Day 15 Spawn of SoDDDY Challenge: The deliciousness of fatty Cobb salad convenience, a few chilly glimpses of eclipse, and amazement at the self-sabotage all around us while I have a full-on rant about holiday food nuttiness....

Anyone watch the eclipse? I used to be a real avid skywatcher (got my first telescope when I was 13 and it was love with the stars/planetss/etc thereafter). I used to stay out all night to watch meteor showers and stay through the duration of eclipses, but in the neighborhood we're in now, I don't feel safe out at night in the yard, so my skywatching is curtailed. I did catch bits of it as I went in and out in the chilly night. Lovely. The full eclipse phase was particularly beautiful with the rusty-dark moon in shadow and all around it the most beautiful stars of winter--Orion, Taurus, Canis Major...  I mean, it was a bejewelled display with that smoky red lunar stone as the centerpiece. I hope you caught some of it.

Yesterday, my calories made it to  1569 (42/36/22 ratio, too much fat). Made the water and then some. Had low hunger until later in the day, when appetite came back.

Holding at 238.0.

I gotta say that I could get addicted to that Ready Pac Cobb Salad I picked up at Publix. What caught my eye as I was shopping for produce was the big 290 (for the calories) on the label. Of course, those calories were heavy on the fat! But man, so tasty. It was a crazy flavor bomb in my mouth. If you're watching fat, stay away. If you're low-carbing, this baby is insanely yummy for about 300 cals and super-duper convenient for take-to-work type lunches (if you have a fridge or cooler to keep them in, I guess).

Speaking of fatty deliciousness: What's with all the cinnamon rolls, cookies, pies, cakes, and assorted crap my blogging compatriots are indulging in? Seriously, reading our challenge leader's post today echoed what was in my own brain.

I'm hardly the epitome of any sort of really self-deprivation type dieting, but the last thing me, a conditioned overeater, should be doing at ANY holiday is baking up a bunch of all-out butter/sugar/carb-bombs to tempt the hell out of everyone around us.

First off: We obese overeaters should never be baking a bunch of crap for us or anybody. It's counter-productive for us and it's not good for them. Trust me. Kids, no matter how active and lean, don't need to eat half a dozen cookies and a slice of cheesecake just cause it's a holiday. What? Do we want them to be fat, too, and struggle like we do?

Second: How many can really avoid the temptation? For real...

Third: Do we wanna addict another generation to eating tons of sweets/treats and connecting those with love/holiness and they get to pig-out seasonally as well?

I understand that there are holiday traditions and they have meanings beyond mere taste. Emotions, nostalgia...bonds.

But I've seen a couple bloggers who are not just baking one junk food item that has meaning (and if it's loaded with butter/oil/sugar/flour/carbs or a combination thereof, yes, it's junk). It's an uberfest of baking and frying. Does any family need dozens and dozens of items that strain the pancreas and fatten the belly?

I know my family feast will have certain traditional items--quite a lot sanely nutritious, with actual protein and fiber and vitamins and minerals and spices and good stuff, and quite a lot that are pure trash in the nutrition/dieting-aid dept. I have no clue as to what specifically most of the guests will bring. I can only be certain of a few things, and what I bring, natch.

So, while  accept that the holiday is usually just ONE day (maybe more, but generally the big feasting falls on ONE day), and it's not a horrible thing to enjoy the special foods on that one day, even enjoy more than one's diet-level caloric allotment (here I differ from some other dieting bloggers, and that's fine, the world is not full of automatons, but individuals) in order to bask in those memories/bonds/emotions; why is it that there is a week or two weeks or three weeks of eating all the accompanying crap?

Are we just looking for that excuse to overeat? "Well, it's the season. Let's have another cookie! Let's break open that pie! Let's fry up some churros and hit it with some cocoa made with butter! Just like grandma used to make!"

I dunno. I do think we just want a reason to go nuts and totally lose logic about what's sane treat-enjoyment. I mean, we got this fat cause we AREN'T sane about food. And this is like this retro-trip back to an all out vacation to the Land of --and this is Beth's term, but it fits, and if you hate cuss words, look away and skip to the next paragraph-- Food Fuckery.

Part of me is worried that I will fall into the FF pit, because everyone around me seems happy to dig the pit and stock it with candy cane spikes.

Um, if you have fat people in your family, stop with the baking already, stop with the frying and overloading fridges and finding ways to show love with food. Can we show love with something else? Cause with little kids getting diabetes, the idea of a month of candy canes, sugar cookies, pumpkin pies, caramel popcorn, chocolate truffles, spice cakes, donuts, funnel cakes, churros, and what-not is like saying, "Yes, die sooner. Fewer Christmasses, but we'll die in a happy sugar-fat haze."

Oh, man, I went overboard. Sorry. I just worry about myself and all the obese--and there are LOTS of them--younger folks in my family. Lots of us are HUGE, HUUUUUUUUUGE, and the pies, cakes, and crap will be on display like a trough to get us into our caskets sooner.

Christmas has a lot more about it, going for it, special about it that doesn't have calories. With our weight issues in the US, it's time to find new, non-fattening ways to say, 'I love you. Merry Christmas."

And if that came across mean, sorry. I'm more distressed and worried than mean. Oh, well.

On to another day of taming the food demons. Make it a great Tuesday, k?