Anxiety Over Eating Out

AliceDark

In December, I started slowly increasing my caloric intake, with the eventual goal of putting on 10 pounds, after eating at a deficit for years. I'm happy taking it very slowly, since the mental switch has been really rough for me. I'm really loving the process and the results so far, but I've developed wicked anxiety about eating food that I haven't prepared or can't track. (Some restaurants post their nutrition information and so I'm fine with that, but the idea of eating at, say, a random takeout place is freaking me out). In the past, I would just restrict like crazy the rest of the day and figure I would be safely under my limit, but since "under" isn't the goal anymore, I can't do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to deal with this? I've been hoping that I'll gradually get used to the increased intake and stop stressing so much about hitting my targets perfectly, but it hasn't happened yet.

89nunu

I was like that when I started, freaking out about hitting my protein intake (as a vegetarian you usually get fed veg when eating out)
But bulking should be a time of enjoying all the food!
Guess your intake and if you are over a bit, meh, who cares?
Let's face it, you probably won't be over by a crazy amount, although I have done that before. You will gain fat and have to cut at the end of this anyway, so nevermind whether its gonna be 500 calories more (which is only a tiny part of a pound) that you will work of afterwards. Enjoy the food (in moderation) as long as you got the bulk to justify it!

Kestrelwings

I know how you feel. Again, when it is somewhere that posts nutrition info it is easy to track. The biggest challenge for me is when it is not only somewhere that does not post its nutrition, but also if it is not 'planned in advance' in terms of where we will be going so I have no idea what will be on the menu.

I find the safest/least anxiety provoking option is to look up the restaurant / likely choices of eatery to get a handle of what is probably going to be on the menu. I then look online for 'average' nutrition info for the main dishes I am likely to see on the menu. This allows me to have some form of control/choice over what I will be facing - e.g. if it is an Indian restaurant I look up the average calories etc of standard dishes so I know that if I can have Tandori chicken (yum!) with plain rice it wil be roughly 'X' calories and 'Y' protein, but if the group decide Italian I am safest to go for spaghetti bolognese as it equals X cals and Y protein etc.

As a chronic restricter myself, I share your anxieties and will usually restrict befoer the meal out for fear of going over my goal. sometimes (well often) I wish I could switch that part of my brain off!

JoRocka

You have been doing this long enough you should be able to ball park it. So wing it and say - that was easily 500 in burger and then another 200 in fries- and call it a meal.

Remember general trend lines are more important than specific numbers.

I don't have anxiety over it- but if I DON"T know- or can't find out- I stick with only meat and veggies and eye ball the portions. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

AliceDark

Thanks, everyone! This is all stuff I've been saying to myself, but it's helping to hear it from someone else. My BF thinks I'm nuts. His attitude is "you can eat all the food, so let's go eat" and I'm thinking "I haven't budgeted for this, so I don't know how much of all the food I can eat today."

I think I'm getting way too hung up on hitting a certain number every day. When I first started it was very necessary, because I'd start cheating and cutting things out, and then realize I'd spent a week or more "accidentally" eating at a deficit. I think I need to bump up my goal by 100 cal this month anyway, so I may set it even higher just so I feel like I have some wiggle room.

__freckles__

I do admit I feel uneasy when I decide to eat at a hole in the wall place that doesn't have calorie information available. But my uneasiness is ultimately outweighed by the delicious food I'm about to eat. So I just do my best to guess and then make sure to weigh the *kitten* out of the rest of my food for the day.