How do you handle what I call, "EATING EVENTS"

My weight loss is more important to me than eating junk that will leave me with an upset stomach for days. Why do you have to eat at these events? If you only go for the food, that says a lot about you and your determination to reach goal.

I disagree .. you should never feel bad about what you eat, even if it is overboard. There is always a new day, and anything else leads to an eating disorder.. very unhealthy

If it is a weekend event, I try to sleep in, so I wake up already missing breakfast. If I can, I'll only have a protein shake early afternoon (200 cal), to keep the hunger down, and give me enough of a full belly to get me to the event. So, for me, I've got easily 1500 cals I can eat while there, and still be on track to lose weight. 1750 if I want to not make backward progress. I'll get there hungry, but I have mentally decided to LIKE that hunger, as I know it means I'm burning fat, and I get to eat what I want. I'm not starving to death, I'm a little hungry. I can handle that hunger, for the reward. (I've found I enjoy food much more since I've been restricting calories.)

Or, I try to bank some calories through exercise. If a weekend, I know I can burn 1000 in the morning if I go to the gym. On a weekday, I go running and burn about 500. I may even run an additional day that week (before or after) to help me end the week being on track. For me, burning 1000 cal means I can eat my normal diet that day, and indulge in 1000 extra calories of something (ice cream, liquor, etc.)

Enjoy eating events. It is possible. Once we lose the weight we want to lose, we have the rest of our lives to deal with staying on track calorie-wise. Hopefully some advice given here will work for you and your mindset!

Everybody needs a cheat day. Also, it is important to actually have that cheat day as it creates an insulin spike in your system. This insulin spike is important to help you maintain the metabolism you have. Too much dieting/Incorrect dieting can lead to your metabolism dropping despite you losing weight, and will result in you just putting that weight back on. So what I do for these "eating events" is I make sure it is on my cheat day and that on that cheat day I go HARD at the gym. You can usually crank out an extra 800 calories to help you manage those days. To handle drinking events I stick to hard liquor with diet mixer lol... After these events it's important to understand that these days are important for the reason mentioned above, as well as mental health so that you don't crack and give up your diet altogether. In the end you're dieting to feel good about yourself so if you're dieting all the time and hating yourself then what's the point? Anyways, just how I view things

DO - Go and enjoy as you would normally if you weren't concerned about counting the calories.
DON'T - Go and think "I've screwed up today, so while I'm here, I'm going to go all out WOO!" and then eat/drink DOUBLE what you normally would 'because you've been bad already' or 'because it's the only chance you'll get to eat junk'.

Plus what other's have said - get a little bit more exercise in during the week, save up those calories, plan light meals for the day around the big event.

No eating and lifestyle plan will ever work if you can't enjoy yourself once in a while.

I have no self control so I just wind up hating myself the next day and then exercising a lot

The eating events that are hardest for me are the ones where you are eating at the home of family. My mother ALWAYS watches like a hawk what everyone is eating and if your plate is even partially full, she will try to push more food. If you were to decline to eat one of the foods, she would act hurt that you didn't like her food or tell you hot to worry about treating yourself once in awhile. Food Pushers drive me crazy!!!

As to the fair, if all that junk really seriously tempted me, I wouldn't go. Or if you went with a friend or a spouse, you could ask for just one bite of what they are having. Also, at most fairs, they have something called, "Lemon Shake-Up." It's great--homemade lemonade and they put the lemon halves in it for flavor. Most of them have sweetener on hand and will be glad to make a sugar-free Shake-Up. Tastes good to me!

I don't really agree with those that say--it's just one day--go ahead and enjoy yourself. Maybe some are able to get right back on the wagon and start eating well again--but this type of thing has often thrown me into a full-fledged binge in the past.

Good luck!

I'm generally pretty good unless alcohol is involved....Then, forget it!

I can pass up fair food & stuff like that. It's not as hard as it seems. Or if you really must have something, just factor it into your daily calories.

Hmmm. Interesting question.

There may be other benefits to a food-centric event... but, essentially, it's an excuse for overeating, isn't it? I suppose when food is no longer the 'be all and end all' then other kinds of events will naturally fill the place?

Also - temptation. I mainly don't go to stuff like that cos of my binge tendencies coupled with my eating capacity!

My two suggestions (I have a trip to Prague coming up myself):

Plan for it. Be super-good the week before. No cheat meals. Good cardio days.

Don't try to hard to restrict yourself. Have fun. Enjoy that one meal that might be your entire calorie goal. But track everything. It might be hard, because you might have to estimate a lot since you won't have prepared everything yourself, so overestimate if necessary.

I have self control...I enjoy myself, but I don't feel the need to gorge myself. A little self control goes a long way.