Today there is a big annual festival going on in my small town - carnival, parade, food vendors - the whole enchilada.

Much to my chagrin, I have already started the day by eating a sausage biscuit from McDonald's. My excuse? I woke up too early and was sick to my tummy. Now I feel so guilty! And I'm worried about all the strawberry pies and desserts I'll be seeing today.

So, my question is - what do you do to avoid eating all the appealing foods at a special event? I thought about not even bringing money, but I know my daughter will get hungry while we're out all day. I just found out yesterday that I have lost 10 pounds so far, and I want to lose 5 more by my big family reunion in two weeks. I don't want to gain.

Anyone have any tips or tricks? Or does it just come down to simple will power / willingness?

Can you get just samples of a few things that you really would like to have? Or split things with your daughter? Can you work in some exercise later, to sort of balance off the goodies that you could try today?

My experience is... if it's off limits, then I definitely want it. So I would see if you can have a taste sample of a few things. You'd be amazed at how satisfying just ONE bite of something, really savoured in your mouth, can be

It helps to bring something with you to eat. So, while others are munching on pies, I at least have a beautiful, delicious orange to eat. Better than staring at them while they eat!

For me, it's also easier if I just make a firm stand that I'm not going to eat even ONE BITE of the carnival food. If I start thinking, "Oh, maybe I'll just have a bite or two!" then it's a slippery slope for me. It's easy for me to think "Oh, I've already had a couple bites! One slice of pie can't hurt!" and from there it's all downhill. If I just make a firm rule that I will ONLY eat food I brought, it seems to work better.

Bringing something is good advice! I might just stop at the grocery store beforehand and get some fresh fruit to bring with us.

Trying a sample sometimes works for me, but I meant to eat half of that sausage biscuit this morning and ended up eating 7/8 of it, heh.

My problem is, I haven't done any real shopping for my "diet" because I'm going out of state to visit my mother in a couple weeks anyway, and I know the diet stuff will go to waste when I leave because my boyfriend won't eat it. So I'm trying to stick with what I have already, and eating the same things all the time is so boring. I know I'll be excited over the prospect of eating all the festive foods.

Hopefully, if I bring an orange, I'll remember my diet and manage to stick with it while I'm out. I haven't had oranges in forever so that actually does sound almost as good as pie! ^__^ Thanks for the tip.

I agree that bringing your own food is the way to go! Also I have a rewards system of "paying" myself for good behaviour; going to a place such as you are doing and NOT overeating gets me $1 in my kitty. I have a special goal I am aiming for that I REALLY want so I will most of the time "keep" my $$$. And it ends up not really costing me all that much because I would often have blown the $$$ on the junk food, lattes, or whatever.

I tend to not bring money with me to events where I know I will be tempted to buy food when I am not even hungry Bringing your own stuff is a great idea and highly recommended!

I am going to a street fair today where there will be a beer garden a wine garden and many ethnic food booths (think curries, hot noodles and spring rolls!).

I am going to bring a snack with me too and if I can find something healthy I will eat it.

Best of luck to you and here's some

2 weeks is plenty of time to shop for healthy foods - most produce is good for only a week! You can menu plan from now until the day you leave and buy ONLY what you will eat so nothing will go bad. I usually shop in 5 day increments and I very very rarely have to throw anything away.

For the carnival - dried mango is delicious and portable and very chewy (takes awhile to work through). I usually keep some in my purse for situations like that.

Are there other people besides your daughter going with you? The reason I ask is- should you, er, decide to buy one thing, take a tiny portion of it and give the rest to someone else-if just your daughter is going with you- order something you both like, take a bite or two, and give her the rest.

In the past, when I was much thinner, I used to give the rest to my hubby, after taking a bite or two. I was happy to get a taste and was able to get past the other food items by doing that.

I find that if I'm going to buy food to "just taste," it's really hard to deal with the rest. Instead of giving it to someone else, who may not want it or need it, I have given myself permission to throw it away. I can hear the gasps of shock now, but I gained a lot of weight trying not to "waste" food--and carried it with me for years as a result.

Anyway, the event is over by now. How did you do?

Jay

I would bring some yummy grapes or orange slices, granola bar, and maybe some crackers or light chips.. you can have several snacks for just a few hundred calories that way. Or maybe you can just bring fruit and promise your daughter a treat after, and stop and get frozen yogurt or a low-fat cone from McDonalds.

Thanks for all the responses, everyone. Fortunately enough for me, everything at the carnival was grossly overpriced. Since when are elephant ears five bucks?!

Man, everything smelled great. But as I walked around and saw people stuffing themselves with giant platters of nachos and a couple of corndogs in each hand, I honestly wasn't very hungry anymore.

In regards to grocery shopping for health stuff - my boyfriend only likes to buy every two weeks (he's SUCH a stickler about money) - so I have to deal with what random healthy things I have, which the supply is dwindling. xD I have such a craving for fruit after reading all the replies.

I'll remember all of your tips for when I attend the family reunion in a couple weeks. Free delicious food is going to be much much MUCH harder to pass up than five dollar funnel cakes. :P

Harumph! When you get back from your trip, you might need to have a talk with him about that! So far as I can tell, vast quantities of fruit and veggies are essential for losing weight (unless you don't mind being hungry) and those really need to be purchased once a week at a minimum. I've noticed that if we put off doing a big grocery shop for longer than we should--and just run to the store for one or two items at a time--we wind up eating MUCH worse than we do when we doing the shopping regularly and buy lots of veggies. The stuff that lasts on the shelves and in the fridge for a long time tends to be the bad stuff.

I know, baffled. I'm starting to feel the pain of that. It seems like everything I've been eating lately is really high-carb and low-nutrition. I'm glad I can stay within the calorie range I want... but as soon as my bag of Meijer boneless skinless frozen chicken tenders is gone, I'm pretty much done for. :P

I spent $7 on a pocket/purse size calorie guide by the calorieking.com guy that I got at the local bookstore. It even has carnival food, restaurants, fast food, etc. I took it on vacation with me and it worked out great in two ways. One, when we were going out to eat, I had guidance. Two, when I saw the contents of some of the foods, I no longer wanted it. I was gone a week, ate out every day, and only gained a pound. I considered that a small victory!