I did not have the best weekend? It was my 6th year wedding anniversary, and on top of that we had some parties to go to on Friday and Saturday. Neither party had any IP favorable food or dishes (one had some mushrooms). I did not fair well at either.

What are some strategies to deal with parties? I do so well during the week, but I struggle on the weekends without a room full of carb loaded food and wine. How do you handle it?

If I know what's being served before I go, I'll make a plan..if not, I eat at home first and nibble on veggies if they have them. It's hard looking at all that food but I've just learned to think, "I can't have it now, but one day it will be back in my life."

Sister-in-laws birthday party was on Friday, they had all sorts of catered food. I had a big salad, some chicken grilled and I was fine. The cake came out and it was massive. The biggest atomic cake I have ever seen. I sliced it and handed it out. Never even licked the whipped cream off my fingers when I was done, although it was tempting..I washed them.

Just think of the bigger picture and drink some water. Don't beat yourself up over it...today is another day!

You won't like my answer....I was just done with being overweight...and gave up my very active social life for the first four months....literally hubby and I turned down every invitation and stayed home. By then, I had gone from a size 18 to a 10 and every event I went to was loaded with compliments that I had NO desire for anything....The next four months were easy to attend events and then I was at my goal (I also added foods and extreme exercise with a trainer those last four months).

It is individual...I just lived the diet those first four months. It is over two years later and I am still just as focused on this change in lifestyle and I have learned how to travel and go away and recover or adapt.

Always have a plan. Try and find out ahead what's being served and then bring whatever you might need. A baggie of veggies, an RTD, or a bar might be all you need. If you can offer to bring something, then you can control what that is and make it something you would enjoy. This isn't always easy, and the social gatherings can be tough if you aren't prepared.

Two things are key to success at social events on this diet:

1. planning ahead

2. Remembering that the point should not be the FOOD, the point should be the SOCIAL aspect. If your focus is on the food, you are forgetting why you are really there.

Plan ahead by packing your evening snack, cut up veggies and a water bottle before you leave the house. If it's a slightly later event, eat your whole dinner before you leave. Better to arrive and find out you didn't need your pre-cut veggies, than arrive and find that there's nothing there that you can have.

BUT the real struggle with parties is where your focus is. You are letting the food be the center of attention in your mind. But a party is about spending time with friends, celebrating something important, the PEOPLE. Not the food. You have to take back the drivers seat, stop letting the food own you. A big part of this diet is retraining your THINKING, not just your EATING!

Hey, it's difficult. Food is a really big part of socializing. But, Scorbett is right. It's about the time you spend with your friends, not the food. They won't even notice you aren't eating or doing something else. I went to my best friend's wedding which was a catered BBQ event. Not one thing I could eat, except for the crudite appetizers. I filled my plate with the food that my husband didn't take...sat down and picked the skin off the chicken...couldn't eat it. Went to the bathroom and he made a big deal like 'oh I didn't get any of this, I want to try this', and he ended up eating almost everything off my plate. I had brought an IP bar (my 4th IP food for the day) and ate that while people were dancing. I figured it would be ok to have a restricted for my 4th meal instead of the protein. My coach said it was the right thing to do.

Last night I took my niece to a state fair. Pretty much the reason you go is the food, right? Fried dough, donuts, maple sugar candy, kettle corn, corn dogs, etc. I brought a bar and I was able to find a Greek food stand and ordered a salad ($7!!!) and added the provided EVOO and salt. My friends and niece ate corn dogs, popcorn, french fries and ice cream...and they felt sick to their stomachs. I felt great. And I found a homemade dill pickle stand and had that for dessert

I felt terrible during the 1st week getting into ketosis. I don't want to go through that again. I looked at that food last night and said to myself that I have been eating that food every year for 30 years and I will have it next year. I can do without one time in order to keep my newly minted size 12 body happy and healthy. I don't want to go backward after how far I've come in the past 9 weeks.

You can do it.

I know how you feel. My husband and his family and friends are foodies so whenever we hang out, it's mostly to try a new restaurant or a cafe or just to eat. Some people have the willpower to look at all that food and resist temptation. I DON'T, and I know this very well so the first month of being on IP, my husband and I stayed at home.

Then we went for a mini-break out of town at a B&B and we even brought a cooler with us filled with IP drinks and snacks and we also pre-cooked our meals (chicken patty, rhubarb crumble, etc). We did eat out though and I felt pretty good going home because I knew that even if I slipped up a little with the oil and veggies, I didn't really go off plan. And it paid off because I still lost that week.

After that we felt a lot more confident meeting up with people. We recently met up with a mutual friend at a cafe and I brought my IP vanilla RTD and my bottle of Archer Farms caramel coffee syrup and just ordered an iced toddy and was good to go. My husband ordered a pastry but by then I trusted myself more and knew I wasn't going to get derailed.

What I'm basically saying is you should know yourself well. Know how you react to things. If temptation is too strong for you to resist, stay away from it. Sadly that might mean giving up social events for a while. The longer you stay OP though, the more used to it you get, so you toughen up, and pretty soon you won't mind social events too much. If you feel you can handle parties if you prepare well, do it! Better to pack something to nibble on than be salivating at all the yummy food you can't eat.

You can do this, don't give up!

With that said, I do sympathize with you, especially on those treat-less weekends. I still crave bubble tea and am thinking of getting that on my first cheat day when I'm finally in maintenance. Some evenings I go through instagram looking at food photos and mentally noting what I want to eat once I've phased off completely. I resist temptation by reminding myself that if I cheat, the longer it'll take me to get to that point where I can really eat what I want and that's pretty much what's holding me to the plan. The more faithful I am to it, the shorter my journey is going to be.

For me planning ahead was the key..either eating before the party or taking an IP bar with me..or cut up vegetables. People do notice that you are the only one not drinking ..but I just say I am drinking water. I have even poured water in a wine glass at a wine tasting event. I have also taken food on my plate and mashed it around and never ate it.
You have my sympathies. It is not easy, but you will be so much happier if you stay on track. I kept telling myself that I wanted to wake up happy.

Prepare, prepare, prepare.

If you can bring a dish do that, and make it IP friendly. I use to always search out the fresh veggie trays (obvious choice).

Go full! Busy your hands with water.

Bring a restricted snack and enjoy it!

And again, prepare, prepare, prepare!!! You can do it!!

Oh, or avoid, avoid, avoid!!!

Thank you all for the many replies. It is really hard on the weekends - I can do well normally, but like others described, these parties centered around drinks and food. I'm going to have to consider not going until I know my will power is up, but I feel bad holding my family back.

Alternatively, I'll have to insist on bringing a dish

Thanks again!

It's so hard! I don't find the temptation that hard, but I hate having to justify the diet to people. We have gone out 4-5 times in the almost 2 weeks I have been on the diet. I always have a bar and a RTD in my purse. If we are not bringing something then I cut up veggies to. It's really hard though because I don't like to offend people.