Do You Count When it Comes to Nutrition?

It's been a busy summer as I've literally had company visiting for the past month.  Since the middle of July, I've had different friends and family members staying with us each week.  You know the saying, when one door closes, another one opens with more people coming to visit. 

While it's been fun to see everyone, each week brought different challenges when trying to figure out what to feed everyone.  With each person having different likes and dislikes, coming up with a meal plan that would work for all was like trying to herd cats - a lot of effort and not always completely successful. 

Since I'm fully aware that I'm a hard core health nut, I always try to be sensitive to the needs of my guests and what they enjoy eating.  One night when we were trying to decide what to have for dinner, one of my visitors jokingly said that my opinion didn't count since my preference for food wasn't exactly simpatico with the rest of the group.  While this comment didn't bother me at the time, I did reflect on it later and think "Hey, I do count!" This made me think about how many times in social situations we give in to peer pressure to eat things we don't really want to but because we want to be part of the group or don't want to appear to be the odd one out.  How many times have you ordered fast food instead of making healthier items because you think your family will complain?  How many times have you given in and ordered an unhealthy dish because you wanted to be part of the group? 

This reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about how she went out to dinner with friends.  She finished her meal, was perfectly satisfied, and had no desire to order dessert.  One of her dining companions refused to take no for an answer, and proceeded to order dessert and insist she eat it.  She took a few bites to appease this food pusher but it left her with a sick feeling in her stomach - not even so much from the dessert but more from feeling forced to eat when she really didn't want it. 

So my question for you is this:  Do you count when it comes to nutrition? Or do you always put yourself at the bottom of the list?

You deserve to feel good and make healthy choices without feeling like you always have to please others.  If you don't count yourself as being important when it comes to nutrition, who will?