Today was a great Thanksgiving.

It started this morning at 7am, with our church's annual Thanksgiving flag football game. At first it didn't look like we'd even have enough people to play, but with the holiday and all people were enjoying sleeping in a bit. We finally got started with the game at 8am. It was a lot of fun, we had a good spread of abilities and ages. We had guys ranging from 10 years old on up to 50!

I've never been known for my football abilities, especially since I haven't played for about 20 years. Still, I did better than I expected, mostly thanks to being in better shape than I've been in for a long, long time. I even caught the ball once! Of course, I dropped it a few times. I managed to swipe the flags of a few guys too. In the end, we played for two hours and all agreed we should play more than just once a year.

Then it was onto the dinner, to which I'm happy to say I did not overeat with. I had my usual 2 cups of lettuce with about 3 ounces of turkey on top, with a tablespoon of Hidden Valley Ranch Light. Three deviled eggs were an indulgence, but I think I got away with it. For dessert, I had a piece of the low carb pumpkin pie I talked about yesterday.

In the evening, we went to Skip & Kelly Bertsch's house and visited, while the kids played. We stayed for a few hours, after which we came home and put the kids to bed. Angel and I watched an hour of TV but I ended up so tired that we went to be at 8:30.

I wish all holidays went this smoothly and were this enjoyable.

While you're eating your Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow, just remember, not all is lost. Remember portion control, and take steps to ensure success... tricks like this low carb pumpkin pie recipe!

To give credit where credit is due, I altered the recipe listed on Bella Online. I swapped Brummel & Brown yogurt spread for the butter, and cottage cheese for the heavy cream. This reduced both calories & fat content.

Pie Shell
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3 tbsp flax meal
3/4 cups almond flour (blend almonds in food processor or spice grinder)
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup Splenda
6 tbsp Brummel & Brown yogurt spread (the original recipe used REAL BUTTER!)

Mix dry ingredients first, then add yogurt spread. Blend & spread across pie pan. Bake @ 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
8 servings, 114 calories, 2.5g net carbs, 10g fat, 3g protein, 2g fiber

Filling
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1 tsp Splenda
2 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese

Combine ingredients in blender & blend until cottage cheese is no longer chunks. Pour mixture into pie shell & bake @ 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick returns dry. Serve chilled.

Serving size 1/8 pie, 174.5 calories, 7.5g net carbs, 11.5g fat, 8.5g protein, 4g fiber

For reference, a regular slice of pumpkin pie is 30g of carbs & 229 calories.

No jogging today. As it was, I had to fight to finish the workout, because some brilliant person here at work decided that they should interrupt it. Totally threw me off for the rest of the workout.

Warmup, 3 sets of 5 reps, w/45lb bar
* Overhead Squat
* Squat
* Good Morning
* Barbell Lunge
* Romanian Deadlift
* Bent-Over Row

Workout, first exercise stands alone, other 4 are 2-exercise supersets
* Dynamic Pushup, 3 sets of 6
* Bench Press, 95lbs, 3 sets of 11
* Chin-Up, 3 sets of 1 (ooh)
* Combo Raise, 20lb dumbbells, 2 sets of 10
* Horizontal Lateral Raise, 20lb dumbbells, 2 sets of 10

Today's workout was more difficult than I expected it to be (or remember it to be when I did it before). Then again, I'm lifting heavier weight now. Anyway:

Warmup, Circuit of 30 seconds each exercise, 3 sets
Jumping Jack
Split Jack
Prisoner Squat
Alternating Lunge
Mountain Climber

Workout, Alternating supersets, 2 exercises each
* High Step-Up, 30lb dumbbells, 3 sets of 10
* Romanian Deadlift, 115lbs, 3 sets of 10
* Off-Set Incline Dumbbell Curl, 20lb dumbbells, 3 sets of 10
* Incline Lower Trap Raise, 15lb dumbbells, 3 sets of 10

Afterwards I jogged for 15 minutes in a desperate attempt to thwart the effects of Thanksgiving on Thursday. The old workouts would have worked well with Thanksgiving in the middle, since it was Monday weights, Tuesday cardio, Wednesday weights, Thursday cardio, Friday weights... I'm playing flag football on Thursday. However, the new plan goes Mon/Tue weights, Wed cardio, Thu/Fri weights. I know I'm not supposed to do it this way but I'm going to do Mon/Tue/Wed weights, with Thu cardio with the football, and Fri back into weights. To make up for lost cardio, I did some today. Not sure if that matters.