So, you know how there's always that person in your workplace who likes to bake? The one who is forever leaving out coffee cakes and brownies she just "whipped up", much to the detriment of your healthy diet? Having celiac disease means that I don't have to deal with that anymore. Ha-HAH says my healthy diet!
Ah, but I have a new dietary nemesis in the form of the incredibly kindhearted, well-meaning Gluten Eating Friend (GEF) who finds gluten free food and BUYS it for me. These foods are usually comprised of ingredients from the following food groups: fats, carbohydrates, and chocolate.
(Isn't that part of the new Food Tetrahedron or whatever the USDA is using now?)
A few weeks ago, I had to put my serious face on and tell a good friend that I needed her to stop bringing me a VERY LARGE chocolate chip gf cookie every time we met up - which was, on average, once a week. I had asked her with my not-serious face a few times prior, but to no avail. This time I firmly explained that while I appreciated the gesture, I was really trying to not eat sweets and that this was stressing me out. (I didn't have the heart to tell her that the cookies also SUCKED. Were from some company that makes them -free of everything, including taste.)
Tonight? Tonight I walked in from the gym only to be presented with a box of chocolate-covered gf cookies before my coat was even off. Another well-meaning person - my neighbor - had picked them up on the way home, just because. (I think it was "just because" she's seen me in varying stages of distress over my recent and very sudden break-up. But that's another post...)
Now I am a gym-goin' girl. I work out, I like it, feels good - but I won't lie: These days I am SO in it for the svelt-ifying effects. Fellow gym kids know: No matter how much you value fitting into your pants, some days it's hard to motivate, to get your spandexed booty to the gym. Well tonight my motivation was having pigged out on delicious, delightful, delovely Babycakes treats this afternoon. I would be embarrassed to share what exactly "pigged out" entails in this case. (Dude. It was a frosted free for all.) I don't know about any of you Babycakes lovers out there, but before every visit I resolve to only buy a couple of things. By the time I schlep all the way there, I think how it's such a pain in the arse to get to that I'll just stock up. And ration myself. Yeah, that's it. I'll only eat a little bit at a time - my stash will last for WEEKS.
(If you've been to Babycakes, you're laughing right now.)
Instead, half the goods were gone before I even got home. Now, with this new gift, my stash had magically been replenished. I willed myself to not even try the new treats, to just give them away at work, or... who was I kidding. The cookies? They were Italian-style sandwich cookies, the kind with two oblong shortbread wafers held together by raspberry preserves with that base then half dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles. Old school Italian bakery-style cookies. Drool. Will spare you the cookie carnage, but needless to say, my spandexed self will be logging extra hours due to those beauties.
The larger issue (hooray, is larger than me!) of gf food gifts from friends remains. How to handle them? I appreciate the love and care, but not the lbs. More importantly, friends often buy unsafe items - things that are only wheat-free or are from places that I know are unsafe from me. To not hurt their feelings, I often say that I just ate and will enjoy them later. Invariably, they later ask how the treats were. To lie and say they were delicious means that I will likely get these treats again. And they are so expensive! Hate to have friends waste money! But if am honest, then I am sure to hurt their feelings. If I eat them, I feel terrible - either because I deviate from my healthy diet or because I get glutened by unsafe goods.
What to do?
No words of wisdom from me - I haven't any. Do you? I just wanted to share, as I imagine other gf people have similar experiences. Please share!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment