[AlyssaNicole]

I follow the weight watchers points plus system. It has worked out great. For some reason I started having so much trouble. I just cant seem to lose any more weight. I will lose 5lbs, then have a night out with friends and crave all the unhealthy and high calorie food and order something so unhealthy. Hello 5lbs i just lost. I keep doing this and I just cant get past it. I dont know what to do to take away the cravings. I'm just really bad at stopping myself from eating unhealthy. I also almost never get full so I cant eat something before I go out to make myself eat less. Ill still eat the same amount. I have no idea what else to do. I even exercise so much more when I know I might eat more than usual. It doesnt help. I want to get past these same 5lbs. What can I do? I need help...

[Goanna]

Maybe you need to change the triggers which are leading to the unhealthy choices. You know what the problem is and you know why it is happening. Maybe go somewhere that serves healthier choices? Good luck with this problem.

[AlyssaNicole]

Thank for the advice on going somewhere with healthier choices. I actually talked to my friends and told them Im on a diet and I dont want to eat unhealthy. They agreed to let me chose the place most of the times to make it easier for me. Maybe now I can actually get through this a bit easier. One of my friends is also going to split a meal with me since restaurant portions are so big now. Now I also wont continue eating the whole portion myself.

[cancersuckseggs]

have you thought about trying simply f?

[dosbabe]

Originally Posted by AlyssaNicole;4366671[I

]Thank for the advice on going somewhere with healthier choices. I actually talked to my friends and told them Im on a diet and I dont want to eat unhealthy. They agreed to let me chose the place most of the times to make it easier for me. Maybe now I can actually get through this a bit easier. One of my friends is also going to split a meal with me since restaurant portions are so big now. Now I also wont continue eating the whole portion mysel[/I]f.

Wow! You have some great friends. I just have to stay completely away from restaurants.

Are you tracking? I know that helps. I also got a pedometer, but just ordered the new Active Link, hoping to move more.

The WW's food scale is wonderful. And I've had to cut back my fruit. I tend to overeat, and am diabetic anyway.

[MandeLea]

One of the things that struck me was that whenever I go out with friends, it always involves food. Why is that? Since when did socializing have to be about meeting around a table?

What about changing the routine you have with your friends?

We like to have friends over for popcorn and a movie, or on New Year's we went over to a friends house to play games. We have also have this one friend that loves to shop, so we go along to window shop and get in a great walk.

I think if we as a community spent less time socializing around a kitchen table, and more time socializing around activity, our entire community would benefit .

Good luck!

[Becky Quilts]

I have a similar problem... I can eat on pointe all week, then have an awful weekend...
Can you manage the splurge day? Some of my most painful logging - but the most helpful is when I look those choices square in the face and own them. But then an amazing thing starts to happen - instead of being owned and shamed by that splurge (my point of view) -instead of feeling controlled by my bad choices, calling it out puts me back into the driver's seat. I can use my WP. I can exercise a little more. I *can* flex around those trips to Olive Garden... and learn that maybe 1/2 a breadstick will be enough of a taste for me to slowly eat and be content. Or maybe that bite of breadstick leads me to 3 whole breadsticks and I should avoid it.
And if I can't shuffle WP and EP enough, I can learn how to manage choices better (1/2 breadstick? No breadstick? Breadstick basket moved to the next county?) And I can eat "cleanly" the rest of the week to try to balance it the best I can.

Another help for me was scouting out nutritional information *before* we leave for the restaurant. If I'm hungry and looking at a menu, it's game over for me. But if I know ahead of time that when my girlfriends want to eat at Panera I'm ordering Black Bean Soup (and have a backup in case it's not on that day) and a salad... it puts me in control. If I wait until I'm hungry my brain gets left behind. (And sometimes the best choices aren't the obvious ones. "Healthy" sounding salads are more often than not, land mines!)

What started happening was after a few trips out, this lunch group started cycling through the same restaurants. And I already knew my Best Choice. And it wasn't like I was eating there every day, so it worked out. And after I made goal (this was before baby #2 )it freed up a few choices.

Hope this helps!

[Becky Quilts]

Originally Posted by MandeLea

One of the things that struck me was that whenever I go out with friends, it always involves food. Why is that? Since when did socializing have to be about meeting around a table?

What about changing the routine you have with your friends?

We like to have friends over for popcorn and a movie, or on New Year's we went over to a friends house to play games. We have also have this one friend that loves to shop, so we go along to window shop and get in a great walk.

I think if we as a community spent less time socializing around a kitchen table, and more time socializing around activity, our entire community would benefit .

Good luck!

I had a friend that would call me up to go for a walk and talk around the mall. The first time it seemed strange, but it's "something" to do other than ice cream, rich coffee, or lunch out. AND you get good activity while talking.

[LuvCats]

Originally Posted by Becky Quilts

I had a friend that would call me up to go for a walk and talk around the mall. The first time it seemed strange, but it's "something" to do other than ice cream, rich coffee, or lunch out. AND you get good activity while talking.

That sounds so wonderful! I wish I had someone near me that could do that.

I understand the eating out problem. That and going out of town so you have to eat out every meal. I can manage to plan one meal out and manage my points for it (lol even with breadsticks--I think they are 4 points each but as long as I have the points and count them I'm okay with having them). One thing I do is order something I split in half. At Olive Garden I always have the cheese ravioli and have half the day I eat out and half the next. Helps manage the points and makes it a double treat.