This is my first guest post, so please welcome Lindsey =) I’m pretty sure the moment we became friends was when we shared mutual and hilarious misfortunes on Twitter. She had poured garlic flax seed into her oatmeal and I had blended the plastic top of my blender into my smoothie and thus, a blogging friendship was born. She’s Canadian, she’s awesome, she’s hilarious (read this), and she has a super down-to-earth attitude about blogging and healthy living. I’ve enlisted her help to provide some realistic advice for eating at parties and maintaining a healthy balance.

Guest Post #1

Hi guys!

My name is Lindsey, and I blog at Happy or Hungry.

Hello, hello!

I am super excited to be guest posting for Dawn, as I’m pretty sure we were both one of each other’s first readers. Dawn’s blog lured me in immediately, and she has also become an awesome blog friend of mine .

If you know me well, you’d probably agree when I say that I pretty much have two moods.

Happy:

And hungry:

I am pretty easy-going and happy most of the time, but if I haven’t eaten in several hours my tummy starts a’rumblin’, and I tend to get all grumpy pants’d and antsy. My next meal is pretty much all I can think about.

If I was ever on Survivor, I’m sure I would be the first person voted off, because my hunger monster would come out with a vengeance and I’d probably be a big jerk to everyone. Or hoard all the crispy rice. And beef jerky (sorry if you are not a Survivor fan, and don’t get those references).

Anyway, I like to eat a lot, is what I am getting at here.

Don’t get me wrong though, living a healthy, active life is very important to me. I just believe that every healthy diet must include indulgences and treats for it to be sustainable. Food is not the enemy! I do not think deprivation works, at least not for me. The moment I deprive myself of something is the moment I want it more.

If you eat a mostly healthy diet, I don’t see what the big deal is about indulging. I eat as healthy as I can in my every day life, so when a treat happens to come my way (or a platter of cookies are hand delivered directly to my desk), I don’t feel guilty for going for it.

Food makes me happy and excited, and I don’t want to change that, or feel like that’s bad. It is a part of me, and I like it.

It is all about balance, my friends.

Here are some tips that I like to keep in mind to keep my diet on track and make me feel better about my eating habits.

Each meal is a clean slate

So you ate a bag of popcorn, a bunch of M&M’s and a piece of cake for lunch. It’s easy to say “Ah well, lunch was crappy so I’ll just eat 40 cookies for dinner and call it a day.”

No. Do not do this. You will feel bad about yourself. Just because one meal was unhealthy (it happens!) doesn’t mean the next one has to be. You will feel MUCH better if you turn your eating around and get your veggies in! Otherwise, when does it end? It’s easy for this to snowball into, “Meh well, I ate junk all week, so there’s no point in even trying to eat healthy this month at all. November 1st, I’ll start eating well again.” Bad news.

Which leads me to my next point…

It’s cool to indulge, but when all you’re doing is indulging, it’s not indulging anymore. (My favourite words of wisdom — Dawn) 

If I am out at a party (bridal/baby showers are a good example of this) where the yummy appetizers are a’plenty and cake and COOKIES are being served, I’m not gonna lie…I stalk the food table and pretty much go to town.

I allow myself to do this because it doesn’t happen all the time. I eat mainly healthily in my day to day life, so I don’t think an eating-heavy weekend is a big deal, unless it happens all the time. Then it becomes your diet, instead of indulging.

Special occasions? Go for it! But when you start eating like every day is Thanksgiving, well that is probably going to be a problem for your pantaloons.

Ask yourself “Is it worth it?”

Some things that don’t even taste good have a ridiculous amount of calories. I read somewhere that you should rate the treat foods you eat out of 10, and if they don’t garner an 8 or a 9, don’t bother eating them.

I do not follow this rule all the time, however, I would rate soft, chewy, homemade chocolate chip cookies about a 12 bagillion, so whenever those are around I eat them up without (too much of) a second thought. The same goes for homemade vanilla birthday cake with buttercream icing. Shortbread cookies with buttercream icing too .

Yeah, these are worth it.

Coffee cake on the other hand? Noooo thank you. Not worth it for me. And sometimes I’ll snag a little tart or bar off a dessert tray, finish it, and be like “That wasn’t even very good…why did I eat that?” Not worth it.

Healthy food doesn’t have to taste like crap

It’s true. It doesn’t. I am a firm believer that any vegetable can be good, it’s all in how it’s prepared (fine, except maybe Brussels sprouts). And what is the big D switching from white bread to whole grain, and from white pasta to whole wheat? The taste difference is barely noticeable, but the health factor is amped up.

Healthy food can be delicious! AND it makes you and your bod feel good. It’s a win-win situation.

Happy eating friends!