Tomorrow I'm leaving to go to what I guess you could call a conference of sorts for 5 days. I'm REALLY nervous about the food situation. I'll have no options for my own meals; everything is provided.

What should I do if its all unhealthy???

I can't for the life of me imagine provided meals where absolutely nothing is healthy.

That being said. Let's assume it's possible: There are often restaurants/food places that are close enough to hotels & conference places that you can still stock up on some things that you know you can eat.

If it's at a hotel, you can also buy your own food by asking for something specifically healthier. Or... find out if there are vegetarian options. The veg options tend to be a little lighter.

I'd pack some healthy options that are filling that you can keep in your purse so you can fill up on healthy things and not get the urge to binge.. like dried fruits they have higher cals but you easily put them in a baggy pre portioned and eat them before your meal comes so you'll be fuller, also things like nuts, granola bars, or a protein bar, rice cakes, things that are filling and that you can just carry in your purse! and if there are no healthy options PORTION CONTROL! make sure you leave at least half of whats served on your plate.. drink plenty of EXTRA water to flush out any excess sodium and fat- and If you staying at a hotel for the night I say make sure and exercise in your room at the end of the day or if they have a pool or work out room even better!

Is this like a residential retreat? You can still take some "emergency" foods, as mariamherrera suggests. And you may find that you can apply portion control principles to the foods that are offered. One good rule--skip desserts. Usually they are not worth it at conferences, and calorie wise why bother?

Jay

Usually in these types of situations, they serve some type of fruit option for breakfast, so go for that. Be careful of even the muffins and bagels, they can easily have 300+ calories each before you add anything else. Stay away from fruit juice, tea or coffee are calorie-free and you don't know what the rest of the day holds (calorie wise). Have your own stash of Splenda or other no-calorie sweetener if you use it so you are not at the mercy of anyone else.

For lunch, start your meal with a salad or broth based soup if possible, fill up on things that don't have many calories! If you can, bring your own light salad dressing, Kraft has single servings of light dressing available at the grocery store now. If you are having sandwiches, load up on the veggies and stay away from mayo based chicken/tuna salad sandwiches and cheese.

For dinner, again, try to start with a salad or soup. I would be surprised if they did not have some type of healthy option at dinner, such as baked/roasted chicken, fish, etc.

If you just have to have desert or feel pressured to do so, ask for a box right away so you can "save half for tonight". As soon as you get out of there, ditch the box!

Most hotels now have nice fitness rooms, so bring your workout gear and put some time in! I stayed at a Marriott in the spring and they had really nice ellipticals with individual TV's. You can also hit the pool...once I was stuck at a hotel for a week without a car, all I did was eat out and swim at the pool, and I actually lost weight!

Good luck and let us know how it goes

How did the conference go Soybean?

It was fun, but terrible as far as my diet went. They only gave us two meals a day: One at 6am (and it was eggs, cheese, and a granola bar so I opted for the granola bar twice and one day just bought a bagel) and lunch at 1pm that was filled with cookies, chips, pasta salad and a huge sandwich. Dinner we had to get ourselves. I didn't do HORRIBLY considering I was walking pretty frequently and was only eating 3 times a day, but I didn't continue to lose any weight :/ I'm back on track though!!