Big Date with the boyfriend (may involve a lot of food)

EmmaDillinger

So my boyfriend is planning a day out Friday for my birthday. I’m pretty sure we are going to the cheese cake factory for dinner. I really love cheese cake but I just got back on track today and don’t want to fall off the wagon! Any ideas about how I can have my cake and eat it too so to speak?

Jenene88

I think it's ok to cheat for one day just don't overdo it. Eat maybe half the cheesecake. The next day workout twice as hard so you don't feel guilty about it. Or skip the cheesecake all together

ambut

It's okay to go out to eat sometimes. My birthday is tomorrow (yay!) and I'm not stressing over eating the delicious fried food that is coming my way. The trick is to make it a sometimes/rarely thing, not an often/usually thing. This website has helped me change my attitude about exercise and diet because I now treat my calories the way I treat my bank account. If I can spend, say, 1250 calories a day on food, then I consider that my budget. If I exercise more, I increase my budget, and can "spend" more on food. So if I really want the full calorie soda or the french fries, I better move my butt.

For dinners out or other occasions where there might be a significant increase in calories on the day, you can do one of two things. First you can "save up" your calories, so stay more in the green than usual for the days leading up to your dinner. If you're expecting to go over your budget by 1000 calories on Friday, use today and tomorrow to get maybe 300 or 400 calories under your goal each day, so that you don't have to kill yourself the day after just to feel better about yourself. The other strategy is to make up for the overindulgence after the fact, but I find this to be less effective because it's motivated by guilt and regret rather than positive thinking and earning rewards. What's better - helping a stranger with a heavy box and then getting a surprise $10 tip, or getting handed a $10 and then being told to shovel snow for an hour? Having the good part at the end helps maintain a positive attitude with positive reinforcement; having the harder part at the end just makes you feel like exercise is punishment.

Don't stress about ONE dinner. Over the course of your life (or even this month), it's not going to have a huge effect on you and your weight. What WILL have a huge effect is your attitude and the way you view your own work and progress. If a cheesecake is enough to make you feel like you've lost, it's not a problem of eating a cheesecake. Foster a routine and a set of habits that encourage you to continue making progress, to keep trying all the time, to allow yourself to have things you like without feeling guilty, and to maintain balance in your mind, body, and soul. No single event will derail you, but negative thinking and feelings of guilt/failure absolutely can. I'm not feeling guilty or worried or negative about my birthday dinner tomorrow; I'm psyched, because I know that my exercise today and tomorrow is going to earn me all the grease I want :-) Stay positive, try hard, and let yourself enjoy this one dinner!

Also, happy birthday :-)