Thankful For Family, Friends and Traditions

We're back home from Thanksgiving vacation at my mom's home in Tennessee. In all, we spent two days on the road and three days at my mom's.

For my eating plan, the two days on the road weren't difficult at all. The three days at mom's, however, were challenging.

I'm on day fourteen of the 21 Day Sugar Detox. During the days at mom's, I stayed on course with the plan approximately 75% of the time. I did indulge in that chocolate pie of my mom's a couple of times, and I wasn't able to examine ingredient lists of some things or know how everything was prepared.

Last night, the last dinner we had there, I took over cooking duty. I made pork chops simmered in pinto beans and tomatoes, and mashed potatoes. I was able to control that meal a little better.

I haven't thought much about this in a while, but it's no wonder I'm usually such a carb junkie. Every single meal in my mom's house contains a large percentage of bread. Breakfast always includes biscuits and some kind of sweat sauce (jam, preserves, gravy, etc.). For dinner, some kind of biscuit or rolls are a staple, as well as something like breaded meat and/or dressing. Lunch, of course is some type of sandwich or leftovers. That's the way I grew up eating. Most of our meals were home-cooked, but we didn't realize how harmful the excessive amount of bread and sugar-loaded sides we consumed was.

While I was there, I was able to abstain from the bread at my meals and stick with the meat and vegetables, but the effort I had to put forth to be intentional with it really opened my eyes to how much processed grains and sugar my family consumes as part of their normal diet. I'm thankful I was knee-deep in the 21 Day Sugar Detox while I was there. Even though I didn't follow it perfectly, it served its purpose of keeping me from coming home miserable.

My mom and her husband own a Christmas tree farm on their property at their home. Our family tradition is for us to travel there for Thanksgiving and help with their opening weekend that week. It's a very active "vacation." Their tree farm has become a destination and family tradition for so many local families. It's heart-warming to be involved in all the positive, festive energy. And the weather was beautiful each day we were there.

It was really nice to be able to spend some time with my sister. She and her family live about a mile from my mom's house, and she's always a huge part of the farm's opening weekend. You may have read in an earlier post that she's battling breast cancer. She's been through 12 weeks of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and is currently receiving another 12 weeks of chemo, which will be followed by radiation. Thankfully, her treatment so far has been successful and hasn't run her down very much. She looks great and has her typical upbeat, always-smiling attitude. We all feel blessed for that and pray for continued success in her fight of this terrible disease.

I was also able to catch up with one of my lifelong friends. Beth and I were friends in high school in Kingsport, TN. She now lives in the Nashville area, and I live in Michigan. We usually meet up while we're both in town for Thanksgiving.

I truly am blessed with close family and friends who love and support each other. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend as well.