We were at a huge outdoor potluck luncheon party which was given in honor of a friend, with a humongous amount of food, including everything under the sun.

It was done buffet style. I walked up and down the long long tables bedecked with a few friendly foods and tons of "unfriendlies".
As I slowly made my way, I could sense how each type of food would feel to my body several hours down the pike. My hand knew what to reach out for and what to leave alone. It was not a painful process. I consulted the 'me' inside that knew what was good for it and what was not.

I used to be very black or white about things, always worrying that if I'd take one crumb of the wrong food it would totally ruin my "A+ average".

I have since learned that it's ok to flow with the situation, within reason, in certain circumstances. And I have also learned what the "trick" is for me. I look at the food and I "feel" if I will soon be craving or if I will still feel steady. I just kind of feel it in my bones, and I "know" if this is an ok food to put in my plate or if it is something I should leave alone.

I ended up having baked fish, two kinds of quiche and salad with olive oil and lemon juice. There was enough protein on my plate, no brown (just some white flour in the quiches) and the salad. The idea of the whites on my plate were once a source of great worry for me. But I now know that if this were very wrong for me to have, I would have ended up delving into the insane desserts that followed.

Result - I'm steady and serene and continuing as usual from there.
No panic, no harm done.
But it really does require an "intimate" relationship with your body - knowing yourself really well, and it is essential to be scrupulously honest with yourself. It's easy to think, ah, a bit of that won't hurt, and to end up fooling yourself into eating something that can derail you.

I find I can trust myself in social situations. For me, it's much harder when I'm home. At home I have to be very vigilant. Even slight deviations can make me unstable.

Sarit