Day 63: You Don't Have To Do The Crime To Do The Time, It's Just Guilt By Association

I am finding myself in a bit of a quandry. There is a subject that has been buzzing around in my thoughts for a couple days. I have puzzled it over and I haven't been able to figure out an answer to it, if there is one. So I decided that it would be the subject of today's post.

I love to cook. I love to try new recipes and come up with my own. This program has kind of helped and inspired me make dishes that are totally PCP-friendly. The slight downside is that I really haven't made a big batch of these recipes because usually I'm the only one eating them. (It's tricky when you're focusing on specific grams of ingredients.)

I also love to feed people. If I host a dinner or have a party, people can expect there to be plenty of food. Unfortunately, much of it isn't the most healthy option. Although my friends don't mind a healthy meal, they much prefer the other dishes that are loaded with all the bad stuff. Desserts, snacks, sodas, and anything laded with salt and sugar will most definitely disappear before the vegetables and fruits.

Some of the people I know are overweight with a few hitting the obese side of body type. They make the effort to go to the gym to exercise and get healthier, but refuse to give up the eating habits that they've grown accustomed to. Some are seeing a little progress (very little), but for the most part the money they pay the gym would probably get better results by flushing it down the toilet. I don't mean to be cruel, but sometimes it's frustrating when I hear them talk about healthy living and immediately roll their eyes if I open my mouth. They give the attitude that all one needs to do to gain health is to have a magic wand waved over them and voilá! They're healthy.

I have no problem making my own food when people get together. I've done it for most of this program whenever I've gone to some outting that it's almost second nature. I just run into the issue of making food for them.

I know if I make healthy stuff, they will do the following: take a small portion, nibble it, tell me it's great, throw the rest of it away, and the remainder will eventually end up in my refrigerator. They will want the unhealthy stuff, they will devour the unhealthy stuff, and they know I make great unhealthy stuff.

But thinking about that situation, I begin to feel like a hypocrit. Here I am living in wellness and yet feeding crap to everyone else. If I don't feed them junk, then they don't eat and that's not something a cook wants to experience. Don't even get me started on regulating portion sizes. I've tried. It doesn't work with them!

A year or so back, a number of people wanted to go on a diet and wanted suggestions. I had a dinner party for them with healthy food in proper portion sizes so they could see what a good plate looked like. Not only did they devour everything on their plates and on the table, they were still hungry and ordered take out to be delivered to my house!

I know that there's no way I can change people and their habits, so that means I'm the one who'll need to adjust. I'm just not sure how to rectify the internal conflicting feelings of making others happy by feeding them the unhealthy foods they love all the while living a different healthy lifestyle myself.

How do I not feel like a hypocrit?