Losing weight while carrying on living your normal life

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morenita71
morenita71 Posts: 137 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So, this week's social activities are theatre (including pre dinner drinks/meal), dinner out with friends and a 40th birthday party on Saturday. My solutions are to not drink any alcohol tomorrow (added bonus won't need the bathroom mid-performance) and have dinner ready at home; not drinking wine on Friday (it's Vietnamese restaurant but has sushi and sake on menu so fairly healthy) and on Saturday as it's a house party taking along some low cal drinks and some food that's filling and low cal. (And gym everyday)
How do you manage your social obligations and logging? Would love to hear people's experiences (other than just going old turkey on all of it).
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  • My_Butt
    My_Butt Posts: 2,300 Member
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    morenita71 wrote: »
    So, this week's social activities are theatre (including pre dinner drinks/meal), dinner out with friends and a 40th birthday party on Saturday. My solutions are to not drink any alcohol tomorrow (added bonus won't need the bathroom mid-performance) and have dinner ready at home; not drinking wine on Friday (it's Vietnamese restaurant but has sushi and sake on menu so fairly healthy) and on Saturday as it's a house party taking along some low cal drinks and some food that's filling and low cal. (And gym everyday)
    How do you manage your social obligations and logging? Would love to hear people's experiences (other than just going old turkey on all of it).

    Since I'm a Buddhist, I abstain from alcohol and almost always order water. I'm up front right off the bat with my friends that I'm either 1) watching what I consume or, 2) my religious reasons for not drinking. They tend not to push too hard for me to drink or eat with them.

    For the food aspect, you can have everything in moderation, but prelog. I'll take a moment to go off and start logging so I know what I can have during the day.
    And if you do go over for the day, correct it tomorrow by going back to your regular routine. Don't try to lower your calories more, or exercise 2 hours longer or anything since that sets you up for a binge cycle.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,107 Member
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    I have a weekly food/exercise planner, if I have something planned like a meal out with friends, I will factor it into the plan, I will bank calories from my more active days, get an extra workout in or do intermittent fasting - this is something I regularly do on a weekend. I will have a light brunch something like scrambled eggs & salmon or poached eggs on toast at around 12/1pm to allow more calories for dinner/drinks.

    If it's a very special one-off kind of thing I will just have a maintenance day.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
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    When I have something out of the norm coming up, I adjust the rest of the day/week to accommodate it. Since you have several things hitting at once I'd just do a maintenance week and not worry about trying to eat at a deficit until all of these things are done. No harm doing this and it will give you a bit of wiggle room to enjoy your events, without stressing out about it :)
  • morenita71
    morenita71 Posts: 137 Member
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    Thanks all. Yes, certain friends I'm much more comfortable being open with about trying to lose weight but not always the case. Most of my weeks are like this though so the cutting back on the other days is probably the way forward rather than maintenance as I'd be stuck on that permanently if not!
  • noirelb
    noirelb Posts: 216 Member
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    I personally go on maintenance on those days (often Saturday and Sunday). I just make sure I don't go over maintenance calories and if I can work out it's even better. clearly if I binged on everything I see and drinks, I'd go over those calories but it's a choice I make to only have 1 or 2 drinks and stop eating when I'm not hungry. I should still lose 1 lbs per week at that rate since my Monday-Friday is at 700 calories deficit.
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
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    To lose .5lb/week I can eat up to 1640 calories/daily. So, if I KNOW I have something on a weekend, I plan for it, and eat 1200-1300 calories on the weekdays, and bank those calories. If I want to go nuts, I can, and if I don't I just lose at faster rate.

    I'm not a fan of limiting myself when I go out - it's life, I want to have fun. I'll limit myself when my days are normal (work, home, etc).
  • perkymommy
    perkymommy Posts: 1,642 Member
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    I'm older and have kids and not that social, lol. My extent of social is going to the inlaws pool a few times a month or maybe an occasional birthday celebration here and there but not that much in one week. I will drink but only if I have the calories left on that day. It never messes up my efforts to lose. Liquor actually dries me out. I see a loss the next day almost any time I do drink. Just plan ahead like you say you do and you should be fine. The worst part is that you have so much going on in one single week. If it were all spread out it would be easier to not worry as much about a gain so I see why you are worried for sure.
  • __TMac__
    __TMac__ Posts: 1,665 Member
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    On days we have social eating going on, I eat light the rest of the day and exercise as usual. If I keep it reasonable that evening, that plan usually gets me where I want to be.

    I guess I should be grateful my family is made up entirely of introverts. We don't have social events very often. A week like that would end up with us all in our bedrooms under the covers. :)
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    After about a month I stopped logging altogether but I never logged social events. I gained weight very slowly so I knew I didn't need to cut back a lot to create a deficit. I just paid attention and tried to eat a little less than I'd been eating before. When at a restaurant I would usually go for grilled meats and steamed veggies and shoot for one less glass of wine that usual (honestly that one less glass of wine would likely have been enough to create a deficit). If we were the host of the social event I made sure there were delicious calorie friendly options available.

    This is the same thing I do in maintenance.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
    edited August 2017
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    If I know I have a big dinner planned, I'll often skip breakfast and have a small lunch (around 400 cals) and leave the majority of my calories for dinner. And if the restaurant has nutrition info, I decide what I'm ordering before I go and pre-log it.
  • eyer0ll
    eyer0ll Posts: 313 Member
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    morenita71 wrote: »
    Thanks all. Yes, certain friends I'm much more comfortable being open with about trying to lose weight but not always the case. Most of my weeks are like this though so the cutting back on the other days is probably the way forward rather than maintenance as I'd be stuck on that permanently if not!

    Same. I'm currently losing about 1.5 lbs/wk and this is what I do on days I'm going out:

    - Eat super light for breakfast (often just a couple of eggs), have a late afternoon snack and save the remaining calories for going out.
    - Limit alcohol to a specific number of drinks and don't start drink before I sit down to dinner. If my spouse is drinking sometimes I'll just have a few sips of their drink during dinner instead of ordering my own.
    - I never finish everything on the plate and often don't bring leftovers home. And I eat as slowly as I can. I often remind myself this definitely won't be the last time I'll eat delicious food.
    - Work out without fail.

    No one except spouse knows I'm dieting and I haven't gotten any weirdness from friends.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,944 Member
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    morenita71 wrote: »
    So, this week's social activities are theatre (including pre dinner drinks/meal), dinner out with friends and a 40th birthday party on Saturday. My solutions are to not drink any alcohol tomorrow (added bonus won't need the bathroom mid-performance) and have dinner ready at home; not drinking wine on Friday (it's Vietnamese restaurant but has sushi and sake on menu so fairly healthy) and on Saturday as it's a house party taking along some low cal drinks and some food that's filling and low cal. (And gym everyday)
    How do you manage your social obligations and logging? Would love to hear people's experiences (other than just going old turkey on all of it).

    I rarely drink anyway, so that doesn't even factor into daily life.

    However, I started with MFP in late February 2015.

    My birthday long weekend is in early March. Mexican food the first night, a picnic the next night, and half a cheesecake the third day. All within my calorie limit. :) How? I cycle a lot.

    Then two different friends came to visit on different weekends and of course there were dinners out. Again, I cycled before I went out.

    Then there was Easter and a 5-day trip to the mainland ... eating out every night, but walking and cycling during the day.

    We go to the theatre and symphony quite regularly and have a sort of a fast food meal out (Mexican food ... my favourite) before we go. But I prepare by climbing numerous stairs during the day at work, and then we usually park some distance away from where we get our Burritos and the theatre or concert hall, and walk.


    Funny story ... I had pretty much reached my goal weight, and at the same time finished a really difficult university course. On the day I wrote the final exam, friends were having a party that evening, so my husband and I thought we'd go and just relax and enjoy it as a kind of celebration. I decided to take a diet break that day but didn't eat much prior to going into the exam (too stressed). We went for a walk after the exam to burn off the stress and a few calories, and then headed over to our friend's place.

    We brought a veggie platter and a cold meat and cheese platter. I figured I'd have quite a few veggies, but that I would definitely try a bit of this and a bit of that ... after all ... diet break, right! And I was going to have whatever was on offer for dessert!

    We got there and discovered that just about everyone had brought vegetarian dishes, mainly salads!!! :open_mouth: Here I was thinking I'd tuck into a casserole or something, but nope. I'm standing there with a plate of salads and veggies ... and a small amount of cold cuts. I did manage to snag a very small slice of quiche, but that was about as exciting as it got.

    And no one brought dessert.

    If I recall correctly, when we left, we stopped in somewhere to get ice cream! :grin:
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    edited August 2017
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    I do the same as many here...when I know I'm going out to dinner where I don't want to care about counting, I'll usually have a brunch around 11AM for about a third of my total daily calories and save the rest for the evening. I'll have a 50 calorie snack mid-afternoon if necessary and drink lots of water.

    I'll also try to anticipate throughout the week and try to stash away some extra calories by eating slightly short of target or doing a little bit extra in my workouts. In many cases, I can scrounge together a good 500-700 calories doing this (on top of the extra calories I get from skipping one meal the day of).

    One watch out...sushi/sashimi is pretty healthy but watch out for the calorie counts, especially once you start looking at rolls with sauces. Even the innocuous sounding rolls can be pretty sneaky...for example, one basic tuna roll has something like 175-180 calories. One California roll has something like 250! Sashimi is better because of the lack of rice but portions can be pretty big.

    For Vietnamese - they'll likely have lots of soup options. If you really want to be good, it shouldn't be hard to find a version heavy on the vegetables and no noodles.
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
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    I'm the same a "week day" dieter with a weekly deficit as long as you log honestly on your weekends and don't go too far over maintenance and make up for it during the week (obviously at a sustainable rather than punishing deficit) you can make it part of your lifestyle. Just be careful not to totally wipe out your deficit every weekend though. ;)
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    edited August 2017
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    morenita71 wrote: »
    So, this week's social activities are theatre (including pre dinner drinks/meal), dinner out with friends and a 40th birthday party on Saturday. My solutions are to not drink any alcohol tomorrow (added bonus won't need the bathroom mid-performance) and have dinner ready at home; not drinking wine on Friday (it's Vietnamese restaurant but has sushi and sake on menu so fairly healthy) and on Saturday as it's a house party taking along some low cal drinks and some food that's filling and low cal. (And gym everyday)
    How do you manage your social obligations and logging? Would love to hear people's experiences (other than just going old turkey on all of it).

    LOL! Thankfully I have very little in the way of "social obligations". I usually go to the gym or walk/run after work each night so there is really no time for anything else, and during the weekends I am cleaning house/doing yardwork or hanging out with my BF. He doesn't drink at all, and I drink very little (no wine or beer at all - ugh!), and we prefer to cook our own meals. So for me, it's easy. :-)
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    I'm interested in hearing other people's responses, since this is something I struggle with. As a diabetic I don't have the option of banking calories for a big blow out, since my blood sugar can't handle a large amount of carbs at a sitting. So far, I have dealt with it by looking up menus ahead of time and eating very small portions, but it isn't very celebratory.
  • morenita71
    morenita71 Posts: 137 Member
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    rheddmobile wrote: »
    I'm interested in hearing other people's responses, since this is something I struggle with. As a diabetic I don't have the option of banking calories for a big blow out, since my blood sugar can't handle a large amount of carbs at a sitting. So far, I have dealt with it by looking up menus ahead of time and eating very small portions, but it isn't very celebratory.

    Yup, that must be difficult. Excuse my lack of knowledge about diabetes but is it just about having too many carbs? More and more places are catering to low carb /paleo diets but they're probably quite high fat. Ugh! So much fine tuning required!
  • morenita71
    morenita71 Posts: 137 Member
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    DX2JX2 wrote: »
    I do the same as many here...when I know I'm going out to dinner where I don't want to care about counting, I'll usually have a brunch around 11AM for about a third of my total daily calories and save the rest for the evening. I'll have a 50 calorie snack mid-afternoon if necessary and drink lots of water.

    I'll also try to anticipate throughout the week and try to stash away some extra calories by eating slightly short of target or doing a little bit extra in my workouts. In many cases, I can scrounge together a good 500-700 calories doing this (on top of the extra calories I get from skipping one meal the day of).

    One watch out...sushi/sashimi is pretty healthy but watch out for the calorie counts, especially once you start looking at rolls with sauces. Even the innocuous sounding rolls can be pretty sneaky...for example, one basic tuna roll has something like 175-180 calories. One California roll has something like 250! Sashimi is better because of the lack of rice but portions can be pretty big.

    For Vietnamese - they'll likely have lots of soup options. If you really want to be good, it shouldn't be hard to find a version heavy on the vegetables and no noodles.

    Thanks for tip. Yes, unfortunately I also like tempura and one of my favourites is salmon skin rolls which are probably great for omega 3 but high on calories. I guess if I go over on cals it's better to have done so on 'good' cals rather than cream cakes even if scales stay the same...

    This is the menu! http://www.houseofho.co.uk/menu
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I usually just drink water or unsweetened tea. I don't like drinking my calories.
    After logging for 2 years I have an idea of calorie counts and portion sizes of a lot of foods. Usually reasonable portions will be fine.
    Not getting fried food or food with cheese or creamy sauces/dressings. Watching out for things like seeds or nuts added to dishes.
    Filling out the meal with lower calorie vegetables or salad instead of fries, bread or rice. I am not on a low carb diet but eating out those type of foods can be tempting to get too much of in addition to the main item.
    Small dessert portions or skip it. I'm not a big dessert person but I don't avoid them.
    Eating lower calorie meals the rest of the day or week. Getting more exercise that week.
    I don't go out every day so a couple of higher days here and there aren't a big deal.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    morenita71 wrote: »
    Thanks for tip. Yes, unfortunately I also like tempura and one of my favourites is salmon skin rolls which are probably great for omega 3 but high on calories. I guess if I go over on cals it's better to have done so on 'good' cals rather than cream cakes even if scales stay the same...

    This is the menu! http://www.houseofho.co.uk/menu

    They do have some healthy choices but yeah...I'd be toast at that place. Calories be damned.

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