Daniel Keenan Savage was born October 7, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois. Dan’s parents, William and Judy Savage, were of Irish ancestry and raised him and his three other siblings in a Roman-Catholic household. After high school, Dan attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he majored in theater and history. He became theater director at the university and used the stage name Keenan Hollahan. Hollahan was his grandmother’s maiden name.
In 1991, Savage moved to Madison, Wisconsin after he graduated college and started a sex advice column called Savage Love. The openly gay writer used the column as a forum for his opinions on love, sex, and family. The column’s popularity grew and Savage Love Live on Seattle’s radio was born. From 1994 to 1997 people would call him on the radio to get advice about relationships, sex, and family. During 1998 to 2000 Dan wrote an advice column called Dear Dan.
Dan kept writing pieces for different media outlets during the 21st century. He began to tour the country with speaking engagements at various types of events about relationships, sex, family, politics, and issues in society. In 2005, Dan married Terry Miller in Vancouver. A few years later, the couple adopted a son named D.J.
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Holidays are hectic and everyone walks in with certain expectations and hopes. People have prepared food in anticipation of sharing it with loved ones. Others may be wanting everything to be just like it was the year before. At the dinner table or even at the family gathering may not be the best time to tell your family about your food plan or to ask for their help in sticking to your weight loss goals.
To avoid emotional reactions from your loved ones, you may want to share this information several weeks in advance to give them time to work through any disappointment they may be feeling or to plan healthier options for the entire family. With large families like mine, it is difficult to get everyone in the same room or make sure everyone is hearing important announcements. There are times that it is most helpful to have individual conversations with the majority of family members; however, there are also times when sending a kind of newsletter may be the most effective and non intimidating way to share your goals with family members.
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Food is the first and most basic way that we nurture each other. It is one of the reasons that many of us turn to food for comfort.
Providing nourishment was one of the very first ways that our mother’s soothed us as infants, both feeding us and soothing us emotionally by holding us close. When your grandmother or aunt offers you another helping, insists you try the dessert, or even tells you look too thin, it may simply be a desire to express love to and nurture you. This desire can be more intense during the holidays as sentimentality heightens emotions.
When people are pushing food to express their love, a hard rejection can be experienced as personal rejection. You may be able to distract them with loving attention. The most direct response may be to thank them sincerely for the offer or compliment and tell them that you have had enough to eat or that you are avoiding certain foods for health reasons. It can sometimes help to also offer an expression of appreciation to reinforce the positive relationship.
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