Dinner and a Workout

Last night I invited three couples over for dinner. Everyone is on a different diet, South Beach, You on a Diet, Weight Watchers and then there is me just trying to eat healthier all around and count calories and Ken who is on no diet at all. I told them I could cook to accommodate everyone but they had to promise to dress comfortably and casually. I just wanted a causal get together with the focus to be on good conversation, not people worried about their calorie count/carb count/points count.

I made my “world famous” grilled marinated spicy shrimp, they are of course “world famous” because they have been taste tested by The Lassie and Laddie over at NoMagicPill, she is from Germany, he is from Scotland, Kens sister in England and my sister in Pennsylvania and all reported back positive reviews….that makes them “world famous” if not in actuality at the very least somewhere in the corner of my mind.

I had mentioned towards the end of last year that I was going to several holiday parties; these were some of the people who had been our hosts. They had contributed to my weight gain and their own with their decadent holiday party meals. Now it was January and all of them were embracing a healthy lifestyle and I was happy to accommodate.

The Menu:

Marinated Spicy Shrimp – 130 calories
Brown Rice - 150 calories
Grilled Veggies – 50 calories
Spiced Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce – 167 calories
Total Calories for dinner: 497 calories

It felt really good to get so many compliments on my cooking skills. One of the couples who I’ve known for over 20 years, who knew me back in the days when I could boil water and microwave and that concludes my cooking skills, are still in disbelief that I’ve learned to cook and cook well in just a few years.

“So did it come from Sams or Costco” they joked “frozen section or fresh case?”

After dinner, no one was quite ready for dessert; the apples had just come out of the oven and needed to cool for a bit. It was about then that Sadie started to get vocal…whimpering and barking. I tried to quiet her but she is Sadie after all. Sadie will be heard. Sadie was announcing it was time for HER neighborhood walk. Max doesn’t get vocal until he sees his harness, he is patient, he sits and stares. Typically he sits on me so I can’t possibly move and go for a walk without him. I had an extra morning workout because I knew we would have guests so my evening walk would be skipped. We even took them to the dog park so they could have a good run and I wouldn’t feel guilty about them missing their walk. Ever the drama queen it was about then Sadie let out a big long whimper and sigh and threw herself to the floor with an exasperating huff!! She knows that after dinner is walk time, clearly we had just finished dinner…where the hell is my walk!

Ken said he would just take them on a quick walk, his friend offered to go with him and before I knew it, we were all going! Most of them had on comfortable walking shoes, a few grabbed shoes from their gym bags in the car. I felt awkward having my guests go with me on my walk but they were all very eager to take a walk and accommodate Sadie and Max. I was glad I insisted on the casual dress.

And so we did. All 8 of us and Sadie and Max went on a walk. We said we would just go on the short walk but they all insisted that we go on our normal walk, even after I told them it was almost 2 miles.

“Two miles…no problem” they said.

Ken looked and I looked at each other and without saying a word we agreed we’d just do the 1 mile walk.

Half way through the walk someone said….

“are you sure this isn’t 2 miles right about here…” we were actually about at about the ¾ of a mile mark.

I’m by far the heaviest person among the 8 of us, probably 100 pounds heavier than the heaviest woman of the group and 30 pounds heavier than the largest man from the group but by the end of the walk, most of them were out of breath but not me. It was a brisk 54 degrees so after a slow warm up walk, I walked pretty fast and set the pace. I noticed a few of them struggling to keep up so I slowed down a bit. There I was the biggest one of the group out walking the others, even the slender ones! I felt so proud of myself but now I know how Ken feels when he walks with me…he has to hold back because his long legs have a quick stride. When we walked past the lake, the wind started to blow and it felt a LOT colder than 54 degrees! I couldn’t wait to get home to a hot cup of peppermint tea!

After the walk we made hot tea and enjoyed our baked apples. One of the women pulled me aside for a private conversation. She is about 5 years younger and 100 pounds thinner than I am. She remarked at how deceptive my body was. She couldn’t believe how easily I walked, how strong I am. I took it as a compliment, not an insult. I know she meant that because I outweighed her she expected me to be slower than she was. I told her I was slow, I was out of breath when I first started walking. It took time to build up to where I am today. I told her that typically I JOG part of that walk and with those words she burst out in tears. I wasn’t expecting that at all. We stepped out on to the patio for more privacy and I gave her a pep talk, I told her she could do this, that there was no reason at all why she couldn’t start walking and get fit. She had changed her diet but hadn’t started to exercise. I told her it was ok, that she should make small gradual changes so they become a lifestyle. I also made her promise to stop calling it a diet. It’s a lifestyle change.

Just about then, Max came wandering out on the patio, he had a pair of my underwear AND sweat pants in his mouth. He likes to roll around in my clothes and apparently I left my closet door open and he got them out of the laundry basket and made his way down the hall, through the dining room, through the family room and onto the patio…thankfully everyone else was in the living room and missed the dirty clothes parade!! Talk about embarrassing but it did make her laugh.

I showed her the MapMyRun.com site and helped her plan a route through her neighborhood. Starting with a ½ mile walk, she can build up from there.

Before we knew it, it was nearly 11pm, the evening had passed so quickly, no one had intended to stay that late since they all had 30 to 40 minutes of drive time home…in opposite directions from one another. It made me feel wonderful as a hostess because it meant everyone was having such a good time and they lost track of the time.

We had a great night, I was able to cook a tasty and healthy meal for a group of our friends and introduce them to each other. They remarked that it felt like we were all old friends, even though the other three couples had just met each other for the first time.

It felt good to share my health goals with other people who are trying to be healthy. One of the couples announced they wanted everyone to get together at their home soon and they would cook a healthy meal for all of us and another neighborhood walk. It sounds like I may have started a trend and introduced a few people to each other who could all become good friends.