Picnic - Hate!!
 

My husband and I hosted a cookout this past weekend for a club he's involved in. It was great and everyone had a good time.

So why am I pissed? Because picnic ettiqute mandates that people bring food to share, even though the invitation said specifically not to and that we were handling everything. I had all kinds of nice healthy foods and non-trigger foods for me (good fruits and veggie salads, cupcakes for the kids since those don't bother me). We had about 30 parties show up and every single one brought something, if not 2 or 3 somethings. So we had creamy potato salad and slaw, not-so-light beers, chips of every variety, and cheesecake (cheesecake for cryin' out loud!).

So after the party I begged people to take things with them but no one did. Not even my friends who stayed to help me clean up. Now the creamy salads I can deal with, those went right into the freezer for the next party. As did the cheesecake. But it's the chips! Chips are my one major binge trigger food. I will literally dig through the trash to get at chips (sad, I know) so I never ever keep them around the house. Now downstairs in my kitchen, in a pile on the floor, are 21 bags of various chips. I've already given into the potato chips and am kicking myself for it.

I asked my husband to take them to the office with him today, but he forgot. I work out of my house so I'm stuck here all day with them. No kids to feed them to. I don't know my neighbors so I can't go give the chips away to them. I'd open them all and pour them in the trash and cover them with used kitty litter, but that's way to wasteful, even for me.

How the heck do I get through an entire day with those things in the house? Thousands and thousands of empty calories packed into foods I can't resist even though they make me feel physically crappy.

I'm fearing this may be beyond my strength to deal with. Help, I'm drowning in chips!!!

Put them in a black trash bag and put the bag outside with the other 'garbage' :).. haha. But seriously, black trash bag!

I think that happens a lot - people bring food to picnics even when it's requested they don't. You can't control their actions, only your own.

If the bags of chips are unopened, drive them to the closest food shelf? Otherwise, I'd approach a neighbor I don't know and use it as an icebreaker and an opportunity to get to know them. :)

If the bags are opened, dump them in the trash and pour something gross on them, like dish soap?

Sadly, there's only one bag that wasn't opened. And, unfortunately, my neighbors are more likely to point a shotgun in my face and ask me what I'm doing on their property than to accept some gift chips ;)

I just wish I could get away from my computer/phone long enough to drive over to one of the building sites near here. I'm sure hungry construction workers wouldn't mind open bags of chips. My frugal side just can't throw away $80 worth of chips (or however much they cost). Ugh!

I'm gonna go have a nice fiber-y Penny's muffin and hope it does the trick.

I can sympathise - chips are my nightmare food as well.

Could you deliberately make them inedible - say emptying them into a bowl or rubbish bag and pouring something like floor cleaner or bleach or something like that over them? I can guarantee you won't find them appealing then.

Toss the chips and forget the price. You didn't pay for them and the people who did pay for them didn't want them. Don't think about their supermarket value, think about their nutritional value, which is ZERO. Anything that can make your life that miserable deserves to be dumped.

I'm with Romeo's Girly. Throw the food away. I know this goes against everything you've been taught, but you have to learn. I put way, way too much food in my mouth because I didn't want to "waste" it. Now I'm carrying it around with me every day. Do you really want to be burdened like that with food you didn't want and didn't ask for? Throw it away! :drill:

Jay

As sad as it may seem, I aggree with the above post that they should just be thrown away. Why give that unhealthy crap to ANYONE? I have a heart for chips too ;) , so I always bake some potatoe slices with spices on them.

I would seriously just throw them away. Those construction workers don't need them any more than you do. I know they look hungry, but.....take them some left over fruit salad!! lol You never know..maybe some of them are on diets and can't resist chips. You'd be doing them a injustice..

Okay, I did it! I read your messages and before that stupid little voice of "reason" kicked in it poured them all out into a garbage bag and threw cups of used fishtank water on top of them.

Now I feel ill and I'm not sure if it's from the disgusting mess in that bag or from the nagging voice of my mother in the back of my head.

I'm gonna try to rationalize this one. No one needs those chips. Definitley not the folks in my husband's office. Those guys are mostly one Krispy Kreme away from a coranary artery bypass. I donate to oxfam. I have nothing to feel guilty about.

You guys are the best! Sometimes it just takes someone saying "go do it".

Now for some humor....I made liquid fish and chips! *shudder*

I guess I owe the fish some new water.

I completely understand what you are saying about not wasting food. I hate wasting food even if I didn't buy it. Since taking it to your neighbors is not an option I would do 1 of 2 things:
1. Do you have a friend (maybe with kids) that lives near by that you could call and take them to their house. Even if they declined initially at the barbeque if you call say that they are going to be thrown out otherwise because they are not on your diet plan they might be more inclined to take them.
If that is not an option then:
2. Get some grocery store bags and put the bags of chips in them. Tie the bags shut and put them in your car. Then when your hubby gets home transfer the bags to his car so he can take them to work tomorrow.

I too don't like wasting food, but that one was a good call on your part.

Besides... I suppose we can tell ourselves it is NOT 'food'. Our bodies don't need them, they only bring empty calories, and their nutritional value is zero. Like, dog poop has the same characteristics, save for the taste ;) and we don't call it food. Chips aren't food, they're evil given (potato) flesh and sent on earth! :D

Okay, it might be a waste to throw it all away, but look at it this way: you aren't wasting your own money!!! You didn't buy it, so who cares what you do with it if people left it at your house? It's only chips and since they are a trigger for you, you have every right to dispose of them.

Who's signature says spray the trigger food with Raid once you throw it away but be careful because Raid tastes good after a while? It's from some comedienne. Your post made me think of it!

GOOD FOR YOU!!! :carrot:

You have made such progress in your weight! You did the right thing! They may have tasted good for that second they were in your mouth but then what? Way to go!!! You have inspired me to walk away from that food I don't need.

I would also suggest just throwing the food out. Heck, the people who brought it aren't going to be missing it if they left it there in the first place! I see that you did chuck it, so way to go!

On a side note, I would never expect to host a BBQ and not have "normal" BBQ there. In reality... most people who come to my BBQ want "REAL" hamburgers and "REAL" hotdogs. No light or fat free or whatever. And they want to bring things! I just make sure I have enough healthy things for myself and if something is leftover that I know will be a trigger, I just throw it out. I had to do that 2 weeks ago when DH and I hosted a Pizza Party (was supposed to be a BBQ but it rained!!!) and there was leftover pizza. Not to mention a guest brought brownies and Oreo cookie pie. OREO COOKIE PIE. Well let me tell you I had a piece (reasonably sized and I had the points for it), but you can be sure I threw the leftovers of that out! :)

"FISH AND CHIPS" :rofl: :rofl:

Good for you! Best thing! :cheer2: :cheer2:

Jay

So don't waste them. Dump them out the window so all the birds can feast, giving you something to watch to lift your spirits. Birds are always nice to look at. ;)

Next time, I would state not to bring food because you are providing everything within a theme and don't want the theme to be overshadowed by items that work well with it. When they get there, announce the theme as "To Your Health", and enjoy. LOL

Ahh, I read further and see the problem was solved.

As for a comment about people wanting real BBQ food, my brother and his wife have had a few healthier cookouts lately. They're both overweight and working on it. Its not that difficult to keep it healthIER. They slice personal watermelons, and scoop watermelon balls and fill the husks with the balls, grapes, strawberries and other fruits and top with light whipped cream. They buy the leanest meat and toast wheat buns. They're not whole wheat so they do ok with people while still providing more than plain white. They use light mayo, and have cooked veggies instead of chips. People still feel like they've had a regular cookout, but its still much healthier than the usual fare.

yay!!! So proud of you!!!

mmmm.....doesn't that just make fish and chips sound so tantilizing? :lol:

LOL @ Fish 'n' chips! UGH! Great idea, though. :carrot:

I eat so vastly different than my peers that they wouldn't even like my idea of a cookout. Sprouted-grain buns, veggie burgers and lean meats, twice as many vegetables as meat or bread.

Good job on throwing them out.

I read somewhere once that the single biggest factor for long term success is the ability to throw away food. I believe it too. 20 bags of chips is a big and obvious one, although oddly enough I would have much less trouble throwing away 20 bags of chips.

What I see my mom do when she visits that has really made me aware of my own behavior is if there isnt enough of a food leftover to make a whole serving she will eat it rather than throw it away "isn't enough left to keep"

It seems small, but it adds up over time.

We've definitely learned to throw away food in our house. We're on a really tight budget, so you'd think we'd be wasting less, but the fact is that we've been rather creative in where/what we buy. We buy bulk meat and repackage it, and we go to a store that sells overstock (basically stuff other stores have sold to them on the cheap) health foods. So we experiment alot, and with trying new stuff, some of it is great, some not so much. It's not like you can go to the neighbors with a half-opened bottle of condiment, so it goes in the trash. Since we're eating fewer carbs, but buying or making "real" breads, they mold faster, so often some ends up in the trash.

In a country where even amoung the poorest, obesity is far more common than starvation, and there being no way that I know of to send chips and other junk food to feed third world countries (at least I hope not) --- I don't think there's any reason to consider junk food, food at all. It's probably not even a great idea to feed it to wildlife, as I recently read that wild life experts are seeing that "citified" critters (birds, raccoons, rabbits...) are actually suffering more health problems than their country cousins, most likely from eating from our garbage and handouts.

I agree about the wildlife. We shouldn't feed wildlife human food! Especially not human junk food... If you wouldn't eat it, why give it to a bird or animal?

Jay

I am glad you threw them out. No one needs to eat that junk!

I'm with Phantastica...I throw VEGAN cook outs and BBQ's and have people clamoring for an invite (really!).

There is never any food left over. Out of the 30 people who usually attend, only 3 are vegan, yet all are satisfied with a natural, organic and healthy spread :D

Throw them out! I had a similar experience last week. Somehow a nice, fresh loaf of sour dough French bread found its way into my house. Omigosh, lightly toasted with lots of butter, scrumptious!I gave in to several slices before I got serious with myself and threw the rest away. it was hard to do, though.

Take it to a homeless shelter. They WILL accept it and eat it. My co-worker dropped off a large box of left-over items last night at a shelter and they were more than grateful.

You won't eat it, and you'll do something good for people. I can't think of any better alternative.

the only problem with this is you'd be giving them empty calories. The potato chips do nothing for them...they don't cure hunger or even provide vitamins and minerals and all that jazz. It's junk. Besides the fact that a shelter won't even take opened stuff..it's too much of a risk these days....

They eat out of garbage dumpsters and shoot rat poison into their veins. I work at the police department, they know we won't give them tainted food, but they take open food from anyone.

Please watch what you're saying - all homeless people certainly do NOT eat out of garbage dumpsters or shoot rate poison into their veins, the majority are families or individuals who have fallen on hard times due to jobs moving overseas, health care emergencies, debt and loan sharking, etc. etc. While I agree that the potato chips are empty calories, there are certainly families there like anywhere else with little kids who need to gain weight, etc, and the idea of withholding food because it's "better for them" seems unfair when the alternative may be nothing at all. Homeless people are people to and perfectly capable of making intelligent decisions based on their individual situations.

Sorry to rant, but I find the type of generalized disdain seen in the post above REALLY offensive.

The men at the shelter where we dropped the food off eat out of dumpsters and are heroin addicts. Infact, when I was on my way in to work that night, one was scraping cheese off a pizza box with a needle in his arm. I know them all by name and life story. I am not referring to those who are homeless via way of disaster or lost employment. I am talking about those who live the lifestyle of drug users on the street. A place such as a battered women's shelter, etc, would obviously not take open food. I do not mean "all" homeless people.

I am sorry that you are offended but I disagree that the vast majority of homeless are that way because of the circumstances that you listed. Of course there are hundreds of thousands that ARE, but the majority of homeless are that way due to drug addiction and mental illness (which is either onset by medical reasons or induced by drug use).

Obviously I shouldn't bother to continue this discussion because I don't think many people here would understand what it's like to work on the street and to see the reality of it, especially in law enforcement. If you consider than generalized disdain, then sorry, but I see things that few "average citizens" ever do.

All I suggested that rather than trashing food, give it to those who have literally no money and probably haven't eaten in 2 days. That's all I'm saying. I'm not here to argue with anyone. Just trying to encourage someone to do a good deed.

Okay guys, play nice in my thread please!

Oh, and as for feeding it to the birds, never underestimate my ability to eat chips that have been lying on the ground. The grass is pretty clean.

improbable and marblez, if you want to continue your discussion, please do it with private messages to each other. Let's not hijack the thread. ;)

Jay

LOL I started ROFL at this one. Though I WAS getting interested in the sideline discussion on the homeless. Not to start anything back up, but I will have to agree with marblez on the point of the majority of homeless. I've been accosted by enough of them smelling of pure booze asking for money for a cup of coffee or food. And you KNOW they don't want coffee or food unfortunately.

As for the chips, I'd say whatever works, do it. If the homeless have nothing else to eat, empty cals or no, they'll thank you for them...some of them will anyway. If the birds get some junk on an ocassional basis, its better than a human getting junk on a daily basis. But if the trash is the best option, then so be it. As long as YOU don't eat them is all that counts. ;)

You know, I was thinking about this last night. If I had loaded those bags into my car to take somewhere I really doubt I could have done it. The chances are far greater that I would have sat in the car and eaten them until I was sick. For this situation I needed a solution that took about 2 minutes because that's all the willpower I had left by the time I posted. And that was after having eaten myself sick on a 1lb bag of potato chips.

Oh, and I'm still paying for those chips. Wow, greasy food has a really unpleasant aftereffect if you're not used to it, doesn't it?