Well Laura ... I'm of two minds here.
One says "It is not rude to look after your health." You can indeed ask for a simple salad with dressing on the side. You can indeed leave food on your plate. That's not rude and in todays enlightened society, not rare either.
The other says "Cut yourself some slack." One restaurant meal will not ruin all your efforts. Enjoy! Occassionally

Laura, I see no reason to make excuses or apologies on what I eat at a restaurant. I don't think the rest of the party is concerned at what I think about what they order.I order what I want whether it be healthy or otherwise. If anybody asks me about what I order I just say "I don't feel like fried chicken ( or whatever ) today. I say as little as possible and you know what ? They really don't care.

I rarely eat out with groups. We did have some "dogwalker's breakfasts" last year, which I organized. We ate at local restaurants that had breakfast specials and we all basically ate the bacon, eggs, toast thing.

I just had my eggs scrambled instead of fried, back bacon rather than the other kind, and ate one half piece of toast . And usually I was full enough that I only had a piece of fruit for lunch.

One of the other walkers is a vegetarian so she also tailored the breakfast to suit her diet. No one asked any questions except
"If you don't want the rest of your toast can I have it?" and "Jen, order bacon on a separate plate and I'll eat it" .

I don't think people will judge you if you eat healthily. I rather think they might be impressed by your desire to maintain your body's fitness.

Dagmar

It's really kinda classic - has a black net overlay thingie (don't I describe things well?) on top of a basic A-line shift with no sleeves. And there's a black long-sleeved velvet jacket that comes with it.

I don't do blatantly sexy well at all - always feel like a dork in low-cut tight stuff .

I might get DH to take a shot of me in my Christmas finery though and post it. He is quite persnickety about taking photos and I generally look like I'm about to kill someone (DH of course) when he finally snaps the photo after 20 minutes of fiddling with the camera. And then half the time my eyes are shut!

Maybe Mudpie can learn to operate the camera - she's really keen on the computer mouse and the TV remote. Nothing like having the TV go on full blast at 2 in the a.m.

Dagmar

I don't eat out in groups very often, but when I did, I ordered what I wanted and didn't let anyone comment. Wait. That was back when I weighed 30 pounds more than I do now. Maybe no one commented because I wasn't dieting so my choices were pretty much like every one else's. I do eat out every Friday for lunch with DH and I have to say that a lot of the time the choices aren't the best. But after salads for lunch for 3 or 4 days I usually want something a little bit more "lively" so I go for it and then hold back a bit more at dinner. I think there has to be some give and take. I guess that's why I like calorie counting--if you plan it right you can fit in just about anything.

Isn't it funny how Dagmar is a dog walker by trade but has a cat for a pet? LOL

DD stayed home from school today with a bad cold. And I thought mine was all better yesterday, but this afternoon I'm all stuffed up. That doesn't look good for tomorrow's run.

Laura, I don't think you should worry about what you order when your out with friends. I really don't think people worry about what others eat (at least I don't). I order what ever I want and no one says anything about it. I think maybe when we're watching our weight, we think other people are watching too, but I really don't think they are.

Your doing great! Eat what you want and don't worry about what others think.

When I'm out with friends, I have no problems... it's when I'm out for business that I feel pressure to get what everyone else is getting. When a partner asks the table "what soup course is everyone getting?" it's difficult to decline. I also think part of the problem is that on my last project, I was made to feel bad by colleagues for trying to eat healthy, so now I'm a bit paranoid about it.

The good thing is, I had a salad for dinner (had more than enough protein earlier anyway), and also worked out a good amount, so I'm only 100 cals over for the day. Not terrible!

Wow - the planets must be lined up in low will power phase. Only reason I can think of why we are having a collective problem dealing with the daily food temptations.
If it will make anyone feel better - I may have trumped you all.
Just annihilated 3 slices of very greasy pizza and now I am indulging in a few more wee bars!!!
I did just return from a killer spin class - which maybe burned off 20% of what I just hovered down....sigh. I wish I could log on here and tout some success stories.
What's a girl to do? I planned on having some steam broccoli and shrimp - and there was the vile pizza staring up at me, taunting me. Anyone with iron clad resolve in these types of situations have any suggestions???

Hope for a better day for all of us who are floundering.
- S

sznn We have a great thing up here in Toronto Canada called the green bin program. All biodegradable materials (leftover food, peelings, apple cores, paper products, etc.) go into a special plastic green-coloured bin which is collected weekly.

If I have something left over that I think will be a problem I just chuck it in there. I'm helping the City reduce waste, providing material for clean fill and composting, and nothing is sticking to my hips!

I know it's hard to throw out food but you can do it. My whole brain screams out waste, waste when I throw out that sleeve of cookies, but my body cries waist, waist - YES!

Dagmar

Hey girls 'member moi??

Man, I apologize for being MIA!! I have been buzy with work during the day and then at night because of no daytime hours for the gym I have been going at night, it's very very tiring... I rarely have time to post but I do lurk...

I was also OFF track BIG BIG time since our vacation in September...I'm FINALLY ok this week...

Laura -- don't let anyone intimidate you into eating junk and unhealthy foods ... You don't have to explain anything to anyone just eat the way YOU prefer, which is healthy

I finally have a day off during the week and I am cleaning the oven, it's self cleaning but I still have to clean the racks ... Cleaning the oven gets me going on cleaning the rest of the kitchen too, it needs it in a big bad way .... So I am off to clean ...

Later girls

Good morning everyone!

Ilene~I was thinking about you this morning--wondered where you'd wandered off to.

Dagmar~we have a green bin here, too, but they request only yard waste in it--no food waste.

I have a story. The other day I picked up a dozen jumbo eggs at Trader Joes. I noticed one egg was much larger than the rest. This morning, I couldn't resist--I wanted to eat THAT egg (even though I still had a couple from the previous dozen). Well, that egg was a double yolk egg! Pretty yummy, but it put me over on the daily calorie count.egg.JPGThe brown egg is a large, the white one in the same hand is a jumbo from the same dozen as the single huge one.

Laura: Onions are one of the top foods for causing indigestion, especially if eaten raw (tomatoes are another). I developed an intolerance for raw onions in my mid to late twenties (long before my current low-fat diet) and haven't been able to eat them since then. Even just a small amount gives me indigestion for days. No other food bothers me, just raw onions. Luckily, they are pretty easy to cut out of my diet. If a recipe, like salsa, calls for raw onions, I just saute them with a little cooking spray for a few minutes or roast them in the oven before adding them to the recipe.

I don't think it's rude to ask for your dressing on the side, to skip the soup course, or to ask for a box for half your meal. I eat out in a business setting with clients quite frequently and it is quite normal for some people to have the soup and others to skip it, some people to have dessert and others to skip it. I don't order a box at the start of my meal, but I do frequently draw an imaginary line through the middle of my plate and only eat half the entre. No one notices. I suspect that the reason your partner asked what soup everyone was having was because he wanted to make sure he wasn't the only one having soup. In that situation, it's fine to say that you just don't have room to eat both soup and the meal.

Mudpie: I struggle with not eating the entire box of cookies too and there are definitely some things (like nuts) that I just don't buy because I know they will be a problem. (And I don't care what charity is selling them--if the Girl Scouts want my support, they can come up with something to sell that isn't going to make me fatter. Or if I want to support them, I can write a check to the organization without buying anything--that's more money for them anyway). But I am sometimes successful with a couple of strategies: 1) I make sure I know exactly how many calories are in whatever I am eating. I multiply the single serving by the number of servings in the box. It's not foolproof, but I often find that it is a lot harder to eat the whole box if I know how many calories it is. 2) I tell myself that if I eat more than a serving per day, I'm going to have to throw the whole thing out. And I have thrown stuff out before. If it's something I really like, knowing that I'm going to have to throw it out can stop a free for all.

This is going to sound really conceited but here goes anyway.

I just tried on a dress I looked pretty good in at about 138 lbs and now, at 133 I look HOT !

I'm gonna wear it out to dinner with the DH Saturday night and just blow the poor man's doors off .

And it only took me 37 years to learn to really like (****, maybe even love) my body! IMAGINE THAT!

Dagmar ( one hot mamma)

Good for you Dagmar! You strut your stuff girl, you deserve it . I don't know if I'll ever look hot again, but I sure hope so.

Welcome back Ilene. Sure have missed seeing you around here .

Those are some BIG eggs Allison . I don't think I've ever seen any that big.

Happy Thursday to all. Boy, this week went fast (at least for me). To be honest, I haven't done too well this week with the calories. I don't know what my problem is but I need to get it worked out soon. I don't think I've gained any, but I sure don't think I lost any either .

Any way, I will get my act together in the next day or two, cause I sure want to see that 140 mark by Christmas.

Hope everyone had a great day

I just found a recipe on Food Network that I absolutely LOVE:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/reci..._21472,00.html
I used Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth (1 cup has 15 cals and no fat!), substituted buckwheat soba noodles for the linguine, and substituted swiss chard for the bok choy (just because I had some). This is such a simple recipe (not even a recipe, really - just throwing things in broth), but it tastes so refreshing and is so filling. With the above changes (and with larger portions of the veggies than the recipe calls for), it's 345 calories, yet filling enough for a whole meal. Awesome!!!

The best part is, I am currently 226 calories under where I'm supposed to be according to DailyPlate for the day, and I'm still going to do about an hour of light weights. So I can treat myself with a little something! (Though I should prob just stay under today, because tomorrow is going to be a bad day for me eating and drinking-wise). We'll see