Hi there! It's Mathea Ford with Renal Diet HQ and I'm coming to you live. Today, I wanted to talk about explaining your renal diet, your new renal diet to your friends and family.
Maybe you just got diagnosed or maybe you have had it for a little while but you really haven't talked to anybody and I want to talk about some of those conversations that you might have with your friends or family that a little bit of way to make them a little easier.
Your kidney diet can be a renal diet can be a pretty big overhaul. Maybe you've been diabetic but now all the sudden you're watching your protein, you're watching your salt or maybe you didn't have any concerns before but suddenly you had kidney cancer and you had a kidney removed and now you have to watch your diet so I want to go through some of these because it can be a big change. 
This is kind of a guide for how those conversations can go and for how you can explain things to your friends and family easier.
I want to encourage you number one to provide an opportunity for questions. When your friends or family have questions, they may feel uncertain about asking you first of all and so I want you to think, encourage them say you know “if you have questions about it ask me or let me know what you want it what sort of questions you have.” They may be afraid to bring it up. They may not be sure how to talk about it. Maybe they've googled some things but they aren't really sure. So, just encourage them when you tell them about it to ask you some questions and that you're perfectly fine with that if they have any questions.
Number two is to discuss social occasions. When you're talking about like going to events or going out just explain to them if you don't want them to invite you out to dinner for a couple of months but then maybe after. I know it first it can be a little hard to eat out on a kidney diet but you don't necessarily have to stop eating out you just maybe need a little bit of time to adjust. Maybe you want to learn a few more things. You want to see how your labs do with what you're doing at home. So, maybe you just encourage them “hey! I don't really want to go out to eat with you for social occasions but I can come over and you know enjoy food at the house” and that's just good to help you figure this all out. 
Number three is to let them know that you might bring your own food. Even if they invite you over to their house you might bring something that as a dish to a potluck or whatever that you know you can eat that you know is healthy. You might even encourage discussing with them if they invite you over saying “hey, here's a few of the things that I'd rather not eat or watch the amount of salt and foods” – that type of thing that they may not realize is pretty significant.
Sometimes it's easier if you just bring your own kidney-friendly diet options instead of making them feel like they have to redo the whole menu make it salt-free and they don't maybe aren't used to preparing those types of things so in that case, I would just encourage you to tell them “hey, I'll just bring my own snacks or food” and that might make them a little more comfortable too.
Number four is to let them figure it out a little bit so you don't have to explain the whole thing. You don't have to go into all the details, you don't even have to share your lab work with them. You may just encourage them to go to some good websites like renaldietHQ.com or other websites that provide information. Not that maybe are some government websites, Mayo Clinic or National Kidney Foundation, kidney.org. You can encourage them to go to those types of websites to learn more about kidney disease concerns and issues that you will have and that way they can come with more questions. Maybe they have some questions after they figure some...