I need some help, please - Family reunion

witheredorchid

So we are going out of town tomorrow for my fiancee's family reunion. I have never met this side of his family and we are going to be driving 3 hours there and back and spending the night in a hotel. I am dreading this! How do I stick to my diet this weekend? I can pack some light snacks for the road but how do I coun't calories at the reunion without looking like a freak? I don't want to bring my own food....I am going to be bringing a healthy dish to pass but I don't want to pack an entire lunch and dinner. Plus it's not like I can ask everyone "Excuse me how many cups of pasta did you put in this salad and how many people do you think it serves?" Or "What brand of cracker is this?" Not to mention I have no clue how I"m going to get my exercise in.....Anyone ever had to deal with giant potlucks and survived?

Stormyyy

Have a good time, concentrate just on having a good time with your partner and his Family he'll love you all the more for being good company and having a good time....you can make this up by doing a wee bit more exercise when you get back. What's the worst that can happen? You put on a pound and can easily ake that off in a week xx

jrich1

may not be a popular response, but sometimes you just gotta live.. enjoy it in moderation, exercise when you can and deal with it when you get back

JulieSD

may not be a popular response, but sometimes you just gotta live.. enjoy it in moderation, exercise when you can and deal with it when you get back

Agree. This is real life. Have fun

2011_4mygirls

I agree with the other two posts. However, you can try to make healhty choices while there. Hopefully, there will be other people who will be bringing healthy sides as well. Try to limit your portions as best as possible. Also, drink more water than normal this weekend The most important part is to relax and have fun!!!

geraldm55

My best advise for you is to relax and enjoy the weekend. practice portion control and if you go over you just have to dig in hard next week. Your doing amazing and will continue to do amazing, but sometimes its important to just have fun also.

Have an awesome weekend and be safe

MisdemeanorM

Just skip going back for seconds (OK, i admit it... thirds) on the dessert table and enjoy yourself in moderation. If you must log (ie, to keep a logging day streak up) just log "potluck" and put in like 1000 calories. Just make a wild guess. Especially if you have been really "good" lately, a day off might give you a jumpstart! And then just go easy the rest of the trip on what you eat. Healthy breakfast, skip the snacks for the day, eat what you want until you are full at the reunion, and then get back to it when you get home. You can't log and restrict and control everything that you eat for the rest of your life. I'm not in this to never be able to eat at a potluck ever again. I'm in it just to overall average out on the side of "healthy".

radicalreader

You view this as ONE isolated day in a lifetime journey of health.
Use your best judgment in making food choices, but don't sweat it.

Enjoy the time getting to know your fiancees family without worrying about the calorie count.
You would have to eat 3500 extra calories to gain a pound. Probably not gonna happen.

When you return, you get back on track with your exercise and calorie counting.

conniehgtv

if it looks REALLY good, pass it up! LOL seriously, stay away from heavy sauces and mayo laced dishes, try to ea what looks lean, just try to make the best choices and drink LOTS of water

jackiebo

Don't pig out on anything. Watch your portions, stay away from obviously sweet desserts, or have just a sample of them. You'll feel better about yourself and your progress if you don't splurge.

ChantalGG

Just try to not take too much of the fatty foods like mayo pasta and eat the salads, low fat meats, diet pop or water. For dessert stick to fresh cut fruit and not the pies and cakes. If there is dancing or games participate, you will burn a lot of calories.

witheredorchid

Thanks everyone. I'm a little worried about taking a day off because I usually have a really hard time getting back on track. Most of the time though it's not a planned "break" so maybe this will help me plan things out when I get back.

tmiqueen

Don't overthink what you enter in your food diary. If you have pasta salad, just type in pasta salad and pick one that looks close to what you had. Don't be too anal about it. You'll get a GENERAL idea of what you had and can make adjustments from there. Make sure you get plenty of exercise (maybe be the first to suggest a family game of volleyball or something?) and drinks lots of water and you should be just fine.

CARNAT22

Sometimes life gets in the way and we will all have occasions that we simply cannot control exactly what we eat / how much exercise we take.

I think your best bet is to eat clean and exercise in the days before and after but just enjoy the event itself.

You have acheived and amazing loss thus far, one night (or even one week) will not send you spiralling back into bad habits.

Also you know by now what to eat and what not to eat - you don't need to know the exact brands if you do decide to log. Stick to green salads as opposed to pasta salads, go for white meats as opposed to red etc.. You know all this already hun so just go and have a wonderful time!

xxx

marshalemar

Enjoy yourself - I bet you will be surprised at the healthy choices you make, but don't worry about trying to log each and every thing you eat. That is only one day of your life - and it's an important one because you are meeting the other side of the family. You want to have as few things as possible getting in your way of having fun - don't let the "diet" impact your good time by analyzing every little thing you eat. Enjoy - but just have some self-control with portion and do the best you can do.

lizziebeth1028

Yep, I agree with everyone else..just relax and enjoy. One day of not tracking your calories will not sabotage your diet. Have fun!!

amysj303

I agree, just enjoy yourself, try to focus less on the food and more on the people, eat reasonably and know it takes 3500 calories over maintenance to gain a pound of fat, so if you gain it's probably just water weight and get back on track when you return. Probably wouldn't make a very good impression to ask for the nutrition information on everything

CrazyDaisysMommy

I hear your anxiety! It sounds like this is a really important get-together, so focus in on what's important: bonding with your new family to be! If you go off the rails, then use the next couple of days to make up for it. Maybe add 10 more minutes to each workout or cut back 100 calories for a few days following. But truthfully, I don't think you'll go off the rails. The fact that you're even thinking about this ahead of time, shows that you are committed. So, maybe give yourself some ground rules: no chips or other munchies before the main dishes are served. Maybe bring a veggie plate to ensure that you can at least graze on that. Pay attention to your beverages and avoid high calories drinks. Drink lots of water. If there is a buffet set up, fill 75% of your plate with greens and veggies first, then do light sampling of other things. When you go to log in the food, you'll have to guesstimate, but there are soe many items in the MFP database, at least you'll be in the ball park. And for exercise, maybe his family will have some frisbee or volleyball? Maybe dancing? If there are lots of kids maybe you can rally them to get a game of kickball going and then you can beat them at it Have a great time and good luck!

witheredorchid

Thanks everyone. I'm so glad I found this place. I could never find this kind of support IRL.