Social Gatherings

For some reason, no one seems to think of bringing healthy options to pot lucks or other social gatherings. I'm not sure why that is. Is that because it's a time for healthy people to indulge? I'm still learning the rules of how the skinny people eat and reason these choices. I indulge if I feel like it, and I've made it a point not to associate it with events, or vacations or other things because for fat people, as soon as there is a justification to indulge, there appears to be a wagon to fall off that's related.

I don't know why that is.

The many times I dieted, I would give myself permission to indulge for (insert excuse), and it almost always lead to me abandoning my diet. This does not appear to be an issue for skinny people. They can associate naughty foods with weddings or vacations or parties, and it does not turn them into food consuming machines.

I think my brain will always need to be wired slightly differently than those folks, and that's okay. I had to press on past many points of no return to break the sensors in my head that tell most people that it's taboo to eat so much that you grow to be the size of a barn. So I'm playing with a different set of rules - that's fine. As long as they work!

We were planning the food for the gathering after the funeral today, and we called around to see what everyone was bringing. I didn't hear any healthy options - no surprise. For healthy options, I'm bringing a salad and veggies and dip, but that's really all I had time for. Everything else we're bringing is just as bad as all the other foods everyone else is bringing.

I did volunteer for the task of grocery shopping, so at least I was able to buy healthy ingredients whenever I was able to. I bought low fat sour cream for the dips, reduced fat feta for the pasta salad (I forgot pasta, so my Mom was stuck using what I had in the house, which was multigrain), etc... I always buy low fat foods when I'm cooking for others. I never used to do that before when I was dieting, but it's just hard for me to buy full fat items...I feel like I'm hurting my guests...although they probably wish I would...LOL

I entertain a lot, and I've found there are not many healthy staples for the pot luck event, so I'm going to make an effort to start thinking of some for the future. I'm thinking turkey keilbasa in a splenda brown sugar sauce, low fat mexican layer dip (easy), etc... There are plenty of options...I should document them!