Quote:
Originally Posted by nabeelmalik
same here! i will be in meetings all day, and lunches will be catered... My center told me:
When eating out:
- ask for 8 oz servings size of fish/chicken and make sure they are 'plain'
- ask for a full or double serving of veggies and try to stay away from carrots and onions
- Take your HNS with you
i dont have a problem with staying away from dressing ( not a big dressing fan anyway), but what i do have problem with is resisting when there are all kinds of cookies and other nice things on the table of a catered lunch/dinner. At home you have full control over what type of things you bring into your house, when you are out and its all there, its just so hard to resist for me.
One thing that i was told to try was this: Try to go 1.5x your usual water intake. Meaning: currently i am doing 96 oz a day, so i'd have to go to: 144 oz, which means 18 glasses instead of the 12 i am doing now. This cuts down your cravings. Thats gonna be a challenge, but i think i am gonna try to stick with it.
Nabeel, your center has good suggestions. I took going out as a challenge, much to my son's embarrassment! At Taco Bell, I asked at the counter how I could get 4 oz protein 8 oz vegetables - we came up with 2 chicken burritos supremes, hold the sour cream, hold the rice, and put everything on 1/2 tortilla and throw away the other 1 1/2 tortillas. I think you need more protein than I did so you might have to get 3. I bought a digital scale at Harbour Freight (about $20 - I think it is a mailing scale). It uses batteries and is flat so I put it in my briefcase or oversize purse. At first I was taking it in restaurants with me, weighing my plate, eating my salad then weighing my plate again to see how many ounces of salad I had eaten and therefore much cooked veggies I could eat to get the full amount of veggies I was allotted for that meal.
At Subway I got the grilled chicken salad with extra piece of grilled chicken.
You do have to be creative and have a sense of humor - at the catered lunches, ask anyone who appears not to want to eat their tomato or other vegetables, to share with you (or see if you can have two lunches and give the soft drink, chips and snack to someone else). I refill and chill 12 oz bottles of water almost frozen and use them to keep my little insulated lunch box cold. You could bring cherry tomatoes, and a peeled and sliced cucumber in a ziplock bag with your extra water to supplement the meager vegetables the catered lunches will have. Get a scale and use it in your room so you know how much you are taking with you.
Explain to other people when they ask you what and why, tell them how much you have lost and how dedicated you are to this program. Take the cards from your MRC center, put "Referred by (your name and location)" on the back and give them to people who are really interested. You should be proud - you are doing something for yourself, that is good for your health.
At fine restaurants, have shrimp and asparagus! or steak and broccoli - especially if you are on per diem or someone else is paying for it. You might not always be right on program but if you can stay full of the correct things and your HNSs, you will be better able to resist anything with sugar! That is what will hurt - if you eat sweets, you will then crave them and it will be that much harder to resist. Just make it a rule with yourself, not to eat anything that might have sugar in it (shrimp cocktail sauce and balsamic vinaigrette were what got me on vacation and for the first time I have cravings - after 2 months on program without any cravings). Don't worry about indulging / splurging on things that are on your menu, even if maybe have butter on them. Take Fat and Carb Blockers before these kind of meals.
Nabeel, Have a great time in Chicago! And Nepeanut, have a great time on your business trip. You both have a special kind of challenge this month but it is possible to succeed and come back with little or no weight gain. Good Luck, jeanette