The Weigh and the Truth: A Catholic priest on a weight loss journey : Holiday Challenge Day 4

Preparing thanksgiving for 5 people last minute is stressful, so thank you for your patience, as I meant to have a post up this morning. I hope you took yesterday's advice and prepared for the today's feast well.

Overall, I had a fantastic day. I started off by hitting the gym at 7am for some turkey buster spin. I have a friend from the Newman Center that I race. I was spinning on 4 hours of sleep, and after an intense spin and strength class the night before. Thank God for preworkouts!

Killing it at the gym, I raced back home to shower and then say Thanksgiving Mass at 9am. I preached about Jesus' eternal act of thanksgiving to the Father, enabling us to be thankful. We receive the powers to be thankful and to love from God, he is the one who makes it all happen. I urged my community to pray a thanksgiving prayer over their meals, and to be attentive to the command to love when we are tempted to petty division in our family gatherings.

I slaved in the kitchen for the next few hours. For my first complete thanksgiving meal, I think it came out wonderfully. The skin on the turkey was a little burnt, but that was because I wasn't used to a convection oven. It was cooked to perfection inside, though!

Here was the spread:

And here was my plate. I stuck to one plate, with a small portion of extra turkey (needed protein to recover from recent workouts).

Overall I counted the meal as follows:

Turkey 8oz, 347 cal

Turkey Gravy 1/4 cup, 25

Brussels, onions, prosciutto, 1/2 cup, 95

Butternut Squash, 1/4 cup, 52

Olive Oil, 1 tbsp, 120

Sweet Potatoes 1/4 cup, 43

Mashed Potatoes 1/4 cup, 69

Stuffing, 1/2 cup, 209

Cranberry Sauce 1/8 cup, 50

Smoked Gouda 2oz, 140

Crackers, 5, 46

Pumpkin Pie, 1 slice, 323

Cookies, 2, 130

Red Wine, 8oz, 240

Over all total cal for dinner: 1890

average t-day calories consumed: 4500 (according to the Calorie Control Council)

Total for me: 3453

Total cal output (including gym): 2584

I did pretty well today. I may have had some high calorie beverages, but I got enough exercise in to make what I wanted calorie budget wise. I can say that I am truly thankful for Myfitnesspal.

But more importantly, for God, family, friends, and faith!

To you and yours, Happy Thanksgiving!