A Recipe for the New Year - Turkey Soup (aka How to Recover From a Big-Ass Meal)

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This is what you eat after a fabulous steakhouse dinner

You know what makes me crazy? Going to some blog to get a recipe and having to wade through mountains of someone else's bs before getting to the recipe.  So here's the recipe.  My personal mountain of bs follows.

TURKEY SOUP

• 1 pound ground turkey (find the leanest you can get)
• Diced celery (I dunno, a couple of cups? 3 stalks? Whatever makes you happy)
• Diced onion (I dunno, a couple of cups? One onion? I usually use white onions because they're sweeter and they are prettier in soup than red onions)
• Garlic (to taste, maybe a clove or two?)
• 2 big cans of stewed/whole tomatoes
• 1 box of chicken broth (I'm sure you could use beef or vegetable broth - in case you haven't figured it out, there's a lot of improvising/personalization you can do with this recipe)
• 1 regular can of tomato sauce
• 1 can sliced mushrooms (you can't pay me enough to eat these by themselves but they really add to the flavor of the soup)
• 1 little can of tomato paste
• A big squirt or two of ketchup
• A diced green pepper (or two or three, whatever makes you happy)
• A splash of Worcestershire
• A splash of hot sauce (I don't do spicy foods at all but this splash doesn't bother me and really I feel like the soup needs this)
• Seasonings (to taste - cumin, oregano, basil, a bay leaf, whatever makes you happy; me personally I just use a bunch of poultry seasoning)

Brown the turkey with the onions and celery and garlic then dump in the crockpot (note: crockpot liners are the bomb; I still wash the pot after, but cleanup is so much easier with the liner).  Add everything else.  Put on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.  I added black beans for grins and it was lovely - I bet kidney beans would work too. This time I didn't have green peppers on hand and didn't really miss them.  This makes enough soup to feed an army.

OK here's the personal mountain of bs:

I ate too much last night.  It was wonderful!  For the past several years I've spent New Year's Eve at my favorite steakhouse with my besties.  It's a prix fixe five-course menu.  I had:

• Crab cakes (pretty healthy choice)
• Dressing-on-the-side salad (another healthy choice)
• A 10-ounce medium rare filet mignon (not too unhealthy but the butter they melt on top that makes it soooo deliciously naughty)
• Naughty vegetables (this year it was mashed potatoes and asparagus in butter sauce - serving size healthy but offset by the two pieces of buttered sourdough bread)
• Dessert which this year was a turtle pie: Oreo-crusted chocolate ganache layered with pecans and melted chocolate, extra caramel sauce and whipped cream (I got a bit more than halfway through before I gave up in pain - tucked the leftovers into Mama Boops' bag so I wouldn't be tempted by the salty sweet goodness which would then drive me to the See's candy hidden in the freezer

Y'all, I couldn't sleep I was in so much pain.  I stayed up until 2a to give my body a few hours of digestion, but every time I rolled over in bed the contents of my over-full stomach sloshed to a new side and threw me off balance.

Between the food in my system and the water retention brought on by a meal like that I officially weigh +3.2 pounds more than I did yesterday.  And IT WAS WORTH IT!  It was good, I had a great time, I wore a dress I hadn't worn in 17 years (the last time I wore this dress was October 2001 at the Sydney Opera House in Australia where I fell asleep in the third row of a sparsely-attended performance and was mortified because I'm sure the performers could see me with my chin(s) tucked in my chest and my eyes closed not to mention the snoring). And I know how to recover.

In the past I'd think I needed to 'punish' my body for overeating by starving myself.  I'd make it to about 2p and by then I'd be ravenous and would eat everything in sight, I'd be back in physical pain but now with an added layer of mental anguish from failing to fast and, well, you get the idea.

One of the many things I've learned on Weight Watchers® is that an all-or-nothing mentality is not helpful (oh excuse me, they rebranded and are now Wellness that Works® and much as I'd love to be all superior-minded and snarky about that I really can't because this journey is about so much more than weight).  When you can't do whatever at 100% (like fasting for a day after a big meal) the feeling of failure and defeat is demoralizing - so much so that throwing up your hands and walking away from your long-term goals feels like the only option because after all if you can't do whatever at 100% for one freaking day (fasting) how could you possibly ever succeed?

So eff that.  For real.  All-or-nothing sucks because no one is perfect and sustaining that 'all' is, for most mere mortals, just not possible.

I knew I was going to have a big-ass meal (and enjoy it!).  And while I underestimated the ensuing discomfort I know how to recover and counterbalance. These overnight 3.2 pounds will not be gone tomorrow but this time next week they will be gone plus a bit more.

When I've had meals like this, I know my body needs its magic elixir:  water. Water helps move that food through your system, keeps you from getting too cranky, keeps your skin and hair looking fabu, and does wonders for your metabolism. 

I don't always drink water in its natural form.  I'm one of those rebels that counts coffee as water (there's a very rational school of thought that says the caffeine in coffee is a diuretic and therefore deletes water rather than adds it - I say it's still a water-based beverage.  Harumph.). And yesterday I made a crockpot of this delicious soup and put, like, three giant containers of it in the fridge (yes I could also freeze it but my freezer is full of other things like the hidden See's candy and I hate wanting something then having to defrost it because it delays my satisfaction and doesn't taste the same which mitigates my satisfaction which then leads to more eating.  Know thyself!).

So I started my morning with my usual cup of joe.  And for the record, my usual cup of joe is two 8-ounce pods of the strongest brew I can find for 50¢ or less (I usually get a 31¢ pod - this requires a whole separate post) plus a packet of Swiss Miss With Marshmallows.  So yeah my joe is really a mocha java.  And it's delicious. Yes I drink black coffee when I'm out for breakfast and don't have my beloved Swiss Miss.  No I never drink decaf. And for the record McDonald's Americano is amazing.  

I digress.

I left off with starting my day with my morning mocha java.  And believe it or not I eventually got hungry.  How that happens is mystifying given the amount I ate last night, but it happened. So I turned to my turkey soup which - you guessed it - I count as hydration. I threw in some black beans, microwaved a bowl, and I'm happy now.  Still uncomfortable, but happy, hydrated and satisfied.  This will also be my dinner, and maybe even my breakfast tomorrow if I'm still happy eating the same thing so much.

And that is how I recover from a big-ass meal.  I make sure to have lots of liquids and healthy yummy food that is easily ready to shove into my pie-hole. I'll probably take a walk to keep the blood circulating and get some fresh air (the spaniels will join me and like that too - bonus!) but I'm not going to punish myself by trying to starve/fast and I'm for sure not going to do any marathon exercise sweat-fest.

C'mon folks, don't punish yourselves for having a little fun.