Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day at my niece’s house. I was worried about overeating and completely ruining the 4.2-pound weight loss of the past couple of weeks. I went ahead and fasted until lunchtime around 12:30. I had some of everything, but only one plate. I completely abstained from desserts. Since it wasn’t at our house, we were able to drive away from all the food after a few hours.

However…we always have our family Thanksgiving Dinner the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It’s a tradition we started 20 years ago after my divorce so the kids could spend Thanksgiving Day with their dad’s family and with me on Saturday. All these years later, we still do Saturday plus I go with them to have dinner with their dad’s side of the family – even though their dad passed away two years ago.

Tomorrow will be a little tougher because the food will stay at our house. I’m only making half a recipe of cornbread dressing. There will be a wonderful turkey and roasted carrots and green beans. I’m going to try to fill up on those and eat less of the carbs. If it happens, though, it’s just one day.

I went for my annual doctor visit Wednesday. An interesting thing happened. My blood pressure was 128/76. It hasn’t been that low since around 1976 when I was single, childless, and weighed 118 pounds. I’m over the moon happy about this. I’ve had hypertension since I was about 20. I’ve always felt like it was due to generalized anxiety, but the doctors never agreed with that. They all said I “just have hypertension.” Well, whatever. What has changed now is that I’m much more relaxed since I started intermittent fasting. I’ve also found my sweet spot with CBD oil. It takes the edge off the anxiety quite nicely. I do still take two blood pressure medications, but in spite of those my blood pressure has never been below 133/83.

For me, it’s obviously all about keeping a low stress level and eating less. I’m in the obese weight range, so apparently it’s just stress and food. I don’t have a stressful life, but I do tend to have anxiety. I’m working on that too. This positive result has greatly increased my motivation to continue intermittent fasting and WW. Positive, positive results! For this, I am thankful.