Eating out/Weekends/Drinking RUIN my diet success! Help!!!

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alainab6110
alainab6110 Posts: 7
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm not your typical late 20's girl who is settled in with a husband and kids...I still love to party and go out A LOT! My typical week includes drinking Thursday to Sat night....(sometimes Wed night too). The drinking is usually followed by drunk late night eating....and this just kills all the progress I've made all week with being good.

I drink mostly Vodka and Diet Coke, but I'll have 6 or 7 drinks a night which puts me way over my calorie limit for the day....plus I usually snack after at a late night diner or what ever I have at home....

I also travel about 120 days a year for work in which I end up at a restaurant every night eating out....

It caused me to gain significant weight which is why I'm joining this site and trying to get myself back on track....

Does anyone have any tips for me? I'm sure someone is or has been in the same or similar situation....Anyone???

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Alaina
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Replies

  • NurseHthr
    NurseHthr Posts: 43 Member
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    I'd say the answer is pretty simple...KNOCK IT OFF! You can't expect to eat poorly, snack late night, and drink excessively and still lose weight! You don't have to quit doing those things altogether but 4 nights a week is just too much. Not good for your heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Sorry, to be harsh, you may not appreciate being told what to do but if you want success you just have to make big changes to your lifestyle.
    It is possible to eat out or eat well when travelling by just making the right choices whenever you can. If there's a salad on the menu order it once in a while! If you're living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms (since you said you travel for work I assume this is the case) make sure to have some healthy snack options on hand and if there is a mini fridge available (most hotels have them if you ask) buy a couple of pieces of fruit and veggies to keep in there.
    I hope you can find a healthy balance. Hope I did not offend
  • rbryntes
    rbryntes Posts: 710 Member
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    It IS possible to drink non-alcoholic beverages while out. Tell yourself you can have ONE. Then tell yourself and everyone else you will switch to something like Diet Coke. You'll find it can still be fin but you won't beat yourself up over it.

    As for travel, the best thing I know of is to do things like instead of fries, get a salad, etc. when eating out. It helps, every little bit.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    I'd say the answer is pretty simple...KNOCK IT OFF! You can't expect to eat poorly, snack late night, and drink excessively and still lose weight! You don't have to quit doing those things altogether but 4 nights a week is just too much. Not good for your heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Sorry, to be harsh, you may not appreciate being told what to do but if you want success you just have to make big changes to your lifestyle.
    It is possible to eat out or eat well when travelling by just making the right choices whenever you can. If there's a salad on the menu order it once in a while! If you're living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms (since you said you travel for work I assume this is the case) make sure to have some healthy snack options on hand and if there is a mini fridge available (most hotels have them if you ask) buy a couple of pieces of fruit and veggies to keep in there.
    I hope you can find a healthy balance. Hope I did not offend

    I would have to agree...

    A 'diet' wont work long term anyway, you need to be thinking about your lifestyle as a whole.

    at the moment your lifestyle causes you to put on weight and be the size/shape that you currently are, that you say you are unhappy with, so theres only one way to change that... by changing ur lifestyle.
  • kateistoned
    kateistoned Posts: 116
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    Hiyas!

    I had that same problem at the beginning of my weight loss (I wasn't losing hardly any weight). SO I gave up drinking for a while. Nowadays, I drink maybe 1-2 times/month (I make it worth it when I do) and my weight is sliding right on off. If/when I drink, I make sure to exercise like crazy that day so I have the calories. I know it sucks to "give up" a partying lifestyle but it's amazing how much happier and healthier I am! I highly recommend giving up alcohol for a month just to see what it feels like to not have all that crap in your body/life - after that first month, I bet you'll realize that you don't need to drink to go out and party AND alcohol sucks.

    Good luck!
  • catwrangler
    catwrangler Posts: 918 Member
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    I'd say the answer is pretty simple...KNOCK IT OFF! You can't expect to eat poorly, snack late night, and drink excessively and still lose weight! You don't have to quit doing those things altogether but 4 nights a week is just too much. Not good for your heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Sorry, to be harsh, you may not appreciate being told what to do but if you want success you just have to make big changes to your lifestyle.
    It is possible to eat out or eat well when travelling by just making the right choices whenever you can. If there's a salad on the menu order it once in a while! If you're living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms (since you said you travel for work I assume this is the case) make sure to have some healthy snack options on hand and if there is a mini fridge available (most hotels have them if you ask) buy a couple of pieces of fruit and veggies to keep in there.
    I hope you can find a healthy balance. Hope I did not offend
    word
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    I'd say the answer is pretty simple...KNOCK IT OFF! You can't expect to eat poorly, snack late night, and drink excessively and still lose weight! You don't have to quit doing those things altogether but 4 nights a week is just too much. Not good for your heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Sorry, to be harsh, you may not appreciate being told what to do but if you want success you just have to make big changes to your lifestyle.
    It is possible to eat out or eat well when travelling by just making the right choices whenever you can. If there's a salad on the menu order it once in a while! If you're living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms (since you said you travel for work I assume this is the case) make sure to have some healthy snack options on hand and if there is a mini fridge available (most hotels have them if you ask) buy a couple of pieces of fruit and veggies to keep in there.
    I hope you can find a healthy balance. Hope I did not offend

    ^ I gotta agree with this. It's all about a healthy lifestyle change. Partying it up and pigging out for days a week is not going to get you there. And as you get older it becomes easier to pack on the pounds with that type of lifestyle. Learn self control and discipline. There is no short cut to fitness. It's hard work. You either want it or don't.
  • lizzue
    lizzue Posts: 276 Member
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    Me and my girlie friends are the same love life and enjoy drinking eating and partying, this got us all a bit wobbly round the middle so now instead we will go paint balling or rock climbing together, or just go to each others house and cook for each other and then go out, it is healthier and less expensive.

    If you are worried about what you eat late at night, change what is in your cupboards.

    You dont have to be good all the time, who is? But you can change it.
  • runnermel
    runnermel Posts: 278
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    I'd say the answer is pretty simple...KNOCK IT OFF! You can't expect to eat poorly, snack late night, and drink excessively and still lose weight! You don't have to quit doing those things altogether but 4 nights a week is just too much. Not good for your heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Sorry, to be harsh, you may not appreciate being told what to do but if you want success you just have to make big changes to your lifestyle.
    It is possible to eat out or eat well when travelling by just making the right choices whenever you can. If there's a salad on the menu order it once in a while! If you're living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms (since you said you travel for work I assume this is the case) make sure to have some healthy snack options on hand and if there is a mini fridge available (most hotels have them if you ask) buy a couple of pieces of fruit and veggies to keep in there.
    I hope you can find a healthy balance. Hope I did not offend

    great advice!! make sure to get workouts in while traveling. and also offset each alcoholic drink with a glass of water!! and fix a healthy snack before you go out to have ready when you get home.
  • lawtechie
    lawtechie Posts: 708 Member
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    I'm not your typical late 20's girl who is settled in with a husband and kids...I still love to party and go out A LOT! My typical week includes drinking Thursday to Sat night....(sometimes Wed night too). The drinking is usually followed by drunk late night eating....and this just kills all the progress I've made all week with being good.

    I drink mostly Vodka and Diet Coke, but I'll have 6 or 7 drinks a night which puts me way over my calorie limit for the day....plus I usually snack after at a late night diner or what ever I have at home....

    Limit yourself to 1 or 2 drinks, and 1 or 2 nights. You say it kills the progress you made "all week", but if you're drinking for 3+ out of the 7 days, I'd say you're trashing your diet more than you're eating right. 6-7 drinks a night is anywhere from 500 - 800 calories extra a night! That's not even counting the snacking afterwards.

    Have you been honest with yourself and been logging it all? If not, then start now and look back in a week or two with a fresh sober head and look at your food diary. Perhaps that'll give you the desire to change.

    As for travelling, hit the local grocery store and buy fresh fruits and veggies; order a sensible dinner from restraurants, and drink lots of water because the restaurant meals are likely high in sodium.
  • sweetiepie31612
    sweetiepie31612 Posts: 240 Member
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    Sounds like me. I go out all the time. I workout before I go out though. I'll spend an hour or so at the gym and figure out how many drinks I can have based on how many calories I burned during my workout. If you're not willing to change your drinking habits, you're going to have to start putting in extra time at the gym. Maybe consider switching to vodka water too, if you can stomach it. As far as the late night snacking...I just don't have snack foods in my house. If its not in the house its not readily accessible and I have to actively search it out. Also, after a night out, I always double my water intake the next day. Helps flush out everything. Helps w/the hangover too.

    As far as travel, you're just going to have to make healthier decisions when you're out to eat. I HATE salads, but I eat them about 1/2 the time I go out to eat.

    Good luck
  • kcspeechmom
    kcspeechmom Posts: 1
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    I would suggest you read "Body Fat Solution" by Tom Venuto. This book deals with why eat for emotional reasons. I also downloaded "The Compound Effect" on iTunes. Again it deals with discpline and how every choice we make makes a difference. The little choices we make are often for emotional reasons that we may not even be aware of. These two pieces have truly helped me be more aware of my goals and choices.

    From what I am reading it sounds like you drink to escape and then when you do, your fitness goals are put off for another day. And then you probably feel terrible the next day for the drinking/eating you did the night before and the cycle continues. I know because I have been there.

    You can do whatever you set your mind to do.
  • anastasiaBH
    anastasiaBH Posts: 268 Member
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    Yeah, I've got a tip.

    You have a decision to make - keep doing what you're doing and venting it here, which clearly isn't helping you lose any weight. Or, make a few (but significant) changes to your lifestyle and get yourself where you want to be.

    When you're ready, and only when
    YOU'RE.
    REALLY.
    READY.
    will this work for you.

    Until then, no point in coming to MFP..... But we'll all still be here when you decide it's time.
  • 1a1a
    1a1a Posts: 761 Member
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    Being a person who doesn't drink alcohol I query/propose: can you go out and have fun without getting drunk? Perhaps that is something to aspire to.

    Re: eating at restaurants, I do this all the time out of choice, my approaches to eating out without blowing the calorie budget include having a guess at what I will eat and logging it before hand (about which time I see the large number of calories attached to some things and reconsider eating them), the other thing, and this is totally crucial, is that I get half my dinner to take away. Seeing as where I live, even the entre size meals are more like food for 2 than one, this way I don't eat 700, 800, 900 calories all in one sitting and I get a second meal out of it :-D. If you feel a half serve isn't going to fill you up, get a side of steamed vegies or salad with dressing on the side.

    Finally, if you know you are going to blow it on the weekends, maybe get some more exercise in during the week and earn yourself some calorie credit (whilst still eating enough food to recover from said exercise), say, ending each day with 100 calories to spare. If weight loss is all numbers (which I am sure it is not), then in theory, that should work. Of course, what ever you try and do, review it after a few weeks to see if it is working for you.
  • laurelei09
    laurelei09 Posts: 32 Member
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    It looks like good advice has been given so far, so I'll add that most business class hotels and probably most any hotel these days has a fitness room. If you spend a lot of time in a hotel, make use of these things. Balance out the calories you KNOW you're going to rack up with the dinners and the partying and get the math to work out. What you can feasibly burn off is basically your allowance for those things. Like what's been said by MFP-ers before me, you're going to have to make some changes if the weight loss/fitness thing is what you want more. Meaning you have to want it more than the partying lifestyle and then you have to assert yourself to make better choices in your daily life or general lifestyle. Best of luck!
  • Huskeryogi
    Huskeryogi Posts: 578 Member
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    It depends on how many changes you are willing to make and how things affect you psychologically. I'm very similar - 30 single and travel quite a bit for work (not quite as much as you though). I can (and will) tell you what worked for me, but you need to understand that I tried quite a few other options first and failed because they made me miserable.

    1 - I only drink 1 day per week max. You can have a good time out with your friends without alcohol.

    2 - I am an intermittent faster. Tried the 6 small meals a day thing and was always counting the mins until the next time I could eat - Basically thinking about food constantly. Now I only consume calories between 1PM - 9PM. That means I get to eat a fairly substantial dinner. If you want more info on this check out www.leangains.com or google Intermittent Fasting.

    3 - When traveling I try to find a hotel that's a little more of an extended stay place with a mini kitchen (Candlewood for example) if the town I'm traveling too doesn't have one I always ask for a mini fridge. Then I go to the grocery store and by fruit and veggies and lunch meat (high in sodium but has protein). When I eat lunch at 1PM I usually just eat 400 calories of fruit and lunch meat and maybe some cheerios. Dinner I eat out but I plan ahead. I look up calorie content ahead of time, plus as you do this more you learn what meals will be under 800-1000 calories. Another restaurant option is to ask for a to-go container as soon as you get your food and put half in the box before you even start eating. Then at 8:30PM I eat another 400 calories generally very similar to the lunch - just a different kind of fruit, etc. Total calories comes out between 1600-1800.

    Like I said - this is just what works for me. Hopefully some of it is helpful for you.
  • jeannine71
    jeannine71 Posts: 66 Member
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    Awesome advice!! I've been looking for a way out of my cycle of blowing everything on the weekends or when friends are over...I knew I'd just have to bite the bullet and give it up. I think you just gave me the extra push I needed. Thanks! :happy:
  • Lakerlady5747
    Lakerlady5747 Posts: 77 Member
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    Like the others have said, you need to change your lifestyle in order to see significant weight loss. I understand you want to go out and have fun, but do you really need to go out 3-4 nights a week to a bar and get drunk all of those nights? Think about what all that alcohol is doing to your body -- I promise you, it's not doing anything good. Try slowly limiting yourself, as in only going out 1-2 nights a week and drinking less, then limit yourself more from there.

    There are MANY things you can do for fun besides going out to bars so many nights a week. Many of these activities can even include some type of physical activity, which is also great for meeting your weight loss goals. Try going for long bike rides with friends, going kayaking, rollerblading, hiking, etc. My friends and I also really enjoy just cooking a meal together at home and enjoying one another's company by playing games, watching movies, etc. Having fun does not have to mean drinking.

    As far as traveling for work, try to make healthy choices when you're away. If you eat continental breakfasts at the hotels, pick the healthier foods and stock up on the fruits. Many hotels now have fitness rooms -- use them. If you have a laptop for work (or a personal one that you bring with you), buy some fitness DVD's and workout to those in your room.

    You CAN succeed if you put your mind to it! You just have to realize that your current lifestyle isn't conducive to weight loss, just like a person who binges on fast food 3-4 times per week doesn't have a lifestyle that is conducive to weight loss.

    Good luck, and remember that we are all here to support you in your efforts to become a healthier person!=)
  • pjdamico
    pjdamico Posts: 6 Member
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    I guess I have a little different take, although I agree with the premise from everyone above here who says it is about your choices. Take a look at who you have as a support system, who you call friends and make decisions there too. If you were my friend and telling me you wanted to change your life, I would be on you when you decided to live outside of your goals. Take a look at my blog, I deal with this stuff on a daily basis too. And worse yet, I'm in the alcohol industry, so I'm surrounded by stuff I love like wine and food.

    http://freefromwithin.blogspot.com/

    You have the strength, do you have the faith? You have the tools, do you have the wisdom? You have all you need inside, do you have all you need outside?
  • kevin3344
    kevin3344 Posts: 702 Member
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    I go out more than anyone on this board probably. In fact I run a group called Triangle Happy Hour in the Raleigh, NC area. We go out 2-3 times a week probably and sometimes more. I've been to almost every bar & restaurant in the area, often times twice.

    Best thing to do is eat before you go out. That way you are not hungry. Also, put a limit on how much drinking you do. Eat salads with a side of chicken or steak vs. the pasta.

    You might ask for a Coke in a short glass instead of a large one in order to limit the calories and so others won't say, "why aren't you drinking?". A lot of drinking is peer pressure based.

    Ultimately, you are responsible for what you eat and drink. Knowing before the night gets started can help.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
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    I may be repeating what others have said, so please excuse that... As for partying/drinking on the weekends with your friends - try having a glass of water between drinks. That will at least slow you down and potentially limit the amount of alcohol you drink (and make you less likely to drunk eat later on). I dated a guy once who didn't like drinking alcohol, but he was embarrassed not to have an alcoholic beverage in front of others (ridiculous, I know...). He used to ask for a diet coke in a small glass at the bar and then tell people it was rum and coke... Alternatively, a friend of mine who was dieting swore that gin and tonics were the lowest calorie drink that you could get. I'm not sure how the calories compare to vodka and diet coke though.

    Regarding restaurants: if there's nothing on the menu that suits your diet, then ask for a large garden salad with grilled chicken or fish and dressing on the side. Or get something grilled as a main dish with steamed vegetables on the side. You can't go wrong with those as long as you make sure to ask how everything is cooked.


    Sorry for repeating what kevin3344 had to say...

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