Food Scale/Easter Sunday

ThinLizzie0802

I will be eating lunch at my parent's house on Easter Sunday. Food is always indulgent and delicious, and this time I've decided to take my food scale and weigh my portions. I'd like to get as accurate of a calorie count as I can (while knowing I will be going over) so I can continue to get a good grasp on portions, and just to keep my momentum going. I don't feel like doing this will be an issue as it is just my family around and none of them will think this is strange. On other holidays I've just taken a break from logging and enjoyed, but I don't see myself enjoying Sunday less because I have a more accurate idea of what I've had to eat. I think knowing how far I go over on Sunday can help me set some goals for the week to help balance it out.

Has anyone else taken their food scale to a family function where food is a focal point?

hannydeee

No. When I was logging I always tried to relax for special occasions/family meals. I'd still be mindful, but I wouldn't worry about being 100% accurate with logging, and I certainly wouldn't take a set of food scales - I'd feel like it would ruin the occasion.

Just enjoy the meal and the time with your family! One meal is not going to affect your weight loss in the grand scheme of things.

_lyndseybrooke_

HELL NO!

I'm going to eat until I feel sick, and then it's back to business as usual Monday morning. Live a little - it's just one day!

Also, I'm pretty sure my family would never let me live it down if I brought my food scale with me on Easter. And my in-laws - oh, they'd never let me forget it.

ThinLizzie0802

That's where I'm coming from though- I don't feel like taking five extra minutes to weigh my portions is going to ruin any family time I have, especially when everyone else is just trying their best to get three screaming children to sit down and attempt eating. I'm tired of letting holidays be an excuse to stop tracking when I am still so far away from my goal weight. I fully expect to go over, but I want to know where I stand at the end of the extravaganza. I feel it is important to my goals right now to know where I'm over/under in order to make my exercise plans fit accordingly. I do know where you are coming from though. I debated just letting it go for a while. I feel like if I was closer to my goal and really had an exercise routine nailed down I wouldn't do it, but that isn't the case right now.

ThinLizzie0802

HELL NO!

I'm going to eat until I feel sick, and then it's back to business as usual Monday morning. Live a little - it's just one day!

Also, I'm pretty sure my family would never let me live it down if I brought my food scale with me on Easter. And my in-laws - oh, they'd never let me forget it.

It isn't something I would do at my boyfriend's family events, but this Easter is just my mom, dad, sister-in-law, and three nephews.

NewCaddy

I don't do it. I'm a long way from my goal as well but I feel there are so few days that I just don't do it that I always give myself a break for holidays.

However, with that said, it sounds like you feel it is the right thing to do for yourself and so far people saying "no, don't do it" hasn't changed your mind. Just do it if you feel that's what you need.

angieroo2

Has anyone else taken their food scale to a family function where food is a focal point?

Yes I have. I may have gotten teased for it, but I don't care, I want to keep on track every day.

ShannonMpls

I would not take my food scale to a family holiday event and weigh my food. That is not a lifestyle I choose to live. And one thing I decided when I first began this just shy of three years ago was that I wouldn't incorporate any change I was not willing to stick to for the rest of my life.

Instead, I like Go Kaelo's approach to holiday food:

Eat the food lovingly prepared for you by your family and friends. Then, the next day, go back to your regular eating and exercise routine.

CorlissaEats

Yes. I use my food scale at family meals where its just my immediate family. I havent taken it to the larger extended family potluck style events yet though but thats more because I couldnt make the one at Christmas and that group doesn't get together often. I want accurate data in my diary so I try to weigh everything. I tend to let myself eat my TDEE at holidays though, so its not so much about the goal calories as the accuracy of the data and keeping myself somewhat in check.

sammama5

I'm more curious as to how measuring everything is really going to help you know about the exact number of calories. Is everything at your family event going to be made from a box? Are you going to ask them each for their specific recipe? At the potlucks and family gatherings I go to, different people prepare each dish, and everybody cooks differently. Some substitute because they don't have something on hand.
I just don't get how weighing every morsel of food is going to help you accurately log if you don't have exact packages and videos of how everybody made everything. (I sneak "yucky" vegetables into dishes occasionally to get more veggies in to my kids.)

StaciMarie1974

I have been considering this same thing. We typically go to my MIL's for Easter and though we haven't discussed, I imagine we'll do the same this year. I have to work that day and not sure what time I'll go in so that's the only caveat. But I do think I'll take the food scale also.

PS-My MIL is very supportive of my efforts. Hubby is losing weight also but does well to have on & off days. Even on my higher calorie days, I like to track. Keeps me honest...

kbmnurse

Good for you. Not me Easter is my free day, period end of story. No candy or alcohol. Just homemade delicious food.

_lyndseybrooke_

HELL NO!

I'm going to eat until I feel sick, and then it's back to business as usual Monday morning. Live a little - it's just one day!

Also, I'm pretty sure my family would never let me live it down if I brought my food scale with me on Easter. And my in-laws - oh, they'd never let me forget it.

It isn't something I would do at my boyfriend's family events, but this Easter is just my mom, dad, sister-in-law, and three nephews.

Then go for it! To each their own.

I just see it like this: There are only about four "eating holidays" each year (in the US, anyway). Letting go for one day is not going to cause you to gain weight. People seem to think eating what they want on Easter is going to make them gain 10 lbs. In order to gain 1 lb, you need to eat 3500 calories over your MAINTENANCE calories. For me, that's about 2000. So 2000 + 3500 = 5500 calories in one day. I seriously doubt I could eat that much on Easter, but even if I did, it's one pound. One tiny little pound. In order to gain two lbs, I'd need to eat 9000 calories. That's simply not going to happen. If I am at my mom's and there's a Reese's Egg sitting on the table, that thing is going in my belly, and I'll be damned if I'm going to yank out my phone to log the calories. I'm going there to celebrate with my family and be in the moment. And yes, taking 5 minutes to weigh, log, and obsess over my intake on that one day WILL make me enjoy it less. I know that if I log on that day, I'm going to feel guilty for going over my weekly goal. And feeling guilty for that during a holiday is stupid, so I just avoid it all by not logging. I also won't be eating less this week or next to "make up" for it. I'm eating as I normally do both before and after Easter Sunday.

Like ShannonMpls said, that's not a lifestyle I choose to live. I think it's great to log daily and weigh/measure all foods, and I do, but that's not what holidays are about to me. I'm not going to take my scale with me to Easter dinner this year because I don't plan to do it every Easter for the rest of my life. I'm not doing anything now that I don't plan on doing forever.

But like I said, go for it if that's what you want to do.

ThinLizzie0802

I'm more curious as to how measuring everything is really going to help you know about the exact number of calories. Is everything at your family event going to be made from a box? Are you going to ask them each for their specific recipe? At the potlucks and family gatherings I go to, different people prepare each dish, and everybody cooks differently. Some substitute because they don't have something on hand.
I just don't get how weighing every morsel of food is going to help you accurately log if you don't have exact packages and videos of how everybody made everything. (I sneak "yucky" vegetables into dishes occasionally to get more veggies in to my kids.)

The only person preparing food will be my mother. I will know the brand of ham, the brand of crab cakes, be able to weigh fresh green beans, have to do an estimate on her cheesy potatoes (but it will be closer than just not doing it at all) and I'm not positive on the other food that will be there. But, this is a very small family gathering so there won't be a ton of food. Christmas and Thanksgiving would be a different story. I just don't feel like this lunch is going to be difficult to track, so I'd like to. Allowing myself free days hasn't helped the cause, but rather I think hurt my mentality towards the whole process. When I allow myself to over indulge right now for any reason, I take that and run with it and mutate it to adapt to whatever situation I feel like not tracking in.

eldamiano

No. Just overestimate....

ThinLizzie0802

Just so we are on the same page, and I want to be clear, I do not think I will gain weight back by going over on Easter Sunday. And I know I will be going over. My real desire is to continue accurate logging so I have a very clear picture of my eating habits, what got me here, where I'm making good changes, etc. And I also am working on being able to eyeball portion sizes better. I think with my consistent weighing of food, I'll have a better idea of what real portion sizes look like which will help me in the future at other food-based events where I wouldn't feel comfortable taking a food scale.

amberlynn0925

If I were you I would go ahead and take the scale. No one will judge you and you'll feel better. Heck, you might even motivate some of your family members!

BlueBombers

Umm no......:noway:

JulsiePie

I would not take my food scale to a family holiday event and weigh my food. That is not a lifestyle I choose to live. And one thing I decided when I first began this just shy of three years ago was that I wouldn't incorporate any change I was not willing to stick to for the rest of my life.

Instead, I like Go Kaelo's approach to holiday food:

Eat the food lovingly prepared for you by your family and friends. Then, the next day, go back to your regular eating and exercise routine.

This is how I have also chosen to live. My food scale stays home....but to each their own! Do what makes you feel best, but for me, I don't want to take it to that level.

Sassymama66_75HARD

When I lost weight last time I would find out what we were eating ahead of time and do my research before hand. Figure out what I could eat and then just have that at the event. I would also bring a dish or two that I knew the calorie count so I could be sure I was on target for at least those items. You know your family best - if it won't be an issue for you/them - then do what feels right to you.

lemurcat12

It isn't something I would do at my boyfriend's family events, but this Easter is just my mom, dad, sister-in-law, and three nephews.

Given this, and your own knowledge of your family and yourself, I don't see the harm. In the same situation I'd just eyeball it and make reasonable choices about what to eat and how much, like I do at restaurants, but since I'm cooking on Easter, I'm certainly going to measure and log. I don't see how what you are suggesting is much different, and for me it doesn't interfere with the enjoyment.

AbsolutelyAnnie

Respectfully, here is where I am confused.

You say you don't want holidays to be an excuse for not tracking, but you are saying--basically--that you are willing to allow the holiday to be an excuse for going over your calories. I am NOT judging. Not at all. I am just saying that it seems, from here, that if tracking your food for one day is important enough to you to schlep your scale to the festivities then why not also make the effort to stay in your calories?

I am also wondering if you will have the recipes and ingredients for everything on the table in order to be able to make an accurate accounting.

I respect your wanting to draw a line in the sand. I just wonder if you've drawn it over your toes.

JJHnIOWA

Wow, don't be the "crazy lady."

Just use your best judgement and try to keep the serving size down.

What is funny is some of my biggest weight loss weeks are ones where i had a family function and ate a little more loosely for a meal or two.

Maybe my body likes the jumpstart?

MapleFlavouredMaiden

Absolutely not. Call it a refeed day and move on.

Athijade

That is something that I would never do.

_lyndseybrooke_

My mother, who is cooking for Easter, just texted me and asked me to make my mother-in-law's pecan pie as one of our desserts along with something else of my choice. Other desserts will include banana pudding and her special icing-free chocolate cake. I'll be having a serving of each, thank you, but only after I have a heaping plate of ham, deviled eggs, potato salad, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. Who needs green beans? Not me. Oh, and a dinner roll - can't forget that.

I still haven't been told whether my mother-in-law will be cooking. Uh oh...

EreborsPrincess

In the end, what matters most is what makes you happy. If you're more comfortable bringing your scale, knock yourself out.

sclose14

I say go for it. I think its a great idea.