The in-laws are in town. We had them over for dinner on Thursday, and I have decided that they get it. They didn’t notice when I did not help myself to the potatoes I made for everyone else, but they did catch on when I passed around a plate of brownies (storebought – you flatter me if you think I can make brownies without helping myself to at least a half cup of the raw batter) and didn’t have one myself.
“Aren’t you having any?” said my mother-in-law.
I took a deep breath and told the whole circuitous story, from migraine to specialists to endocrinologists to diabetes risk factors to low-carb and what exactly LC means. The only thing I left out was PCOS, partly because I just didn’t want to talk about my ovaries in mixed company (call me old-fashioned) and partly because my husband and I are newlyweds in our late 30s, and fertility is a very charged topic – I did not want to get into the “grandchildren” discussion.
I could tell my father-in-law got it, because when my MIL mentioned how delicious the brownies were, he looked at me with a wry face and said, “No, they’re not. They’re terrible. You don’t want one.”
And I could tell my mother-in-law got it, because today we had lunch at one of those restaurants where your meat comes with your choice of baked potato, fries, rice pilaf, or vegetable – and she ordered the vegetable, with a comment about following my example to lose a bit of weight.
Telling my in-laws has been worrisome, because in all the years I’ve known my husband, every time we go to visit his parents, I politely eat whatever I’m offered. And have I mentioned that he and his family never seem to put on an ounce, even though they are the Kings of Carb? I always gain at least 5 pounds over Christmas, which I recognize to be mostly water retention, but I always have difficulty getting back on my low-carb diet after the visit, and usually end up gaining a few more before I . The Former Donut Junkie’s advice is great when you are invited somewhere for just one meal, but it’s tough when you are staying with someone for several days.
This was a quandary – I feel that eating a non-stop stream of carbs just to be polite is not an option any more, but making lots of demands on one’s hosts, especially at the last minute, is not an option, either. I think mentioning this several months before Christmas was probably the right thing to do. Especially since they seem to get it!
Oh, and here’s what I made, besides the potatoes (which I didn’t eat):
- Slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with Kashmiri spices (garam masala, coriander, and ginger)
- Saag paneer (spinach, homemade fresh cheese, tomatoes, ginger, onions)
Mmmmmm …. does that sound like an unhealthy diet to you?
Migraine aura picture from 
