Here in the U.S., it’s Thanksgiving week.  All around me, I’m hearing a collective intake of breath:  those who eat, those who do not eat, those who eat by rules, and those who eat in disordered patterns — they are all in a panic.

Thanksgiving is feared by anyone who isn’t living in a peaceful relationship with food.  Laden with high-fat, high caloric food, it’s a celebration of abundance that Americans translate into plenty of food.

We could celebrate the abundance of ingenuity, fun, humor, love or… just about anything… but we have translated it into food.  Too funny, when you think about it.  What if we celebrated an abundance of energy and lined the highways, exercising all day?

Hmmmm.

Don’t mind me, my mind just works that way.  As I direct my thoughts towards the past 15 years of my life as I have lost weight (and not refound it), I find myself grateful for many things this Thanksgiving:

1.  I am grateful I did not listen to the medical “experts” who told me I couldn’t do it.  The dirtiest little secret of the medical profession is that their scientific studies show losing weight through dieting returns at a 108% rate and losing+regaining is actually more harmful to health than staying at a current, though high, weight.  Rather than figure out how to actually lose weight and keep it off, they often dissuade patients from losing.  (It feels icky when you realize they make more money when you’re fighting diabetes, cancer and other diseases later anyway.)

2.  I am grateful I got off the diet rollercoaster run by the diet industry who, interestingly, are $$$-driven too.  I am grateful I found value-driven people who supported me as I got out of quick fix mentality.

3.  I am grateful for self-love.  Losing weight permanently takes a lot of love and, since my upbringing didn’t teach me how to love myself, I had to learn.  Nothing is more worth the effort.

4.  I am grateful I don’t have to worry about a particular day of the year.  Or food.  I used to fear the holidays too.  Today, I’m all about the love, baby.  The food is just there.  I enjoy it, but the compulsivity is gone.

5.  A client told me this week she often gives up.  I’m am grateful “giving up” just doesn’t exist for me.  If I don’t stick up for myself by maintaining a great attitude every day, how do I expect others to value me?

6.  I am grateful my body supports me.  I am vital and feel intensely alive.  I have tremendous energy.  I can do things I couldn’t do at age 20.  I’m stronger than ever.  I have excellent health in every single category and avoid all the common drugs prescribed to people my age.  (Nurse to Pat:  “Where is your meds list – I can’t find it.”  Pat to Nurse:  “There isn’t one.”  Nurse to Pat: “Reeeeeaaaaaalllllyyyy?  And how OLD are you?”)   Plus, my body continues to release weight and become more flexible and healthy every day. I plan to live well into my 100s and kick butt all the way.

7.  My fat life was about judgment, bleakness, depression.  I was literally closing in on myself and insulating myself from pain with fat.  I wasn’t ready to face the world.  I am grateful today for my amazing clients, who travel on the path to permanent weight loss with me, and all the opportunity in my life.  It was never about the weight, or the food.  It was about growth.  I am grateful for the opportunity fat gave me to grow myself up.

Happy Thanksgiving!  What will you give thanks for?