Edible Therapy

Manners and Dieting

What is the etiquette when dining out or with friends when you are on a diet? I have been to dinner parties where I completely cheated on my diet and then had shame following me around all day the next day, and I have been out to dinner when I have ordered well, stuck with the diet, and have felt uncomfortable around everyone else commenting on my "good" behavior. If I order what I really want to eat at the restaurant, I will eat way too much of it because it will be so good. If I don't eat when my friend has prepared a delicious meal for me, I am ungrateful and putting my diet before my friend's feelings. Thoughts? Any ideas on self-control at parties where delicious food that is not on my diet is being served?

Total weight loss to date, despite insane cheating over the weekend: 17 pounds

S'mores! and Diet Update, Vol. VI

When is the last time you had s'mores? Around a campfire when you were a kid? Well, don't forget about them!  We served them for dessert after a recent dinner party for a friend who was moving out of town. Just use wooden skewers to roast your marshmellows over a gas burner, and sandwich them with a few squares of a hershey's chocolate bar between two graham crackers...super easy, and everyone loves a little trip back to childhood via dessert.

Diet update: I must stop cheating. Labor Day weekend was very bad for my diet. We went to a football party on Saturday where I ate rotel and meatballs, then to Chad's parents' house for dinner Sunday night, where I had ribs and peach cobbler, then we had my cousins for dinner Monday night and ate chicken saltimbocca, spaghetti with pesto, and chocolate butter cake for dessert. Very, very bad. It's one thing to cheat and not feel guilty because it is worth the cheat (Chad's mom's homemade peach cobbler was the best I have ever had), but it is quite another thing to cheat for rotel and fritos. The thing about cheating is that it really has to be worth it. So, no more! Unless it's something really good...

Another diet update: I have become a connossieur of fat-free salad dressings. Before I began this diet, I never would have purchased a dressing in a bottle, much less a fat-free dressing! Gross! Now, I eat fat-free dressing with lunch and dinner every day, so I have tried a ton of them. My personal favorites are Kraft Fat Free Caesar Italian and Wish Bone Fat Free Red Wine Vinaigrette. When it comes to fat-free dressings, one should steer clear of anything creamy and go for the "oil"-based varities. I tried Marzetti's fat-free honey mustard, which was terrible. It did not remind me of honey or mustard, and it had a terrible aftertase. I'll make my own, thank you. Honey and mustard are both fat-free, anyway! Also on the not-so-good list are Girard's Fat Free Caesar and Hidden Valley's Fat Free Ranch. Again, creamy and fat-free do not mix.

Total weight Loss: 16 pounds!