Your Diet and the Holiday Season

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[My wife, EnergiGal, and I have an agreement. I spend ginormous amounts of time on the Internet with minimal harassment from her. In return, I grant her the ability to submit an article of her own writing. One example of those articles is below.]

EnergiMom and EnergiSis are coming to visit this Holiday Season. Lazy Man and myself (well mostly myself) are scrambling to get ready. (Editor’s note: What did you expect from Lazy Man?) To make my family feel welcome, I bought the foods that we always had for Christmas. I bought a Danish Ham for Christmas Eve and a turkey breast for Christmas Day. (We usually had a full turkey, but that is too much for the 4 of us). Lazy Man also is getting bagels for Christmas Day Breakfast (Editor’s note: See, I really am helping). I excitedly told Mom and Sis this expecting a wonderful reaction. They replied, “Oh, I don’t eat ham, I don’t eat turkey, and I don’t eat bagels. They are too many calories for my special diet that I am on.” I hit the roof. “WHAT!!!!???” After all that thought and running around, I was on my last nerve with these fad diet people. (Editor’s note: This is an understatement).

A coworker told me about a brunch he was at last weekend. There was a fad dieter in their party who screamed at the waiter because her eggs had yolks and her omelet was made with oil. She was charged the same as if she had the buffet brunch, rather than a price for the small amount of food she ordered. My coworker said that “she made a scene, everyone was staring, and we were all embarrassed.” It wasn’t the waiter’s fault that the buffet didn’t meet her exact specifications. She shouldn’t have been surprised to pay more for a special order.

I must be a magnet for these stories. I was talking my aunt the other day and she was a bar with a group of friends. After looking at the menu of all the pub food, my aunt’s friend says that there’s nothing that she can eat. I know the place well and they have quite a variety of food. Sure a lot of it might not be the most healthy stuff, but they have options like salads and chicken breasts. The most unusual part is that none of this should have been a surprise to my aunt’s friend. It’s fairly obvious that when you are going Joe’s Bar and Grill (a made-up name), what the menu might be.

Lastly, there is myself. Unfortunately I have gained about 15 pounds since we moved to California. I am determined to lose the weight. However, that does not mean I am going to have it affect other people - it shouldn’t. My diet is my issue, not my host’s or the staff at a restaurant that you chose to go to.

If you are a fad dieter here are some ways you can make the holidays less stressful for yourself and your hosts.

1) Take ownership of your diet. If you are going to a party - bring your own healthy food. It is not fair for your host to run around trying to accommodate for each individual person. They have enough to do (shopping, entertaining, cooking and cleaning). Why should they cater to your special requests?
2) The wait-staff at many restaurants are not trained in people with special diets, they are just there earning their 7 bucks an hour. If you find yourself at a restaurant “with nothing to eat”, don’t take it out on the staff. You chose to be there with your friends. suck it up. Order a diet coke or go home, have your friends go to your house next time.
3) If offered unhealthy food - say “no thank you.” Don’t tell people you are dieting. This could start the, “You’re thin!- you don’t have to diet, EAT!” Trust me, you don’t want that! (My secret weapon for that: Tell people you have bad lab values from your doctor and that is why you can’t eat a specific food. It works!)

It is a challenge for dieters to live in the obese world that we do. However we must not take it out on the people around us, or we maybe never be invited back.

(Editor’s note: I’m going to have to talk with Mom and Sis when they get here and find out more about this “diet.” I know they are not vegetarians and turkey and ham are generally pretty healthy foods. I fear this “diet” of theirs may not be healthy - not that I’m an expert. I just want to make sure they’ve seen a professional about it.)

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