, and it hit me HARD... Don't drink often, now, but this one blitzed me. One more learning experience.

..... Butter, I hope you and Mrs. Butter can break away and spend a little time away by yourselves. I know from personal experience how hard this is though...

Thanks so much. We are definitely planning a couple of trail runs. And I'm organizing a touch football game for Saturday night. Trying to get some activity into the weekend.

Mostly I'll just spend my time trying not to let my FIL offend me.