Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks, gather with family, reflect on the year, but most importantly, to be thankful for the copious amounts of food that we consume. Most of us realize that we should be as thankful on Thanksgiving as we are all 365 days of the year, so Thanksgiving is really just an excuse to get together with family and friends and eat some really great comfort food. Now most of us have heard of the five stages of grief right? Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally, acceptance. Post meal emotions after Thanksgiving dinner follow the same train of thought- if you can relate, continue reading.
1) Denial.
This stage hits pretty early during the process of Thanksgiving dinner, if not before we begin eating. I fall victim to the “eyes bigger than stomach” syndrome. We we load our plates with food that we can not possibly finish and we deny that we’re literally biting off more than we can chew.
2) Anger.
When we’re so goddamn full that we sit back in our chairs just as our moms are bringing over dessert. Unsure why we forgot that dessert is an imperative part of the Thanksgiving meal, but now we have to wait until we aren’t about to burst to eat it.
3) Bargaining.
Everyone that didn’t overeat is sitting around us munching on dessert. We begin to think “well maybe HALF a piece of pie won’t make me feel sick” and try to make a deal with ourselves that we aren’t really that full. We can fit some dessert…right? For those with families that drink, this is usually around the time that our uncles have red cheeks and moms are giving us the evil eye- but one more spiked cider isn’t going to kill anyone, is it?
4) Depression.
This usually hits riiiight before naptime. Thinking about the ridiculous amount of calories that were just consumed, how full we are, how we can’t believe how much food we are eating as a nation while there are starving people in the world- you name it, right before that Thanksgiving nap hits, we are sad. Full, but sad.
5) Acceptance.
Whatever. It’s one day out of the year. We can eat and drink whatever we want. Tomorrow is a new day. Time to nap, and forget this entire process until next year as we sit down to overeat, yet again.
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