Tomorrow, I will be celebrating my mom and step-dads birthday. I know we are having pizza and cake. I am planning on have a slice of pepperoni pizza and when I goggled the calorie count it said 457. We are also having ice cream cake and I really want a SMALL piece of it. So, lets just say that a small piece of cake is 400 calories. That puts me at 857 calories for dinner.
When you run into this type of situation, what do you eat for your breakfast/lunch/snack to keep on program? I am trying to eat 1400 calories a day. SHould I just up my calories for the day to 1800-2000 and make sure I work out? I am also going out of town on Sat. night for my anniversary and I know my husband is planning on taking me to a fancy dinner. So, again, I have another day of potential high calories on Saturday.
I very much want to make a lifestyle change and these bumps in the road always seem to through me off.
Thanks.

Having pizza and cake would completely screw over my eating plan, not only calorie-wise, so I wouldn't eat it. I would bring my own food to the birthday party or eat before and after so I don't need anything during.

As for the dinner out, I would choose my best on-plan option and ask for half of it to be packed up for me before the waiter brings it out.

Since your family and husband surely know about your weight-loss efforts, you won't have to do much explaining.

I think it can be done! Especially for a lifestyle change, I think we have to be somewhat flexible. It sounds only reasonable for you to have a piece of pizza and a teeny piece of cake for a family birthday. I think you can do it and stay in your range. I would try eating a very filling but low-cal bfast and lunch. Breakfast I would probably do a lot of fruit and lowfat cottage cheese or yogurt and a piece of low-cal toast. You can do all that for 200 cals. For lunch I would do a big grilled chicken salad w/ lotsa different veggies and low-cal dressing for around 300 cal. That puts you at 500. I would also try and bring something to the party so I had more to eat than just one piece of pizza and cake. I'd take along a big green salad or a fruit salad so you can bulk up your meal without a lot of extra calories.

When you go out for your nice dinner, I think you can kind of do the same thing. There are so many things at nice restaurants that are really pretty healthy and you can feel like indulging because they're so high-quality. A salad with unusual greens and a citrusy, fancy dressing, for example, or a wonderful marinated grilled chicken breast with a delicious sauce on the side. The other great thing about nicer restaurants is that you can custom order your entree and it's not a big deal.

It's all about maintainability and reasonableness. I wouldn't want to have to sit on the sidelines (or even just feel really conspicuous) with my own tupperware containers of food at every family function.

^^^^^^^^^ This! Agreed. It is ok to be flexible and be reasonable and have a small piece of something if you want it. Why deprive yourself? Weight loss shouldn't be about depriving yourself. Just make it a smaller serving and savor it!

I agree completely w/ Emme and Dezzie. In past attempts at weight loss one of the reasons I gave up was because I felt deprived & resentful that my eating plan had to be so different from others'. This time around, my plan is for LIFE. Unless you plan to always bring your food to family functions, theres no reason to not eat in moderation. Lets say that at worst you overindulge a bit two days in a week. It's still better than what you would have eaten prior to watching your weight, right? Even if you maintain rather than lose this week, would that be so bad in the big scheme of things? Most likely youll still lose but just a BIT less this one week.

saggz, at this point in your plan, I don't believe I would indulge..JMHO, but if you feel you must you could always do egg whites and veggies for breakfast with coffee and sweetner..then maybe a can of tuna on a bed of greens and tomatoes for lunch...container of yogurt for a snack...the specifics really depend on your calorie allotment each day though

You will be okay either way...by and large I just don't find the calories are worth what the food tastes like ..but again it depends on how much you like pizza and cake and whether or not these are proven trigger foods for you

I would have small pieces, enjoy them, and then cut several days the rest of the week to cover the increase in calories.

Lifestyle change means learning to accomodate these types of events but stay on track overall

Have fun!!!!!

Agreed with all that was said re: having a small piece. What I did for my nephew's bday party in early July is I got a small slice of pizza and put it on a plate. I ate it with a fork and knife to eat it slowly and make it last (I can nearly swallow an entire slice in one gulp!). I also ended up with 1/3 of a slice of cake and savored every bite. I had a cup of coffee with cake so I sipped that in between bites to make it last. Earlier that day, I had lots of protein and veggies so that I wasn't famished by dinner time. It worked well for me. I stayed within my calorie range and also enjoyed the meal with everyone.

I would make sure I work out that day. I'd cut the pizza in half and savor that ice cream. Having "one" day is not going to kill your diet, but having "one" day three times a week will!

Here's what I would eat the rest of the day...actually this is my breakfast and lunch pretty much every day:

Breakfast:
1/2 cup (measured dry) oatmeal - 150 cals
3 egg whites - 48 cals

Lunch:
1 cup Mixed Greens - 30 cals
1/2 cup Garbanzo Beans - 120 cals
1 tbsp lite vinaigrette dressing - 80 cals

Total: 428 Calories

Cals left for dinner: 972 calories

If I ran for 1 hour I'd have another 400 calories on top of that! Holy smokes!

Way more than you need! Eat a banana for snack in between for another 100 calories, I also snack on cucumber which is 30 calories for an entire cucumber...I only eat 1/3 of one at a time because it fills me up, so that's like 10 whole calories. Hard-boiled egg whites at 15 calories each make great filler snacks too!