Pot Luck Calories

dragonfly__

We are having a pot luck for lunch at work today. Most of my co-workers eat healthy and the choices when we do these are usually pretty good. However, it is still really hard for me to count calories when I have no idea how things were prepared or what all they contain I would hate to have to give everyone the third degree on their dish. I also have no idea how to track a meal like this in my food diary. Any suggestions?

kah78

I actually have something that I put into the database that I call my "guesstimate"--I have it set for 100 calories, and a few grams of fat, and then I just put how ever many servings of that that I think I ate. 800 calories= 8 servings. Potlucks are rough...but at least I feel like I am making an effort to track it somehow. When determining how many servings it is...I take what I think I ate...and then double it. ;-) (Half joking...but not really.) Those potlucks get me every time! Good luck!

MrsSmith2010

Potlucks are the devil. At least yours is semi helpful with being pretty healthy. All I do is go around, grab about half of what I normally would, drink tons of water, and then walk during the remainder of my lunch break. I mean, before people had all this "calorie counting" tools, what were they doing? They were eating only what they NEEDED and working in the fields, on the farms, whatever. One day of me not counting my lunch or dinner is ok. As long as I don't go over I tend to feel like it went well and never see a difference that scares me or anything. Good luck today!

Junisahn

Perhaps this won't work at a pot luck since you may not know who made everything, but what I did at my sister's house on Sunday at her lunch was to say "This is delicious! What's in it?" And if the list of ingredients sounded incomplete (ie, did you put oil in the marinade?), I even said stuff like - "hmmm - I'm going to try making this at home - do you usually use olive oil or veggie oil?" I remember always talking about food and recipes at my work potlucks - way before ever counting calories.

Maybe just focus on a dish or two that look healthy but that could be particularly nefarious with hidden fats.

dragonfly__

Thanks for all the suggestions! I love the guestimate entry idea for my food diary. Hope I get to walk a little at lunch today, looks like rain!