The FastDay Forum

Having retired to SW France, a beautiful part of the world, we have lots of visitors, family and friends during the summer. DH and I are of differing opinions as to whether its right/proper to continue our fast days whilst entertaining others.
As you can imagine, we prepare meals with desserts and lovely cheeses for our guests, as well as alcohol and snacks, so the temptation and opportunity to "let it slide" are ever present.
When DD was here last week, our grandson is not a good eater and she was concerned that if he saw us not sitting and eating, he would see this as a way to avoid food.
Trouble is, we have people here for about 2/3 of summer weeks.
Do you reckon that doing 4:3 on non visitor weeks would help?
Silly problem, I know...but such a lot of wasted 5:2 time

Gee I wish I had this problem!! South of France! How great!! (I am sure all the posts on this will have a distinct lack of empathy for you
My advice is to consider doing 16:8 when you have visitors coming and going. I am now doing it 5 days per week to give myself nice things a couple times each week. Would this perhaps enable you to join your friends for lunch and dinner (sorry but you still need to not eat all the goodies)and still be hospitable?

I have the same 'problem', although not quite such a fab location!
Since our visitors have been family(seems endless since May), it's been a bit easier to do my own thing without seeming impolite. We rarely breakfast together anyway, so on a fast day I just miss that (sometimes pretending that I was up early and have had it), then I try to do the shopping/busy in the garden at lunchtime to avoid that or have a very little if I need to be sociable, then I eat as normal in the evening, but as light as I can. Mind you, my MiL has been here for ten days and the lowest I've done is just under 1000cals, with three other days at just over.
I can see that it would be hard if you have to sit with your visitors at every meal, you would have to be very determined to avoid the goodies that you gave them. We have been mean and not provided that every day. After all, it gets expensive!

Good luck and enjoy the company!

Well, it does depend on one's culture I guess. In Greece it would be rude to have visitors and not sit down and have a meal with your guests. Personally, I agree with this. I would feel rather uncomfortable if I was invited at someone's house, they produced food on the table and then said "go ahead and eat, I won't". I would understand if they ate less but not if they didn't even sit down with me.
Of course, it is also related to whom you are having and for how long. If it was a very close relative and it was for one meal only then it wouldn't matter but if it was a not-so-close one and for more than a meal then... well... it doesn't sound very hospitable.

Thanks for the replies
Next visitors are daughter and new fella, here for a week.
We always eat with our visitors, but maybe I could, as suggested, sit at table and take just a little. Probably no-one would notice!
You are right, Golarne, it does get expensive. We used to go to all the tourist sites with everyone, but you can only look at caves or castles a certain amount of times, so now we offer our car and people go on their own, gives us a bit of a breather
DH still goes to all the wine tastings, though, how noble is that!

Well maybe this is my American brashness coming out, but I say your house your rules! If your lifestyle includes you fasting when you have guests, just set up buffet type tables and let your guest help themselves. You can enjoy your social time with a tall glass of a calorie free beverage and its really not any of your guests business what you are eating or not eating. Plan your main meal to share with guests to be something you can eat, and maybe with slight alteration for guests.

Thats just my opinion of course, but I can appreciate it is a bit of a challenge.

A buffet is a fab idea!!! That way you can just have a little something. And if you manage that, you will be my hero! I can fast alone, at home but when I see food... oh my... I just canny say no.

Brilliant idea, and with a buffet type lunch we don't all have to eat together. I also agree with dianehelen, in theory it should be our house our rules, but you know how it is
It is nearly 40 degrees here and set to stay that way for the duration of DD's visit, so a couple of BBQ's will be good, oh, feeling much more positive now
How good is this forum!!

May I say that when we are hosts and we want to make our guests to feel like home, by thinking "my house, my rules" we aren't very hospitable.
When I go to Glasgow and I stay with family, I don't want to eat dinner at 7pm like they do and I would hate it if they told me "our house, our rules, dinner time is at 7". And when they come to Greece, I don't make them eat lunch at 3 and dinner at 10 like we do.
Anyway, I know that here having guests is a huge thing (Zeus Xenios et all) so perhaps we make more of a big deal than they do in other countries.

It is difficult if visitors are staying with you, but I wouldn't feel obliged to feed them every day as I would hope they would want to enjoy the local cuisine and culture whilst on holiday and and try the restaurants (with and without MOH and me). Likewise, whenever we stay with friends we always go out at least once or twice for evening meals alone - and the last evening we all go out (our treat). So I think it is possible to fast, especially if your visitors go out for the main meal of the day.