Day 4! But here is the weekend!! 😱

fordstar13

Hi everyone! I’m new here and on day 4. The weekend is upon us and I feel restaurant’s are impossible. No beer, no Mexican food. This is where it’s hard because most our restaurants don’t have many healthy options or I have NO idea what is even in the food (calories wise) We stayed home again tonight and ate chicken and veggies....... boring 🤣🤣

nutmegoreo

I usually look up the nutritional information before I go, pick something that fits in my calories, and don't open the menu once I get there.

Other times, I will know that today will be a higher calorie day. For example, this morning I went out for breakfast with some friends. It was calorific, but worth every mouthful, and I have been eating lighter the rest of the day. I'll finish the day about 300 calories over, but I know I'm still in a calorie deficit overall.

If you want to go out once in a while there are a couple options: eat lighter the rest of the day, or you could look at your weekly goal, eat a bit lighter each day (100 calories/day less), and "bank" those calories for the weekend (you'd have an extra 600 calories on the day you go out).

At the end of the day, for me, it's important to continue doing fun things. I figure out how to work it in.

NovusDies

fordstar13 wrote: »

Hi everyone! I’m new here and on day 4. The weekend is upon us and I feel restaurant’s are impossible. No beer, no Mexican food. This is where it’s hard because most our restaurants don’t have many healthy options or I have NO idea what is even in the food (calories wise) We stayed home again tonight and ate chicken and veggies....... boring 🤣🤣

You do not need every meal to be "healthy". You do need to keep tabs on the calories even if you will be going over a little.

If the restaurant does not have calories posted you could look up the dish you intend to eat in the database. Try to find a similar dish from a restaurant. Do not use anything that says generic, homemade, or has a brand name on it that might indicate it is a frozen prepared dinner. If there are many options I pick one of the higher amounts listed. I may pick the highest if it is in line with the others. So if restaurant ABC has it for 700, DEF has it for 750, and GHI has it for 775 I will pick 775. If there is an unusual outlier like MNO has it for 1310 calories and I feel I will get a standard dish I will not use it.

Over time you will probably get better at interpreting macros. A common scenario is a Chinese dish. Let's say you have either logged the rice separately or chosen not to eat any. While looking through the database for your entree you find one with a much higher calorie count and it has much higher carbs compared to the others you can safely assume it included the rice.

ShinyFuture

I seldom drink calories, but beer is absolutely the exception. Once you've been at this awhile, you'll likely find that you really can have whatever you want -just not as much or as often as maybe you're used to. And grilled chicken/veggie fajitas are usually a pretty safe choice when eating Mexican food - and not boring!

moonangel12

Eating out can be done! Shortly after I started I found out we were going to a fave restaurant. I prelogged everything I knew I wanted to eat - nearly 1000 cals out of 1470, ouch! But I knew if that’s where we were going that’s what I wanted! So I ate light throughout the day, and was more than ready for supper that night - brisket, fries, and slaw YUM.

Another option is to get in a workout to earn a few extra calories as well.

jlhalley7835

Eating out can be done, but it should be done sparingly. A lot of "healthy" veggie items will have sugars, fats, and sodium packed into them vs the same veggie you've made at the house. One thing a lot of fitness advisors have said is if you know you're going to go out and have a couple of beers on the weekend over a dinner, calculate the extra calories you would have that night and subtract them over the days leading to and after that day. For example if you know your dinner is going to be an extra 1,000 calories skip 200 calories the 4 days prior to, and then 200 from your meals the day of. It's just another way to make the numbers work.

The other thing I do is I make my meals for the next few days on saturdays and eat one of those meals Saturday night and Sunday night that way there's no temptations over the weekend. I love a good 99% lean turkey burger for lunch mid afternoon snack as well.

Good luck to you!

fordstar13

Great ideas everyone! 👍🏻😁

splenderella61

Yesterday, I was facing the same dilemma but here's how I made it work: Before breakfast, I logged in my restaurant dinner before I logged in any other food in my food diary. We were going to a restaurant that has amazing battered/deep fried halibut and fries. With a few food searches and "guestimates," I figured out that I could have 8 oz of fish and 180 g of fries (which I'm pretty good at figuring out). I kept my search to "restaurant tartar sauce" and 2 tbsp only. Then I worked backwards to breakfast. I had coffee with sugar-free coffeemate instead of my almond milk latte (60 cal/cup) with 2 tsp Toriani salted caramel/chocolate syrup and cooked 2 egg whites instead of 1 whole egg + 2 whites. About 4 pm (dinner was at 6), I had a snack of 6 oz almond milk (60 cal cup), heated, with sugar free vanilla and freshly grated nutmeg. I vacuumed, did laundry, mopped, and never stopped for 3-4 hrs for the afternoon except for that almond milk break. I was pretty hungry but I just kept drinking water. When we ordered our dinner, I could only get one small piece of halibut down and a few fries before I was stuffed. My husband got the rest and when I got home I was able to adjust my diary. When then went to see the movie "1917." I had a bit of down fall at the movies...a little bit of the grandson's candy and some of my husband's licorice and later at home I had an apple and a bit more licorice, but, except for sugar, I did a good job. I normally would have eaten the entire dinner and had my own bag of candy from the supermarket bulk section for the movies.

Today, I don't feel like it, but I'm going to go swimming because I know that once I'm in the pool, I'll feel like I'm home.

jeagogo

Ditto on the point that you don't have to be 100% perfect in your diet. Maybe just aim for 80% on target. You don't want your diet to become something you resent or that prevents you from living, y'know?

I actually find that on the weekends when I am busy I need to eat in a totally different way than weekdays. On weekdays I eat a lot of small meals and snacks throughout the workday, but on weekends I find I feel better if I eat a couple large meals. A good brunch will easily hold me over throughout the day and then I just have a light dinner.

springlering62

Really look at the menu for things that might not have caught your eye before. My Mexican restauarant does a great grilled chicken breast on a bed of lettuce and tomatoes, with a mango salsa. It was easy to guesstimate and log.

In lieu of chips for salsa, I asked for a bowl of sliced bell peppers to dip. Since they have beauvouos in hands for fajitas, they were happy to accommodate and brought them right out.

I was shocked and super pleased that the whole meal - which was delicious - came in under 400 calories.