So! I've survived the Great Girl Scout Cookie Crisis. So far, I'm also having a good handle on the tons of excellent Swiss chocolate my mom sent me for Easter, indulging in one delicious truffle egg every other day (I've had times when all the goodies would have been gone in half a day). Everything is under control so far .

But this weekend is going to be a challenge. Tonight we're invited to dinner at our friends' place (amazing cooks both), followed by what is shaping up to be a huge party at another house. Saturday evening we'll be at yet another dinner party with sure-to-be delicious Indian buffet. And Sunday, well, yeah, St. Paddy's day, but as everybody knows that's no big deal at all in Boston, so I should be totally safe.

In between all of this, I have an important text to finish (I really shouldn't be writing this post now - I should be churning out that darn article!) and I'm suffering from a humongous case of writer's block. Yes, I'm one of these horrible procrastinatin' last-minute people and don't respond well at all to Sunday evening deadlines...

Soooo... I figured I should really have a good plan to get through these three days relatively unscathed. Here's what I've come up with so far, but I'd really really love to have some input from you lovely ladies!

• Workout: I took my rest day yesterday, so I'll ramp up my cardio to 60 min. today and do some weights on either Saturday or Sunday (normally my rest days)
• On the day I don't exercise I'll try to fit in a longish walk - that'll help with the writer's block, too
• I'll try to save up calories throughout the day, but I'll definitely need energy to write, so I'll just try to stick to stuff that fills me up well - eggs, veggies, lettuce and whole wheat bread (no time to cook, either)
• For writing-related munchies, I've loaded the fridge with seedless grapes, blueberries and baby carrots.
• At the events themselves, I know that limiting drinks will be my priority and also the hardest thing to do - so I can have *one* evening where I don't limit my drinks but have to drink equal or higher amounts of water, and the other two evenings limit my drinks to two. I won't have any alcohol the rest of the week.
• Party food is another issue, of course. I have no idea what we'll have on all those events and how much influence I have over what ends up on my plate or on the bar table. On this point, I could use a few suggestions on what to do, as I'm hesitant to ban anything completely - in the past, that has only led me to go off plan completely...

How does that sound so far? Doable? Sensible? Totally over-obsessive?

Hey!

Well... it sounds like a really hard weekend for someone who's trying to lose weight. I wish you the best of luck with it.

Some thoughts, in no particular order.... may or may not be helpful...

1. Don't tell people at the parties that you are "dieting." That will just put a lot of unwanted focus on you.

2. Take reasonable portions of the foods that are offered. If you want to "train" for this beforehand, get out your measuring cups and just see what 1/2 cup of a food looks like (e.g., cooked rice, cooked pasta, broccoli flowerets, etc.--measured and then dumped on a plate so you can see how that looks). Also, don't take any helpings of foods you don't like so much. Life is too short (and calories are too limited) to spend on such foods.

3. Alcohol is a problem because of the calories and also because it tends to lower inhibitions, including the resolve not to overeat. So even though you don't like limiting your drinks, it might help to set a higher limit on the day when you planned not to limit at all--if only because you could go out of control. I mean really, green beer is not that good...

As I said, I wish you luck!

Jay

I'm impressed with you plan so far! You've really thought about this and are clearly determined to keep on living life, just in a healthier way!

I agree that having a higher limit one of the nights might be better than an all out no limit. (Like 5 drinks? I dunno what's "high" for drinks )

You might be able to get away with a no-second-helpings rule. Enjoy the food on the plate, but that's it then.

Hey, JayEll

thanks so much for the great advice!

1. Oh, I'll definitely won't tell anyone that I'm dieting - I generally avoid telling anyone but my nearest and dearest, and even then I usually don't call it dieting. In the past I've resorted to white lies (Oh, I couldn't possibly eat another bite, kind sir!), trying to eat more sloooowly than anyone else (which is hard for me - I'm a speed eater) and even claiming I'm sensitive to this or that food (me, of the iron stomach! Hah!)

2. This is a fantastic idea, as I'm still in the process of learning to eyeball portion sizes anyway. I could definitely profit from that strategy. Additionally I'll hop over to Dailyplate and refresh my memories on how much calories are in a serving size of the usual party foods like chips etc...

3. Wait, what? You're saying green beer doesn't count as a vegetable serving?
Hah. Seriously, I'm not planning to get smashed even on the "unlimited" night, which would be today most likely anyway, since I hate that hungover feeling - it saps all of my energy, which I'll need during the day. My estimate would be I'm not going beyond four drinks, so I might as well set that as my limit for that night.

I do know that even small amounts of alcohol tend to stall my weight loss, so I'm prepared for a non-loss week, but I very much want to avoid gaining, as I've seen 174 wink at me this morning on the scale...

Hi Faerie,

thank yooou!

Oh, wait, what, five drinks you said? Hah, I'll have to re-ponder my maximum drink allowance... naw, I think I'll survive with four...

And good idea with the second helpings rule - I'll definitely try to stick to that on buffet day, as those are usually my downfall...

I was at a small party last night (it was one of those "Tupperware" home parties, although this one was for clothes) and while I did not do too well on the food (I have a weekness for cheese) at least I did not drink at all. I drank water mixed with a bit of cranberry juice (three big glasses of it). I find it easier to give up booze than food.

Good luck with your weekend.

OK, yesterday turned out great. I watched my calories throughout the day and got in one hour of pretty intense mixed cardio - but felt sooo starved afterwards - how did I ever try to survive on 800-900 cals a day? Youthful ignorance - no wonder this never worked! Well, a Luna bar fixed that predicament, and my writer's block eased up a little too - blowing off steam with a hard workout does that for me sometimes.

Luckily, dinner was excellent and super healthy! Baked salmon, an awesome greens & veggie salad and couscous... I took about 2 "decks of cards" of the salmon, a small amount of couscous and went crazy with the salad. I also managed to follow Faerie's advice of avoiding seconds - by eating sloooowly - the salad helped with that, too.

I had two 4oz. glasses of wine with dinner and around twice that amount of water, a thing I sometimes forget, but not this time - thanks to committing to it here. The dreaded party afterwards turned out to be so crowded that we only ended up staying for one beer - so I didn't even have to max out my four drink limit.

I logged all my food (even those blue corn chips), stayed within my calories (well, barely, but yeah) and more importantly, I had fun and didn't feel deprived at all. Onward!



@Tomato: Oh, yummy! Seltzer water with a splash of cranberry juice is one of my favorite non-alcoholic party drinks!

Kudos to you for "behaving"!
I can't wait for the weather to get a bit warmer so that I can barbecue. I love salmon, but I never make it indoors. I hate how it stinks up the whole house and then the smell lingers for a WEEK. I am drooling over the description of your dinner.

You are an inspiration! Congratulations on 'behaving' at the party. You did awesome and you're a picture of what it means to have fun and take the focus off food. (Was the salmon good? LOL )

Alright Heffalump! Keep us posted on the other events. You did SO well!

Thanks so much for your support, ladies!

So here's the final recap:

The rest of the weekend went down OK, but not quite as swimmingly as that first evening (@FrugalChick: yeah, that salmon was soooo good - baked, glazed with a little bit of honey mustard and dill... aaah)

Saturday I had a healthy breakfast and a huge salad for lunch, but unfortunately no time for working out. The half mile walk to the dinner party was all the exercise I got in that day, which cramped my calorie limit a bit (I hardly ever eat all of my workout calories back, but I do like to have a little cushion).

The food was excellent and varied - I had a little taste of everything, than came back for another bite of the mushrooms and the spinach - but very yummy and comparatively low-calorie.

My first drink was a very generously poured (6-7 oz. red wine), so when I spotted a bottle of pomegranate juice, I went with Tomato's suggestion and had water with splashes of said juice for the rest of the evening.

The thing that put me over my calorie limit was the suprise dessert buffet - and particularly the ras malai, my favorite Indian sweet. The second of those, along with some kheer, did me in - totally, totally worth it.

Sunday was a bit problematic, but not for the reasons I had expected. Neither green beer nor corned beef and cabbage were the culprits, but simply bad planning and flakiness. After an early morning writing session and a surprisingly hard workout, I was completely starved and just managed to hoover down a handful of trail mix to ward off the dizziness. Yeah, a decent breakfast or even a banana before all that exertion might have been a good idea. I forgot. And we were out of bananas. In this compromised state, my lovely husband's plea to go out for lunch sounded like a perfectly sane proposition. Sure, where to? The Tibetan buffet place, you say? Sounds great, let's go!

Yeah. I know. Yet another buffet. Mind you, compared to Indian or Chinese restaurant buffets, this stuff is practically health food - all veggies and lean meat, no heavy sauces, and I skipped the rice - but still way greasier that I would have liked. I had no idea how to calculate the calories for the one plate I had, so I guessed high - although I think it was more like 850, I counted it as a clear-cut 1000 calories. Miraculously, that meal held me over for the rest of the day with no problem at all.

After the parade, we decided to go back home instead of partying, which seemed like a great idea calorie-wise (See? No green beer for me). Since we both weren't that hungry, we snacked on baby carrots and an improptu dip made of low fat cottage cheese and red pepper hummus while watching a movie. So far, everything was fine - but the glass of wine I had with it somehow later turned into three as I was poring over the last proofreading, and the trail mix called to me again... so, despite not partying, I went over my calories. A bit.

Writing this, I notice that although I didn't stick to my plan 100%, I didn't even eat my maintenance calories on any of these days. A sneak peek at the scale this morning told me I was more in 176ish than in 174ish territory (analog scale). If this holds over to tomorrow's "official" weigh-in, I'll be OK with that. I shudder to think how my calorie count and weight would have been without any planning at all.

So thanks for bearing with me! This thread has helped me a lot - both writing to be accountable and reading your support and advice.

It sounds, even though went over a bit, that planning was the key. So, I'm thinking that when it comes to maintenance -- it's all about the planning (which is of course what we read about over at the maintenance forum time and time again)

That's exactly right, FrugalChick, and one thing I took from this weekend: there are incredibly many food choices to make every day, and it's so much easier to make good ones if you have a relatively specific plan to guide you. Before, I was just whiteknuckling it in these situations: "I have to be good. I have to be good. I have to be good. Ooops, ate something bad. Well there goes the goodness, pass the chips."

It's all so obvious when written down, but really experiencing it builds the actual skills that will surely be important assets once we hit maintenance.

I agree with Frugal. You did well! Without all the planning... oh my... So you've already made great changes! Next time, who knows? You'll probably remember this time and plan it out so that you're even more successful