I know I just recently made a new thread but I have another question! As you all know, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. My boyfriend and I are going to Morton's Steakhouse. Whenever I go there, I always get the same thing. Filet, steamed asparagus, half of a baked potato, and molten chocolate cake. Of course, they bring out a big loaf of bread too! The first three things would be fine for the diet but then you have bearnaise sauce for the steak and hollandaise sauce for the asparagus. Then the potato...butter, sour cream, and bacon!! The dessert is smaller than my hand. I realize that I could cut down a lot on the sauces and toppings, and skip the bread and cake. However, it's very expensive and I want to enjoy myself, you know? So, what should I do? How should I eat during the day before dinner?

In my opinion - if you feel that you would not enjoy the meal by cutting out the extra sauces and dessert, then eat light through the day to try to balance things out. Truth of the matter is, when I decide to go all out with the extra fats, my body turns against me and I get terrible stomach aches... so if I were you I would really try to limit the additional fats - ask for sauces and toppings on the side so that you can go light with them so that its not such a shock to your body.

Robin, Generally I try to save some exchanges for a meal like that, and to try to not go overboard on the sauces or bread or desserts, since once you've been eating lighter for awhile you will feel horribly sick if you eat it all and that is so not enjoying it. For those rare special occasions, where I'm going out to a really expensive meal. I just try to enjoy myself, and still eat, but not stuff myself. Generally I can't handle the dessert after a meal like that anymore. You may be surprised if you have been eating lighter for awhile, you just can't eat as much as you used to.

Julie, we were posting at the same time!

I will make sure that the steak, asparagus, and potato are marked off of my daily servings in the morning so that I don't go over by eating extra during the day. Along with cutting down on fats and starches, should I cut down the fruits and veggies at all?

Thanks for the help, btw! I have only been doing this for a little over a week so I've never been in a special occasion situation while on the diet.

I definitely wouldn't scrimp on the good stuff! Get your fruits and veggies in during the day so that you are not ravished by the time you get to the dinner! Have a dairy also to keep yourself away from feeling too hungry.

Barbara, that's too funny that we both mentioned feeling sick!

Hey everyone, Happy Valentine's day. Make of your day the best.

Thank you ladies! Everything went really well. I only ate a small amount of the bread and all toppings came on the side, so everything was easy to control. I ended up eating 90% of the dessert but it was small and worth it! My body seemed to handle it well and I didn't gain any weight.

Great Job Robin!

Barbara - After all my chatter about getting sick I decided to eat FRIED fish yesterday at my in laws - it was the only thing they were having besides salad and so I ate some and a small amount of french fries and guess what!? I was up at 1am throwing up this morning, still feeling pretty sick today

Julie, Sorry to hear that you were sick! I find that I can't eat what I used to, and I always thought I was someone with a bullet proof stomach. Once your body gets used to having a better nutrition, it really complains when you give it junk.

I know Barbara, I always felt like that about my stomach as well, it just goes to show how toxic some of that stuff really is for you!