My mom's birthday is tomorrow and my sister came up with this idea to bring in fried chicken tenders, french fries, and hushpuppies from a local restaurant. I know the french fries and pups are off limits, but how much damage will I do by eating a few of the chicken tenders? I figure I can open a can of green beans to go with them. I'm on day 4 of P1.

can you get a grilled chicken sandwhich and just take off the bun? If it's that easy to open green beans, how about making your own something or other and bring it with you? I know I was tempted today - my boss had a lunch and offered me the best sandwiches, fruit and chips ever. I politely declined and brought my salad to the meeting.

I didn't want to ruin anything, you know?

That particular place only specializes in greasy fried foods. I don't think they make anything that's not fried! I don't want to ruin anything either and that's why I asked. I'd hate to get all those cravings back. I'll figure out something to do.

Hi Amanda: I had a birthday party to attend this weekend. I had a piece of cake. But that's it. I brought some of my own snacks/lunch meats to eat if I got hungry.

Take charge of your health and plan ahead! You can do it.

And let this be a lesson to you...that one piece of cake I had made for a very awful next day for me!

I'm not getting anywhere near the cake. It would begin a downward spiral for me. I'm a major junk food addict.

Gee, Amanda. Ask your sister if she wants your Mom to have a heart attack!
Funny how we insist on treating ourselves (and I'm no exception!) to "bad food" on special days. What's up with that? "It's MY birthday, and I'm having deep fried food and msg, damnit! And DON'T try and stop me!"
Good luck tomorrow, and Happy Birthday to your Mom!!

We decided to get subs from a local sub shop instead. I'm taking along some of my own low fat lunch meat. I tried to get Mom to do SBD with me and she won't. Oh well. She likes chocolate too much. Thanks for all the help!

Offer to make a salad to bring. You could take a platter of vegie sticks with hummus for starters and a couple of bottles of diet drink to share as well. Just tell them up front that you will bring some extras. I have always done this with my family as they insist on high fat, high sugar food and I have developed a reputation over the years for always making yummy salads. In my family we actually waited until our mother developed a heart disease until we switched to healthier foods. Now our family meals are much healthier.

I would be interested to know what you end up doing as I am now trying to re-educate my friends on healthier options for our shared meals (heck - it only took about 10 years to convince my family).

How did it go Nicolee?

It actually went well. I didn't have any veggies, but I ate some lean deli ham and some deviled eggs and drank ton of water. When the cake came out, I didn't really even want a piece that bad, although it looked wonderful! When I got home, I had a sugar free popsicle.

My family is actually being supportive of my diet for once. I just wish I could talk some of them in to doing it with me. Oh well, maybe they'll learn by my example.

Thanks for all the support I receive on this board. I couldn't do this without you guys.

Amanda, good for you!! That must have been so difficult for you... you're doing GREAT!!
Maybe when your family sees how well you're doing, they'll consider following your example. In the meantime, it's all about you, hon. Keep it up!

Serious - -the best way to convince people is to suceed! Great work and thanks for following up!

Congratulations, Nicolee! How awesome for you! I know how you feel, I wish my mom would do this with me, too. She has been very overweight for almost thirty years and is a Type II Diabetic. She says she doesn't think that she can have any carbs and get by on the meds she is on. However, I think that she starves herself with no carbs and then ends up binging, or worse, sneaking little cheats all day long. She did work hard enough to get herself off insulin, which I am tremendously proud of, but I do worry about her. I'm sending her a copy of the first book today. I hope she thinks of doing it!