Dinner Party Tonight - I Need Your Advice

[gryczma4]

Hi Everybody,

I need your advice. I started Atkins last week and although it has been hard at the beginning, now I feel great and more confident than ever.
At home, I eat healthy and small portions. But I don't know what to do when I am invited to a dinner party (today and on Friday and more in the future). What should I say to a host? What is a good (and nice) excuse so the host doesn't feel offended or doesn't feel that I am weird. I don't want to hear again "Oh, you don't need a diet, just eat 5 spoons of potatoes", etc. I dread going to this dinner...
Will be grateful for your advice...
Thanks,
Agnes

[atkinsgal08]

How well do you know the host? Can you offer to bring something? If you know them very well, you could say something along the lines of ... I hope you won't be offended if I don't eat everything you're preparing ... I'm watching what I'm eating and I'm not having anything with flour or sugar in it. If you state it as a fact, then there's not really much room for discussion. You don't need to go in to details. A good host might then take it upon him/her self to accommodate you if they can.

One approach would be to eat before you go ... so that you can, in all honesty say, "I'm not really hungry" and then you can take portions of your best choices.

You are under no obligation to tell ANYONE that you're on a "diet". Just as you don't want your host to feel bad, the host is under a greater obligation to make YOU feel comfortable.

Then ... you simply make the best choices that you can. If it means not eating very much, so be it. After all, this party is also about being with people ... and if you're not drawing attention to what you are or aren't eating, no one will pay any attention. Honest ... they're too busy worrying about what's on their plate to care about your plate!

And ... this phrase is always helpful, "No, thank you".

Remember ... just because <insert food here> is on the table, doesn't mean you have to eat it.

What you eat is YOUR choice.

[gryczma4]

I would like to thank you very much for your advice. I will definitely be careful about what I eat. I will let you all know!
Thanks!

[chinadoll]

ALso resist even having someone put the spoonful on your plate because the best of intentions sometimes still lead to an empty fork and extra carbs (although sometimes putting it on the plate and pushing it around does shut them up.