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Focus on Family, Not Food This Thanksgiving

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Family before Food this Thanksgiving to Keep on Track

Many people fear putting on a few pounds during the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The trick is to remove the focus on food and put it on family, friends, and fitness.  Here are five tips, a song, and a poem to make this a great, healthy Thanksgiving.

Think Friends and Family Before Food.

Change the focus of Thanksgiving from food to family and friends.  Thanksgiving is a time to catch up with people and tell them how much you love them.  Make memories instead of eating too many marshmallows with your sweet potato pie.  Indeed, you can’t eat if you’re talking with someone.  Focus on the fellowship, slow down, and eat more slowly.  It will allow your food to digest more. 

Here is a case in point. One of my most memorable Thanksgiving memories was the 1974 Dallas/Washington Football Game. We were sitting in our home in New Jersey after Thanksgiving Dinner. My Dad, Big D, a transplanted Texan from Dallas, was sitting in his easy chair distraught. I was pacing back and forth as I would do in a crucial game. In contrast, my great Uncle John, who recently turned 80, sat on the couch snoring after too much turkey.

My Dad and I were up in arms because the Cowboys were down 16-3 late in the third quarter, and Roger Staubach, the Hall of Fame Quarterback, was knocked out of the game. The Cowboys had to win the game to get in the playoffs. In walks the Cowboys’ untested rookie Clint Longley, who, from that date on, became known as the Mad Bomber.

He drove the Cowboys down the field twice and got them within 7 points with only 28 seconds remaining. But the Mad Bomber was not done. What happened next changed the course of the game and made for a memorable Thanksgiving.

Clint reared back and threw a 70-year pass to a wide-open Drew Pearson. He was so wide open because no one thought the Mad Bomber could throw 40 yards, let alone 70. The Touchdown changed the trajectory of the game and made for a hilarious and exciting Thanksgiving

Big D, a crazy Cowboy fan, jumped up in the air with his fist raised high and inadvertently smashed our Longhorn lamp hanging from the ceiling. This sent glass shattering and the Longhorn horns (yes, like Bevo) attached to the light crashing to the ground.

Of course, this promptly woke my Uncle John from his turkey-induced sleep and scared him so much that my Aunt Marie had to take him home. Next, my Dad grabbed me and lifted me in the air as we jumped up and down victoriously. What a memory! 

Exercise to Burn and Earn

One of my annual traditions for Thanksgiving is to work out before the Thanksgiving feast. In recent years, this has been doing the Peloton turkey burn ride that occurs about this year at 9:00 central on Peloton. In prior years, I have done similar things, but like the Cedar Park Turkey trot, the critical thing is to burn and earn the calories you will eat later. Now I’m the way Adam Sandler, but I decided to make a song about just this point, and it’s called Turkey Burn. I’m going to sing it to you here now, but I’ve also included a link to our podcast where you can hear this song performed live with all the lyrics, so here goes nothing;

Turkey burn, turkey burn,
All those calories you need to earn,

Ride your bike for about an hour,
Then hurry up and take a shower,
So you cleaned up and look like a winner,
When you eat your Thanksgiving Dinner.

Turkey burn, turkey burn,
All those calories you need to earn,

When you’re done, you can take a brief rest,
Sit around awhile and talk to your guest,
Then, it is time to get back on your feet,
Take a nice walk, don’t eat another treat.

Turkey burn, turkey burn,
All those calories you need to earn.

Now it is time to help others out,
So you don’t look like a lazy lout,
Wash the dishes before the big game,
With these tips, you won’t be lame.
This Thanksgiving Day!

Track Before You Attack

The best way to lose weight is to track what you eat.  By consciously tracking your food intake, you will better understand portion control and the trigger foods you need to avoid. Engaging in battle, whether in war, a project, or, in this case, Thanksgiving dinner, without a plan, is asking for trouble (and extra pounds. The best thing to do is plan and track what you eat beforehand.

Now, I use Weight Watchers as my tracking mechanism, but you can use something else. The key is to track what you eat and understand your portions.

You can stick to your planned portion size by building a proportion plate.   You can take a paper plate and draw the size of your portions.  You can also use something like a Bento Box with built-in portion sizes.

The rule is always to figure out what you will have before sitting down to Thanksgiving Dinner.  Like a good soldier, never eat without a good plan of attack. This preparation gives you a sense of control and confidence in your choices.

Hydrate and Take the Edge Off Of Your Hunger

Another way to keep your weight down during Thanksgiving is to ensure you’re grazing before the meal. This sounds counterintuitive, but in reality, it makes much sense. If you’re filling up on vegetables and hydrating yourself with water (not high-octane things like alcohol), you’ll have less room for the turkey, the stuffing, the sweet potato pie, the marshmallows, and all the other stuff.

This is an old trick that I’ve done many times. It doesn’t mean you should graze on candy and pie before dinner. It means eating celery without the cream cheese, carrots, and other things, like a relish tray, that will ensure you’ve filled up now but not bloated before dinner. Therefore, you’ll have less room, and you’ll have better portion control.

Be Thankful and Give to Others

The last rule is to focus on thanks and giving instead of eating and the peculiarities of others.  By thinking about others going without, you will be inclined not to overindulge.  Better yet, find a way to serve others through organizations like Mobile Loaves and Fishes.  Here are a few other ways to give and give thanks. 

1.  Show appreciation to your family and friends who help you daily. No person is an Island, and our loved ones help us accomplish the mission God has given us!

2. Be thankful for your vocation. Your vocation gives you exciting, engaging work that, quite frankly, puts Thanksgiving dinner on the table (of course, sometimes it prevents you from eating it).

3. Express thanks for the inheritance you received from those who have led the way. Remember those who have passed, and be thankful for the memories.

4.  Help with the dishes and clean-up.  Others will be thankful for another way to burn calories.

For the ultimate blog on thankfulness and Thanksgiving, read this blog: The Power of Gratitude-The Story of the Thanksgiving Calves

A Poem of Thanksgiving

I want to close with a short poem I wrote for Thanksgiving week.

Better attributes you’ll never find,
Then those of being loving and kind!
Showing God’s smile day by day,
Lightening the load along the way.

In this week of thanks and heart,
All of us must do our part,
To spread good thoughts everywhere,
To show all you really care!

Let’s Celebrate Fathers as Builders!

Don Grier1 Comment

This Father’s Day, I celebrate Dads as builders! I revel in those fathers who built buildings, large families, Turbines, farms, and all of us up to love! Amidst all the tearing down recently in our country, it is time for us Fathers to build up! Here are four examples of Fathers building up.

1.  Building a family with bricks and good earth.  My Father-In-Law, along with his wife, built a loving family of 10 borne on bricks, love, and good Minnesota earth.  The first time I met Cal, he took me to his Raspberry farm to work and to talk about his tractor.   This was the same raspberry patch my wife and her nine siblings learned responsibility each summer.  Later, Cal took me to see the buildings he built as a Union Bricklayer.  As we talked, I appreciated how he built a family, brick by brick, berry by berry.  A man of few words, his example spoke volumes.

2.  Building engines that power cities, civil life, and a family.  My father, Big-D, was a dynamo! Like the turbines that he built at his work, Big-D energized civil life and a family through respect and love.  He was a Union Vice President, a Cub Master, a baseball coach, and president of several civic organizations.  He taught me and the community how to throw a curve ball, build a car for the Pinewood Derby, and negotiate to get what a worker needs and deserves.  Countries are built on civic organizations, not tweets!  Read more here (American Anthem: More Crosswicks less Crosswise ). Dad, along with my mother, taught us how to live, love, and learn in a community. 

3.  Building in the background with humility and hard work.  God is the ultimate father as a builder.  He built heaven and this good earth, which we are called to protect.  And when God selected an earthly father to protect and teach his only Son, he selected St. Joseph.  A quiet, humble man, Joseph patiently taught the Son of Man how to build amongst humanity with his hands and heart.  Joseph stood in the background and let his work show forth through the works of the Son.  Joseph prayed and sent a path for what all good Fathers wish for their Sons; a life that eclipses their own and sets the world aright.

4. Building bridges of love.  My first three examples are no longer walking in physical form with us.  But I know that their example lives on, teaching us to build bridges of love across all humanity.  I see the builder in the young fathers I come in contact with in my work and ministries. Getting up at night to comfort a little one and waking up early each morning to work each day just a little sleep deprived.  And I remember how hard it is to be a builder, cheer as their families grow in love, and serve as an example to all of us that love knows no bounds.   

A Father’s love knows no boundaries.  It builds up instead of tears down.  It builds bridges across humanity and through time!  It is color blind and love rich.  Let’s all be builders in our families and society!

I Don’t Know Everything

Don GrierLeave a comment

“Why did the bird die”,
asked my young daughter,,
the small bird with the fading yellow breast,
near our outside table.

Strange –
I never saw a dead bird in nature
without my cat lurking around
with a smirk on its face.

Why is that?
with the billions of birds that die
every day.

Where do they go?
Do they dissolve into the earth?
Or are the lifted up on the breath
of God.

I digress. So I answerd my daughter.
The birdie was flying home to its family
when it got caught in a storm and flew
into a tree and died.

She looked sadly at me,
much as for my weak answer as he lost bird.

“But why was Goldie,
away from her parents with a storm pressing
and the skies turing grey?”

Boy was I in trouble, now!
She had named the bird.
I should have know better,
with a precocious five-year,
and me not even knowing
where bird bones go.

So, I said that
Goldie was late from her
appointed time home after flitting
around with her friend Rocket Robin.

BIG MISTAKE!
Now she said, “Why did Mr. and Mrs. Chirpy let
Goldie fly to see Rocket when a storm
was coming?”
The parents were now involved.

I did not know what to do
with my wayward story as much as
I did not know where all birds
go when they die.

So I finally got smart,
Or seemingly so, and asked Kate
“What do you think was the reason,
poor Goldie died?”

She answered rightly and without hesitation.
“I don’t know everything!”

Don Grier

The Power of Gratitude-The Story of the Thanksgiving Calves

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Before starting this blog, I would like all my followers to know I have launched a company called Wellness Leadership LLC. If you enjoyed my blogs on this site, please check out, https://wellnessldr.com/ for our service offerings. Also, check out our new podcast, Change Well, available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube. More information is available on Podcast

Numerous studies describe the benefits of practicing thankfulness.  One such study in the Harvard Health Review found that keeping a gratitude journal increased happiness.  Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, have researched gratitude. In one study, they asked all participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on topics.

One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After ten weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation.

I found this to be true in my daily life.  I have kept a gratitude journal over the last seven years.  In addition, I use an app on my phone called HappyFeed to record moments of gratefulness throughout the day.  But one pivotal event in my life will forever cement the power of Thanksgiving.

The event was one of the happiest and saddest in my life. I learned many leadership lessons from my dad -Big D. This story is the last one I learned from Big D and one that I will never forget. It is about the power of being thankful – the ultimate game changer. So, without further to-do, here is the story of the Thanksgiving Calves.

Big D and my mom moved to “The Land” in the late 90s when my Dad retired from Turbocare in Houston. The Land was 30 to 50 acres (depending on how pumped up Dad was feeling that day) in a little town called Slocum in East Texas (population 250). On The Land were a lake (built by my Dad and mom), trees (sycamore, sweet gum), acres of Coastal Grass, and ten extremely overweight cows.

The cows were overweight because my Dad treated them like pets and allowed his grandchildren to feed them early and often. Each cow had a name – Rosie, Susie, Big.

Bertha, etc. – and each was given to a grandchild for a portion of their inheritance.

Dad used to point to a cow and say something like this:

Big D – You see Rosie over there.

Kerri – Yes, that’s my cow! She likes to eat this feed.

Big D – Well, Rosie will have a cow, and that cow will have another cow, which will be for you.

Kerri – Yeah, Grandpop. I love cows.

In the summer of 2002, each of those cows was ready to make the first deposit on the grandchildren’s inheritance. Each was pregnant and set to deliver sometime in November. Unfortunately, Big D was not to see it from here on earth. On November 5, 2002, Big D passed away from a heart attack out near the fence where we would feed the cows. This is the sad part of the story.

Now let’s turn to the story’s happy part and moral. My entire family and I went to The Land for one last Thanksgiving to be with Mom. As we arrived, some light snow had fallen. As we rounded the bend to The Land, we saw two calves just born and starting to walk. The rest of that day and into Thanksgiving Day, nine of the ten calves were born. The only issue was Rosie and her calf belonging to Kerri.

Rosie got extra feed from Kerri and Big D. This was on top of the prodigious coastal grass. Rosie was having trouble birthing her calves. One hour before Thanksgiving dinner, the issue had reached a crisis.

Rosie was mooing loudly and was running around with her half-born calf. Jim from the next farm over had come by to wish us well. He immediately assessed the issue and told my brother and me we had to take Rosie to the vet. Jim went and got his truck and trailer. He also brought our other neighbor, John, another admirer of my dad, and we started to try to corral Rosie into her pen so we could load her into the trailer.

So for the next hour and a half, while the turkey was getting cold, we went up and down The Land, trying to get Rosie into her pen. After many fits and starts (a cow in birth distress is fast and scared), we finally got Rosie behind the plywood gate that passed as our pen.

The next step was filled with hilarity and near tragedy. Before anyone could stop him, my brother Gary got this great idea that he could rope Rosie. Doing his best rendition of John Wayne, he made a makeshift lasso and threw it at her. It did not land correctly but did serve to spook Rosie yet again. I was just outside the pen when the 500-pound cow broke through the plywood gate and straight at me! Let’s say that I moved faster than ever before or since jumping away and landing face down in the mud. Rosie just barely missed me.

Although that last action nearly killed me, it finally tired Rosie out. At 7:00 PM, we finally got Rosie in the trailer. John returned to what was left of his Thanksgiving Dinner after my brother, and I profusely thanked him. Then, Jim and I went to see the vet on call 3o miles away.

On the way to the vet, I secretly prayed that the calf would be all right. Repeatedly, I thought, “Please let the calf be alright,” while Jim and I told stories about Big D and how he would have dealt with Rosie and the calf. I knew he was up there somewhere smiling. We finally got to the vet at about 7:40.

Now, what comes next is fantastic. I had never seen a calf being born; it was a tremendous sight. The vet wrapped a rope around the half-born calf and pulled it. After a few moments that seemed like an eternity, the calf was born – Rosie, Jr. After lying on the ground for a few moments, the calf made its first few steps and was alive. Rosie, although in rough shape at the time, fully recovered.

And at that moment, despite missing Thanksgiving Dinner, I was never more thankful. I was grateful for the gift of the cows from my Dad. I was thankful for the timing and happiness that the calves’ birth gave me and my family. I was grateful for Jim and John, who gave up most of their Thanksgiving to get Rosie to the vet. I was thankful for the gift of new life facilitated by the vet.

Whenever I feel let down or frustrated, I think back to the story of the Thanksgiving calves. And that is a Game Changer. Counting your blessings can change your attitude to one of positivity. It can lift you out of the despair of failure and toward the hope of tomorrow. Here are some thoughts on how to practice an attitude of gratitude.

1. Like Jim and John, who helped to catch Rosie, show appreciation to your family and friends who help you daily. No person is an Island, and our loved ones help us accomplish the mission God has given us!

2. Be thankful for your vocation. Your vocation gives you exciting, engaging work that, quite frankly, puts Thanksgiving dinner on the table (of course, sometimes it prevents you from eating it).

3. Express thanks for the inheritance that was given to you from those who have led the way. Like the Thanksgiving calves that were the inheritance given to my kids from Big D, we all need to remember the people who helped us along the way.

In closing, I would like to share a poem with all of you for this Thanksgiving.

Better attributes you’ll never find,
Then those of being loving and kind!
Showing God’s smile day by day,
Lightening the load along the way.

In this week of thanks and heart,
All of us must do our part,
To spread joy and happiness everywhere,
And to show those around you that you care!

Happy Thanksgiving!