Winning the day-after party leftovers battle

Every morning I wake up and think about what my eating game plan is going to be (if I haven’t already decided the night before). Yesterday’s was easy: We did a baked potato bar for Ben’s graduation party on Sunday, so with an abundance of leftovers, I went with the potato diet.

This wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t practiced it in the past. Ordinarily a houseful of party leftovers is a huge temptation. But I’ve been doing a one-day potato diet every couple of weeks or so for quite a while now. While more than one day of eating nothing but baked potatoes gets monotonous, as an occasional eating strategy it provides a nice break from tracking everything I put in my mouth. I like knowing I can eat as much as I want, guilt-free, as long as I stick to potatoes.

A lot of times I’ll allow myself up to a stick of butter for the day as well. It sounds way too decadent for a “diet,” but past research with the scale has proven otherwise. I’m almost always down a pound or two the following day (especially if I’ve been overdoing it lately).

Yesterday I skipped the butter and allowed myself guacamole and shredded lettuce as toppings. But of the six (fairly large) potatoes I had yesterday, four were consumed plain. They were pretty tasty all by themselves.

I didn’t hop on the scale this morning, but the important thing is that I managed to stay out of the party treats all day long. 

For a kid who was once a pretty shy guy, Ben did a great job of conversing with all the many friends and relatives who stopped by his open house on Sunday. (Here he is in the back discussing his future plans with an unidentified guest, near a table of my aunts and uncles on my dad’s side.)

I couldn’t resist introducing my great aunt Doris as “the 90-year-old dancer.” She’s been performing with a Fort Wayne tap-dancing group known as the Alley Kats for 34 years now, which is probably why she’s still so sharp.

I didn’t get to spend much time with my nieces and nephews on Sunday, but it looks like they had fun as usual.