Christmas party food - what to do?

Kymmu

I went to my work party last night.
I was perfectly under all of my goals till I had a cocktail.
Choose high protein foods over sugary ones, chicken, almonds cheese etc.
Try vodka,soda fresh lime, or Chardonnay and soda spritzers.
Have fun, keep talking and laughing, time will fly.
If you tell people you have begun a new way of eating so you feel better they should understand if you are a bit more choosy.
#Love# the christmas tree idea....

HotMamaByVday

Eat everything in sight....have fun and drink like a fish! By the end of the night you wont care you are on a diet of not. Be sure to wrap your body in tinsel and tell everyone you're a human Christmas tree!

Did this last night. Well, I split a plate of delish Mexican food with my sister so we could both get dessert and had 2 margaritas.

What i have learned from this journey is that the more I deprive myself, the more I yo yo. I am learning a new lifestyle. I will NEVER go weeks without hanging out with my friends, which means being "tempted" by food and drink. I am able to have a glass of wine and dinner at a restaraunt that does not publish nutritional info without ruining my whole diet. Why? BC IT IS NOT A DIET. It is a lifestyle and my life will include mostly healthy eating, lots of exercise and the occasional margarita and mexican bread pudding. (BTW, I managed to leave about a quarter of the serving at the restaraunt.)

daydream58

I'm going to a big event tonight at the Empress... the food is always excellent, so I plan to enjoy it. I just had a huge plate of salad with romaine lettuce, cucumber, celery, baby carrots, yellow bell pepper, radishes, parmesan cheese, green grapes, salad seed mix and asiago dressing all over it and it came in at a whooping 204 calories, so I am not only not hungry, I have tons of calories left for tonight and I plan to use every last one of them too!

Yes, even tho I'm knocking on the door to ONEderland, what can I say? A party is a party and like others have said, this is not a diet, it's a lifestyle, and my lifestyle is not threatened by a party!

Art63

Results are in. The party food and drink totalled approximately 1300 calories. It's too hard to enter every single thing I ate so after entering all the items I could I just guessed a calorie total for the others. Two glasses of red merlot wine, and then the rest of the night drank water. Dessert was two pieces of cake - but the one was a slice as thin as humanly possible and the other was a half piece of the one I made (and I know exactly how many calories were in that one).

And that was it. I followed much of the advice here. Thank you everyone. I ate small portions. Only went to the buffet table once. Chose what appeared to be lo-cal things as much as I could. I even remember one bit of advice on where to stand. So, I purposely got my food from the appetizer table and then quickly moved away. Ha.

You're right. I need to stop thinking of this whole thing of "watching what I eat and regular exercising" as a short term experience. This is the rest of my life. I'm certainly not going to track my food and exercise in a diary forever. That part is short term but the rest of it isn't. Last night was a proper experience. I didn't overdo it. I didn't even come close to what I would normally have done. I didn't feel like grazing and I didn't even feel craving. I thought I managed it all quite well. This morning's weight is up a pound but that's nothing.

Again, thanks for the advice.

JeSuisPrest

"This is the rest of my life. I'm certainly not going to track my food and exercise in a diary forever."

See for me, it is the rest of my life and I will always keep track, that will be part of maintaining. It will keep me honest. Kudos to you, sounds you like you made it through the evening quite well!!

One last comment from me, for those that said "it's just one party", that train of thought for me is what throws me off the wagon. There will always be a reason to say "it's just one time". For me this is a lifestyle change and just because it's a party or whatever I will not use it as an excuse to go overboard. But we are all different, aren't we?

dls06

Watch your portions....just because you are going to a party doesn't mean you have to throw in the towel! Have a drink, then follow up with water, pick healthy foods first and then have a treat or two. Don't stress over this, it's all in the portion!

This:drinker: