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Healthy socialization can sometimes seem like a total oxymoron.
When your focus is quality food, quality sleep and quality training, going out for dinner, drinks, dancing or a night of total debauchery loses its appeal. A few hours of drinking too much or eating the wrong foods inevitably leads to a hangover or a food coma with effects that last for days.
Compounding the problem, for me, is the fact that I’ve never actually enjoyed the debauchery! In high school I used my parents as the “bad guys.” I’d tell all my friends that I had an early curfew, when the truth was that I didn’t have a curfew — my parents actually encouraged me to go out more. On the rare occasions that I’d get strong-armed into making an appearance at a party, my poor mother had the duty of calling or, better yet, just showing up at 9pm to drag me away. “Sorry guys, my parents are super-strict,” I’d grumble with a flip of my hair and roll of my eyes, feigning disappointment when, really, I couldn’t wait to get home and watch “Xena: Warrior Princess” with my dad.
Even in college, I purposely scheduled early Friday morning classes so I’d have an excuse to skip out on drinking Thursday night. I dreaded Saturday nights because I knew it would mess up my plans for 9am yoga on Sunday. (Question: Do Manhattanites ever go out on Fridays?) For the most part, nothing has changed; the best part of starting work at 5am each morning is that I can use my job as the “bad guy,” at least during the week.
I’m lame — trust me, I know this.
But please believe that I’m not anti-social. I love people. I love my friends. I want to spend time with them. I just really don’t want to mess up my nutrition or wreck myself for, well, life.
Neghar wrote a great post a while back on “active interaction.” She shares advice on how to shift the focus of socialization away from food and onto activities that you can share with friends. Instead of gabbing over a bottle of wine and appetizers, chat away over a long walk. Take a yoga class. Train together. The possibilities really are endless.
But they’re not always realistic. Food, at least for me, is as much about connections with culture and people — the celebratory, unifying act of “breaking bread” — as it is about fueling my body. That’s not something I would want to ever give up. And what happens when you have friends who don’t want to make the shift to socializing without food and alcohol? There are some people who are just as averse to working out for fun as I am to attending a raging party.
Over the weekend, I was introduced to a new (to me) concept that might be a happy middle-ground: a “healthy” dinner party that takes the onus off the host.
Dinner parties are one of my favorite non-active activities with friends because 1) we get to spend quality time together while 2) I get to cook food that doesn’t compromise our health and fitness goals. The problem with dinner parties is that the host or hostess may end up spending more time prepping, cooking and cleaning than actually enjoying the company of friends.
That’s where Sarah Waybright of Why Food Works comes in. Sarah is a registered dietitian here in D.C. who I met through work for an article on “healthy entertaining” that I’m writing.
Instead of doing nutrition counseling or clinical services, Sarah offers dinner parties that combine entertaining cooking demos and nutritional education — culinary “edu-tainment,” if you will. Frankly, it’s like having a Food Network show going on in your own home.
Sarah does all the prep and cooking, freeing up the host/hostess to relax and enjoy the party, and in the end everyone sits down to enjoy a delicious meal — including dessert and wine — that won’t leave them feeling sick, overfull, bloated or guilty.
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I had the pleasure of crashing attending one of these parties Sunday night as research for my story (which I’ll share separately in a few weeks). In all honesty, I was a little nervous because I have some particular dietary preferences that don’t always jive with conventional nutrition advice. But Sarah’s approach was a pleasant surprise — she focuses on protein, fruits and vegetables, and portion sizes that can be tailored to each person’s needs. Pretty paleo friendly, right?
She also hammered home the importance of eating a variety of fats. When she sang the praises of coconut oil — and incorporated it into her grain-free (!) dessert — I knew this was a girl after my own heart.
Sarah is a proponent of allowing people to figure out what foods do and don’t work for them — according to Sarah, there’s no single diet that is perfect for everyone. As such, she is willing to tailor dinner party menus for people with allergies as well as those with vegetarian and paleo inclinations.
So what did we actually eat at Sunday’s party?
We started with a creamy green gazpacho made of avocado and cucumber…
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Click for Sarah’s recipe.
Followed by broiled chicken with whole wheat pasta* and mushroom sauce, and a raw kale salad** with lemon juice, almonds and sultanas.
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I felt bad that the pasta went to waste.
* This wasn’t a paleo menu, clearly, but I was able to skip the pasta. Sarah encouraged us to “listen to our bodies” and eat only what we thought tasted great and made us feel good. So I stuck to the kale salad Image may be NSFW.
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** Speaking of which, the kale salad was the bomb. I didn’t realize how supple raw kale can become with just a little massaging with lemon juice and olive oil.
Dessert was a cheese-free cheesecake (“cheesefake”), with a date-almond crust and a coconut-yogurt*** filling.
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Click for Sarah’s recipe.
*** I definitely plan to make this again, but I’ll probably figure out a way to sub out the yogurt for coconut or almond milk and use unsweetened coconut instead of sweetened. I’ll report back!
This was seriously the most fun I’ve had on a Sunday night in a long time. I made a bunch of new friends, learned some new tricks and left feeling totally inspired. I can’t wait to have Sarah over for a dinner party of my own.
Tell me: Have you ever hosted or attended a party like this? What’s your take on spending time with friends without compromising your health and fitness goals?
For more information on the dinner parties, visit WhyFoodWorks.com. And find Sarah on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
