June Swayers

[Mochagirl]

We are now in June!!!!!! Good luck to all, x

I know!!!! If all goes well, we'll all be eating real food again by July!

[Mochagirl]

How do you guys manage your meals when you have company? I think I picked a bad month to TTC since I just hosted my Mom here for 4 days, my brother's coming for an overnight visit next week, and my in-laws will be coming for a week right around O time!!! I am not a dieter and they all know that, so I can't pretend I'm just trying to lose weight. I caved and told my mom about the diet since she's my best friend anyway, but there's no way I can tell my brother or in-laws. I'm most worried about the in-law visit since it will be around the time it's most important not to cheat. I'll be able to follow the diet during the day no problem since we always have a very informal lunch, but supper will be the challenge. I've thought about preparing myself a bland dinner while I cook theirs and eat it secretly in the kitchen, then give myself a very small portion at the sit-down meal and just push it around my plate and eat the bare minimum (focusing on the things that aren't bad for the diet). WWYD?

[swish]

That's so hard and has been the worse bit about the diet for me. Can you think of meals that are in the allowed food range, like pasta with tomato sauce or pasta with mushrooms and creme fraiche? Or something you add meat to but just say you're not eating meat because... I've said I've given up meat to improve my skin!!! Any reason will do!!! Hope you work it out

[Mochagirl]

I'm starting to work on a menu now, and I'm coming up with some ideas. I recently discovered salt free chicken broth, so I think I'll make risotto one night - I can make mine in a separate pot and keep the parm low + not add any extra salt then make theirs separately and season it so it's tasty. They'll never know mine is any different than theirs. If I make burgers I thought I could just grill a half chicken breast and eat it on a low sodium bun with low sodium mayo, and since it will be an informal BBQ, maybe no one will notice I'm eating something different (I am eating some protein, by the way, so this isn't a conflict with my diet).

[fourwildones]

Gosh Mocahgirl, I think that would be hard. Perhaps you can push food around on your plate, get up a lot? Dump some out when no one is looking? Then eat lat at night on the foods you can eat.... Of course then people would be worried about your having an eating disorder! But if you do it stealthily enough, you can make it convincing that you ARE eating the food. Or you could say you've been reducing your salt for health reasons as you realized you were consuming too much sodium (you could even say you got a freaky high BP reading at a wal-mart or something), so now all this "regular" food tastes too salty (this is what I have had to do some of the time)-GL!

[Mochagirl]

I think I might able to not eat much without them noticing. I rarely sit for more than 3 minutes at a time at a meal anyway - at least one of my kids always needs something. I can just bring my food with me to the kitchen and dump some of it maybe. What's going to be really hard are the desserts. My in-laws have a sweet tooth and expect lots of baked goodies when they come, so I'll have to do it. It's going to be reallly hard to watch everyone eat the desserts I worked so hard on when I can't have any myself!

[swish]

I also thought you could do lots of starters which you can say you are eating in kitchen whilst preparing main, then portions can be smaller. You could even get away with salad based main with lots of filling starters for guests

[Mochagirl]

Great ideas, ladies! I think if I serve everything family-style and let people help themselves AND I make sure there's lots of girl friendly stuff on the table, they might not notice I'm not eating certain foods. For example, I could make shish kebabs, a big salad and some low sodium bread. I could help myself to some of the veggies from the shish kebabs, salad and bread (buttering mine with unsalted butter), and they'll all be so busy serving themselves and eating that maybe they won't notice me not taking the meat.

[3boys]

CD1 for me, TTC this month.... YAY for June!!!

Mochagirl I understand how you are feeling, my mother honestly thinks I am showing the signs of an eating disorder. She keeps buying me cream cakes to eat at home (which I obviously don't). I've just had to stay in a lot more over the past eight weeks. I've had no dinner party's :-( no trips to the pub/resturants. I feel like a recluse!

[Mochagirl]

3boys - that's why gave in and told my Mom. She was staying with me for 3 nights while DH was in Hong Kong, and I knew she'd notice me not eating - she and I usually eat a lot of treats together when she visits. I didn't tell her how extreme the diet because she would have worried far too much. She's already worried about me and all she knows is that I'm eating a low sodium, low fat, high calcium diet. She made a few comments about how I don't have enough nutrients in my body to function properly. She's being supportive, though because she knows how desperately I want this girl. It's not her fault, of course, but she's the main reason for my GD - she and I are best friends and I can't imagine not having a chance at that sort of relationship with my own daughter.