First, if it's a typical festival, you'll be walking a lot so while it won't be at an aerobic rate, you'll get the exercise in.

As far as food. Well, Southern food in particular is very hard to refuse and festival food is sort of a celebration of all the wrong things to eat in life. But, tell your boyfriend that you'll need to be able to eat breakfast and dinner at someplace that offers healthy options -- although even that will be difficult in a restaurant situation. Just refuse the festival food.....I fell into the trap once of taking a bite of whatever my partner at the time was eating and ended up gaining 3-4 pounds that weekend.

The big thing is to enjoy yourself. These festivals are fun, you'll get a chance to create a new memory. Make the event the focus of your weekend, not your eating.

Can you pack food to bring with you? Even just a bunch of healthy snacks? If you can bring a cooler with, that could be really great. (Your BF or BF's dad could also enjoy chilled drinks from the cooler, so everyone could benefit here.) If that's not an option, just bring a bunch of non-perishables that you know the calorie counts for.

If staying under cals is completely impractical, what else about the trip can you use as a learning experience? Depends what some of your food issues are. Examples - if you frequently go too long without eating and get way too hungry and overeat, focus on trying to not do that. If you eat for comfort when you're stressed/distressed, watch how the annoyances and frustrations of the trip impact your hunger signals and try to respond differently. You might not achieve a calorie deficit for the days of the trip, but it could be really good practice for looking at and altering behaviors/habits -- that'll be a huge help in the long run!

Pack an ice chest. I always tell myself that festival food isn't exactly prepared under the most hygienic of circumstances. I have a friend who is pretty sure she got Hep A from festival food and I never ever want to deal with that.

Agree with bringing your own food ... eat only when hungry (not when you think of it or when you just have the desire to eat, but when truly hungry)... then just eat until you're not hungry any more, not until you're full. You can completely turn this into a success for yourself! Also focus on helping out so much that the food is secondary, if you're there, you might as well make it worth your while, right? Good luck!

Like others have said, pack an ice chest -- one of those little 6 pack coolers or even a collapsible cooler will work. Take along your food and limit your eating to that. And, since there will be 3 of you to man the booth, just excuse yourself a couple of times during the day and walk around the flea market.

Good luck.

Fruit like apples and oranges, hard veggies like carrots and cauliflower, small amounts of cheese, hard boiled eggs, and lots of water. A few (few!) pretzels, some almonds or walnuts, and lots of water. And - don't forget the water. LOL. You can do this with a bit of determination and self control. It's good you're thinking ahead. Planning for stuff like this is everything.

Lin

That sounds pretty fun!! I think there have been some other threads about festival food, and the consensus, besides byo, was turkey legs, corn on the cob (no butter), pickles, and maybe shellfish (like clams), if they have them.