When you're a guest

One tricky part of following this plan is when you are someone's guest, and you feel awkward saying what you "can't eat".

I believe that gratitude requires that you be as good a guest as possible, which means you don't put them through extra work or awkwardness to accommodate you. This can be a little tricky, but in the end it's about sticking to the spirit of the thing.

Obviously, it's totally reasonable to impose on a host when it's for health reasons, ranging from extreme food allergies to a doctor's admonition to cut down on sugar. It's also reasonable to expect some kind of accommodations for religious or ethical choices.

But beyond those things, I really disagree that a host should ever be obliged to prepare things that conform to a diet that's intended to be temporary. It's fine to communicate your preferences ahead of time (though that may depend somewhat on the level of intimacy you have with the host). For example, knowing the situation, they might choose to serve rice instead of pasta. But the gratitude diet isn't something that should be pushed on anyone. That really isn't the point.

I believe that in the spirit of gratitude it's fairly important to eat what's offered. You have control over your portions, so you could eat a little extra rice while just having a taste of the pork chop or cream pie (unless you're vegan of course... in which case, see above). If someone takes you to a restaurant, you are more likely than not to find something reasonable to order without expecting it to conform perfectly with the "day" you are on (like, if it has a sauce with ingredients that don't technically "fit", that's fine).

I thought about this when I was a guest at someone's house while travelling in another country. They were offering me a variety of foods that were traditional for them, and it was a nice opportunity for sharing and connecting. I wasn't doing the gratitude diet at the time, but I thought about what it would have been like if I were. I realized that it would not be in the right spirit at all if I refused everything they offered because it didn't conform to a standard I had set. Much better to be mindful of the work and care they put into the meal they were offering me and to focus on really appreciating it.

So I guess the gratitude diet has a "when you're a guest" exception, but it's also really important not to use this as a loophole, where the host makes things at your request that normally wouldn't be part of the plan.

Of course, you might also be a host at some point, but you can certainly make things for others that you don't plan to eat yourself. Anyway, after the second week or so there are a lot of options, so that's probably not too much of a concern.