Family gathering...
 

OK So I am going to visit my aunts this weekend that I haven't seen in forever. They offered to have me and my family over for lunch, which is nice. They're making lasagna and turkey salad.. both of which I love of course. The problem is that I won't have a clue how it was made and normally since I started this weight loss thing I would not eat something like lasagna or turkey salad (because of the mayo). I have been only eating at home and only things I make myself, so how do I estimate how many calories are in what I eat? I guess what I'm asking is if anyone knows what the average calories would be in some homemade lasagna, for how big of a piece? And the same for turkey salad.. Obviously I know it varies depending on how its made, I just need a ballpark number, since I haven't made it since calorie counting.

www.allrecipes.com and find the closest recipe and check out the nutrition on that?

Or eat reasonable portions but just call it a day off from the food log and get back to it tomorrow?

A.

I actually google the phrase "calories in homemade lasagna" or whatever, check out some of the resulting pages and see if any of them look close to what I am looking for. Lots of results usually show up for calorie counting websites this way, and I can often find someone else who created a custom recipe count for pretty close to the food I ate. I also like the allrecipes suggestion that astrophe made. That is a great site!

i always just pretend a meal at a restaurant or made by someone else is 1000 calories, if i I don't know the nutritional content. I'm sure sometimes im overestimating or underestimating, but i think it evens out.

Eating away from home...
 

I tend to do as Summerlove suggested. I eat really light for the rest of the day and just have a small portion of whatever it is. It makes the rest of the day a bit of a challenge for me (I hate being hungry! LOL!) but at least I don't blow it.

Hope it all goes well! :)

Lee

Kind of like summerlove and lee. I would skimp your cals the day before and the day after, to help things balance out. Of course, you could always call your aunts and ask them for their recipes! If you don't want them to know that it's because you're counting the calories, just let them think you want it so that you can make it on your own some time. They'll probably be flattered.

Thanks everyone. I decided to just watch my portions but not worry about it. I've started perfectly on plan everyday since I started this, so I figure if I go a little over one day out of the 2 last months it won't do any long term damage