How do you handle what I call, "EATING EVENTS"
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Option "b".
I often go to different events, and just generally often dine out, like 3 times a week. You gotta learn to control yourself. There would be provocative food yummies all your life, you gotta learn how to deal with your cravings.0 -
I would go to the chili cook off and try one bite of 50 kinds of chili. I would enjoy my cold beverage with it (beer or otherwise). I'm not sure now that I have been eating smaller portions for two months that I could eat more than one bite of each without feeling sick.
I stay away from the food vendors at the fair. Bad for the body and the budget.
I would either be the DD for the gala, as someone suggested above, or I would save up calories and enjoy it. That's your call
The first of many "eating events" is coming up at work. My boss is very into Halloween and we are having a "treat day and costume contest" on the 31st. My plan is to make a GF fruit pizza for breakfast (vanilla Greek yogurt in place of cream cheese), eat chips salsa and queso for lunch and go on with my life. If someone brings a veggie tray, I'll eat from that. (Admittedly, it's easier for me because celiac disease eliminates a lot of the things others will bring from my diet. ) oh, and I will eat two pieces of my friend Missi's Peanut Butter fudge. I will use a break to walk up and down the six flights of stairs to pay for that. :-)0 -
I live by the 90-10 rule. I eat on track for 90% of the time. 10% of the time I just eat. I don't go crazy, but I eat. It makes social events less stressful. I do my best to log what I do eat. If I end up going super crazy, I try my best to create a smaller deficit over the week so that I can make up for a bit of it. I usually end up just slightly over.
If it's a potluck type event, I treat it more like a "tasting". I use a small spoon to dish what I want and just have a bite or two of a lot of the things that are brought. There is no shame in taking only 1/3 a portion if it is already cut because it's likely someone else will want a smaller portion as well.
Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Nutrition Facts For Foods0 -
I don't worry about it too much, I just make sure to log all of it.
ALL of it.
Then for the next event, I know what I did last time, and what it "cost", so I can make a fully informed choice on how much to "control" myself.
Things like the 80/20 rule are problematic - if you're perfect on the 80%, and the 20% is only twice as bad as it should have been, you've just wiped out pretty much all the effort from the 80%.0 -
I don't worry about it too much, I just make sure to log all of it.
ALL of it.
Then for the next event, I know what I did last time, and what it "cost", so I can make a fully informed choice on how much to "control" myself.
Things like the 80/20 rule are problematic - if you're perfect on the 80%, and the 20% is only twice as bad as it should have been, you've just wiped out pretty much all the effort from the 80%.
I disagree. Most of the time, I am not that far off from my goal and I can make up for it with a small deficit over the next few days. It's not a license to eat whatever and binge. It just allows for some added flexibility with out guilt. If I go over because there was a birthday with pizza and cake, it's ok. The key is to log every thing. There is nothing problematic about this rule if you are still being reasonable.0 -
Just curious how all of you wonderful people handle what I call "Eating Events"? You know the kind of thing that basically the food brings you out to. There are several of them coming up that I usually attend and I'm wondering what I should do.
a)just not go
b) go and TRY to control myself
c) other- cause there's always an other
Examples of these kinds of events that are coming up in the next two months are a chili cook off, the county fair, and a charity gala. The Gala is more of a drinking issue for me than overindulging in food. But the fair, OMG, fried oreos, caramel apples, funnel cakes.....
Guess I'm not really looking for advice. I know what I NEED to do. I just wonder how other people deal with these sort of things.
Learning how to handle these kinds of outings properly is necessary, because you'll be dealing with them for the rest of your life. Just because you hit goal at some point and transition into maintenance does not mean all of a sudden you'll be able to not have a plan for these kinds of events. Avoiding them is not practical nor is it any fun
What works for me-
Be picky! Because my husband does volunteer work with teens we were invited to over ten graduation open houses this spring and of course every single one of them had food and The Cake. Some Sundays we had 4 of them right in a row. The 'old' me would have eaten at each one, as well as had a piece of cake at each. This summer (having lost the weight and now in maintenance), I only ate the food that I actually really wanted. I did NOT eat out of obligation or to be 'polite'. I turned down the pushy relatives trying to shove plates of meatballs and sloppy jo sandwiches at me. I also only ate the cake that looked really good-which meant I skipped eating anything at all at several of them
That paid off though because a few of them had fantastic food (can we say lasagna wee!), and I ate that guilt free, because I hadn't been wasting calories on sub-par food. I also had some cake, but I cut those massive pre-cut pieces in half or even fourths.
Portion Control-like the above cake example, have some food but cut back on the portions. Now my whole family splits a funnel cake instead of me eating my own (and then taking some of my kids as well :blushing: ). Have one fried oreo instead of three. Just cutting back on the amount of each thing you eat will be a huge calorie saver!
Be 'Rude'. I touch on this one above, but don't be afraid to say no, if you don't really want what's being offered or aren't really hungry. I've actually gone to pot-locks, brought a dish to pass, and then sat there and sipped water and had some veggies and fruit while everyone else mowed down on three heaping plates worth of calories. I go into these events knowing what's going to be offered (the brunch potluck I go to every year always has one fruit platter and then about 10 quiches and gobs of pastries/bagels/donuts/muffins ugh). Sometimes I'll eat before going to one of these events, so I'm not really hungry and have an easier time declining food/choosing the lesser calorie options. There's nothing wrong with politely declining food or taking a small amount, but still participating in the fellowship going on 0 -
I "save up" calories so I can eat a little bit of everything I want. Depending on what is being served I've even brought my small measuring cup to the table so I could be accurate at figuring out calories. No one has asked me why or commented. It's my health and my weight loss, so whatever keeps me on track is what I havta do!
I'd be too embarrassed to measure my food in front of others. I give your props for doing what you need to do! 0 -
Honestly some things you should never eat ever. If a friend buys a funnel cake you can have one bite. I always bring food with me to festivals so I don't need to buy anything.But the fair, OMG, fried oreos, caramel apples, funnel cakes.....0 -
My weight loss is more important to me than eating junk that will leave me with an upset stomach for days. Why do you have to eat at these events? If you only go for the food, that says a lot about you and your determination to reach goal.0
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I would say go, eat , have fun .. but pace yourself so that your level of fullness catches up with what you eat .. you will find that if you have been restricting your calories it will not take much to make you feel full!0
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My weight loss is more important to me than eating junk that will leave me with an upset stomach for days. Why do you have to eat at these events? If you only go for the food, that says a lot about you and your determination to reach goal.
I disagree .. you should never feel bad about what you eat, even if it is overboard. There is always a new day, and anything else leads to an eating disorder.. very unhealthy0 -
Good question!--especially with the holidays coming up...
Reaan:happy:0 -
If it is a weekend event, I try to sleep in, so I wake up already missing breakfast. If I can, I'll only have a protein shake early afternoon (200 cal), to keep the hunger down, and give me enough of a full belly to get me to the event. So, for me, I've got easily 1500 cals I can eat while there, and still be on track to lose weight. 1750 if I want to not make backward progress. I'll get there hungry, but I have mentally decided to LIKE that hunger, as I know it means I'm burning fat, and I get to eat what I want. I'm not starving to death, I'm a little hungry. I can handle that hunger, for the reward. (I've found I enjoy food much more since I've been restricting calories.)
Or, I try to bank some calories through exercise. If a weekend, I know I can burn 1000 in the morning if I go to the gym. On a weekday, I go running and burn about 500. I may even run an additional day that week (before or after) to help me end the week being on track. For me, burning 1000 cal means I can eat my normal diet that day, and indulge in 1000 extra calories of something (ice cream, liquor, etc.)
Enjoy eating events. It is possible. Once we lose the weight we want to lose, we have the rest of our lives to deal with staying on track calorie-wise. Hopefully some advice given here will work for you and your mindset!0 -
Part of my lifestyle change has been to become aware of what I am eating, when/why/where and make conscious and deliberate choices based on my long term goals, not immediate gratification.
If the ONLY thing I like about the event is the eating, I would rather not go. This may seem overly harsh to some, but there are way too many food related events to make a "special occasion just one day" exception for all of them. I would be able to enjoy going to the fair even with moderate consumption, so that would be fine. There will always be another eating event, so I don't have to feel like I am missing something if I don't eat every single thing they have that I might like, and I can fit a moderate treat into just about any day if I know in advance.
In some ways, it has become like drinking events for me. I stopped drinking (mostly) long before I was trying to lose weight, and events where the only draw was the alcohol became at best dull, so they just naturally lost their appeal.0 -
Everybody needs a cheat day. Also, it is important to actually have that cheat day as it creates an insulin spike in your system. This insulin spike is important to help you maintain the metabolism you have. Too much dieting/Incorrect dieting can lead to your metabolism dropping despite you losing weight, and will result in you just putting that weight back on. So what I do for these "eating events" is I make sure it is on my cheat day and that on that cheat day I go HARD at the gym. You can usually crank out an extra 800 calories to help you manage those days. To handle drinking events I stick to hard liquor with diet mixer lol... After these events it's important to understand that these days are important for the reason mentioned above, as well as mental health so that you don't crack and give up your diet altogether. In the end you're dieting to feel good about yourself so if you're dieting all the time and hating yourself then what's the point? Anyways, just how I view things 0
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So what I do for these "eating events" is I make sure it is on my cheat day and that on that cheat day I go HARD at the gym. You can usually crank out an extra 800 calories to help you manage those days.
800 extra exercise calories is, for most dieters, an extremely difficult task. That's equivalent to a 200-pound dieter adding a six mile run to their daily activity.0 -
DO - Go and enjoy as you would normally if you weren't concerned about counting the calories.
DON'T - Go and think "I've screwed up today, so while I'm here, I'm going to go all out WOO!" and then eat/drink DOUBLE what you normally would 'because you've been bad already' or 'because it's the only chance you'll get to eat junk'.
Plus what other's have said - get a little bit more exercise in during the week, save up those calories, plan light meals for the day around the big event.
No eating and lifestyle plan will ever work if you can't enjoy yourself once in a while. 0 -
Honestly some things you should never eat ever. If a friend buys a funnel cake you can have one bite. I always bring food with me to festivals so I don't need to buy anything.But the fair, OMG, fried oreos, caramel apples, funnel cakes.....
That may work for you but other people enjoy those kinds of things. Don't push your restrictions on other people.0 -
I have no self control so I just wind up hating myself the next day and then exercising a lot0
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Plan for it. Put in a couple of extra workouts. Relax and enjoy. Unless you're at an Eating Event every week, or several times a week, an occasional splurge should be ok.0
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The eating events that are hardest for me are the ones where you are eating at the home of family. My mother ALWAYS watches like a hawk what everyone is eating and if your plate is even partially full, she will try to push more food. If you were to decline to eat one of the foods, she would act hurt that you didn't like her food or tell you hot to worry about treating yourself once in awhile. Food Pushers drive me crazy!!!
As to the fair, if all that junk really seriously tempted me, I wouldn't go. Or if you went with a friend or a spouse, you could ask for just one bite of what they are having. Also, at most fairs, they have something called, "Lemon Shake-Up." It's great--homemade lemonade and they put the lemon halves in it for flavor. Most of them have sweetener on hand and will be glad to make a sugar-free Shake-Up. Tastes good to me!
I don't really agree with those that say--it's just one day--go ahead and enjoy yourself. Maybe some are able to get right back on the wagon and start eating well again--but this type of thing has often thrown me into a full-fledged binge in the past.
Good luck!0 -
Follow what I think this plan is about. Nothing is really off limits, it's the amount. There are 25 different chillies at the cook off, taste them all, but eat your favorite pick or 2. It isn't about what you eat, but how much. It's a new mind set. You went, ate everything, and had a good time. The change is going and eating everything no longer means eating an entire bowl of everything.0
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I'm generally pretty good unless alcohol is involved....Then, forget it!
I can pass up fair food & stuff like that. It's not as hard as it seems. Or if you really must have something, just factor it into your daily calories.0 -
I go and keep my portion size under control. If I feel like I ate too much, I will eat less than usual the next day.0
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Hmmm. Interesting question.
There may be other benefits to a food-centric event... but, essentially, it's an excuse for overeating, isn't it? I suppose when food is no longer the 'be all and end all' then other kinds of events will naturally fill the place?
Also - temptation. I mainly don't go to stuff like that cos of my binge tendencies coupled with my eating capacity!0 -
I save up my calories for it and make sure I do extra exercise...0
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My two suggestions (I have a trip to Prague coming up myself):
Plan for it. Be super-good the week before. No cheat meals. Good cardio days.
Don't try to hard to restrict yourself. Have fun. Enjoy that one meal that might be your entire calorie goal. But track everything. It might be hard, because you might have to estimate a lot since you won't have prepared everything yourself, so overestimate if necessary.0 -
The festival is easy honestly. I eat before I go, bring a protein bar or something... but most of the time for me the food is not worth the calories anyway (or the price, for that matter!).
For the rest, either save calories for it, or just have a little bit of everything. As long as it's not a weekly occurrence or something, it's not going to kill you.0 -
I have self control...I enjoy myself, but I don't feel the need to gorge myself. A little self control goes a long way.0
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Maybe I need to plan on new traditions that don't center around overeating unhealthy food.
I just had this discussion with my dh. As someone who enjoys preparing food for others (and them enjoying it), I struggle with my love for food-centric events/holidays.
The holidays are coming up and one of my favorite family traditions is to make cookies with my mom and grandma and now my son. We spend all day making many batches of cookies. Mom then bakes hers closer to Christmas and gives them out with gifts. I don't do that, I just take some home to eat.
I can still go and make cookies with them and only eat a few and not take any home. I'm fine with modifications like that. I won't give up any family functions.
But what I was thinking was that for the long run if I should/could find something to replace the social type events with. Yes I know there is not harm in attending one once in a while but there are quite a few that I normally attend each year.
What kind of social events if any do you attend that promote or at least do not derail good health? I'm just realizing that almost everything I do socially centers around eating and/or drinking. No one's ever asked me if I would like to hang out and drink a water or go out for steamed broccoli 0
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