How Many Days Until Christmas?

Is it just me or do Christmas foods seem to turn up earlier each year? First it was fruit cake and mince pies in the supermarket in mid-October and now the Christmas market has opened in our local town square – on November 11^th! My husband and I walked into the centre of town to do a little light shopping yesterday, and ended up perusing the Christmas market stalls. And at least half of those stalls were for food, with a huge bar in the centre serving hot gluwine (hot mulled wine with added spirits), along with beer and wine. So naturally we ended up having lunch at the stalls.

The first thing which rapidly became obvious was that roasted or Bar-B-Qued meat of one kind or another were the main choices. In theory, not too bad for the celiac about town, but they were all served in bread. And a couple of places I asked didn’t even have paper plates or plastic cutlery so I could have the bratwurst without the bun! However, there were a couple of places which were serving more ethnic foods and this great Bar-B-Q steak joint with delicious fired potatoes with onions and bacon. A fat and calorie black hole but so good!

The second thing we noticed as my husband was sipping his gluwine as we strolled the market is how Christmas seems to bring out the seasonal alcoholic in us. We would normally never have a drink with our lunch, but somehow a hot gluwine just seems appropriate. Then there is the traditional English pairing of various alcohols either in or with Christmas sweets, such as in Christmas cake or the classic of mince pies served with port (like we had on Saturday night). Since Christmas is all about traditions, and in past decades people simply drank more alcohol than we do today, it follows that we will be drinking more over Christmas. Which is fine when the Christmas season is 2 weeks long, but not so much when it is 8 weeks long. No wonder it’s become so easy for people to put on a few pounds over Christmas!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2136.30	88.78g	262.10g	80.27g	0	22.52g
	17%	49%	34%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
10:30	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Scrambled eggs (with a dash of salt, pepper and parsley)	2 eggs
	Bob's Red Mill Pure Oats	40g
	with raisins	20g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
11:00	Black Tea	500mL
13:45	Marinated Pork steak	about 4 oz
	Fried potatoes with onions and bacon	1 cup
	Mushrooms	110g
	in butter	10g
	Sprite	250mL
15:30	Green Tea	250mL
17:00	Sainsbury's Freefrom Mince Pies	2 pies
	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
20:00	Baked chicken breast	55g
	Boiled and mashed sweet potato	175g
	Steamed broccoli	100g
	Colman's Bramley apple sauce	10mL
20:30	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
21:45	Doritos Cool original nacho chips	30g

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.