I started back on my diet/exercise program (finally) about 4 weeks ago. I've cheated a teeny bit but still managed to continue to lose. In fact, I'm down 7.5 pounds!!!

My concern is that I'm off work all next week. We're not going away, but will likely be taking day trips and eating out a lot.

I'm really nervous that I'll undo all the good I've done this past month. Please send me some good vibes that I can make good choices when eating out and still go to the gym at least 3 times.

This is when dieting/exercise stinks.

Good vibes, good vibes! When I go out to eat, I try to find the restrauants menu online and chose the healthiest option before I get there. That way, I know what I'm going to eat, and I'm less likely to succumb to the less healthy options.

Good idea! It's so tempting sometimes when you're comparing the few healthy choices with all the yummy bad ones....

Anyone else have any tips they'd like to share?

I had two tough weeks recently, and I managed to lose during both of them.

Week 1: MIL was visiting, and she loves to go out so we went out for lunch and dinner pretty much every day for a week. The things I could control were my activity level and my choices at the places we went to eat. I made sure to get in all the exercise I had been prior to her visit, and I added an additional 30 minute walk somewhere throughout the day. I wasn't afraid to ask for things to be prepared in a specific way when we went out. I didn't clean my plate. I didn't snack of other people's plates, although I offered to let them have some of mine. I lose 0.8 pounds that week.

Week 2: week long conference in California. Dinners out every night with reps and industry types. Lunches most days were either box lunches or buffet-style lunches served during user meetings. There were snacks in the exhibit hall twice a day. For this week I really bumped up my exercise since I couldn't weigh all week and I was terrified! The weather was so nice, though, and with the time zone switch for me, it was very easy to get up early and go for a very long walk. I walked for about an hour pretty much every morning. I also did 30DS on my laptop. At this event I had the most control over my breakfast, so I packed two boxes of Fiber 1 bars and bought some apples so that was my breakfast every day. The box lunches were TOUGH, but there were enough leftovers that I would take two boxed lunches, skip the chips and cookie, and eat the insides of the sandwich and the fruit that was included. At the buffets I just made good choices and was very careful about the amount of salad dressing I used. I didn't eat a dinner roll all week long I'm proud to say! I didn't eat any of the snacks in the convention hall -- I made sure I wasn't even IN there when they were served. Dinners out were okay because I wasn't afraid to ask for things to be made without butter or oil, and I was able to replace side items with veggies. I lost 3 pounds that week!

For both of these weeks, the FIRST meal was the hardest. I actually remember having a conversation with myself where I almost gave myself permission to make the less-healthy choice "because I'm doomed to gain a little weight this week anyway." But once I made it through that first meal it became easier and easier to resist the things that I knew I didn't need. I might have WANTED them at that very moment, but I didn't NEED them.

Good luck, you'll do fine as long as you remember that you aren't doomed to fail. You have the power to make the choices that will help you to keep losing.

When looking at a menu I order off the Healthy section if they have it (some have weight watchers or little heart symbols). If they don't I try to stick to the first two pages - the heavy dinners & fried crap is usually towards the back with the salads/soups/lighter sandwiches towards the front of the menu. And if I wanna be bad it comes from the appetizer menu because most likely it'll be a smaller portion.

And if it happens that you can't get to the gym even an after dinner or evening walk will help.

Definitely decide what you are going to get at a restaurant before you go. Fail to plan and you plan to fail!

Yep - for restaurant meals, planning is key. Most restaurants have menus online so you can pre-plan healthy choices. If not, you can figure out the type of cuisine, then google "Healthy eating <cuisine>". You'll learn which buzzwords to avoid (curries at Thai restaurants, for example, are usually loaded up with coconut milk, a high-cal ingredient). You can get general eating-out tips (sticking with grilled, broiled, baked proteins, instead of sauteed, crispy, breaded, etc) by searching for "healthy restaurant eating".

Plan your exercise and your meal strategies ahead of time. It'll make a world of difference!

Becca,
How about planning some take along picnic type stuff for a day or two of your plans? I also would consider what you can put in place to make dinner easy (put something healthier in the crock pot, make a big batch of something you guys enjoy leftovers of, grill a bunch of chicken breast) so that you are more inclined to come home for dinner vs. staying out. Also, make breakfast rock solid healthy at least the majority of the days. Look for good portable snacks at least for yourself even if you can't sell them to the whole family. Dried fruit/nuts, pieces of fruit, bars, might all be good options. Make sure they are very satisfying so you don't feel deprived.

Can you plan a few particularly 'active' day trips? Hikes/walks, biking for part of the day, etc.?

Also, try to ditch any all-or-none thinking. You don't have to take a picnic lunch every day but if you did 2 days that week, it would be helpful. You don't have to come home every night for dinner but 3 out of 7 would be great!

One other strategy might be to plan a single lunch and a single dinner at places you really, really enjoy and work to eat healthier all the other meals. Having something planned that you can look forward can make the other meals where you make healthier choices more worth it.

HTH! Have a great staycation!

Peg

Wow, Rebound, you totally rocked those weeks! I'm so impressed. I have 2 biz trips planned later this month and I really want to do as well as you did. Those meetings with their brownies and cookies are so hard sometimes! Hope you did something really nice for yourself when you got home. You earned it!

Peg

Becca,
One last thought...you might want to have a conversation with your family so they know you would like to make at least some healthier choices during the week so you don't seem to be coming out of the blue. Since you are pretty newly back on track, they might not be dialed in to the fact you might like to try some different approaches.

Peg

I speak from experience.... STAY ON TRACK!!

I went on vacation in July and went pretty lax. I didn't think I was doing too bad, but I regained 4lbs!! It took me 2 weeks to get that back off. And worse than that was that it was so hard to get back on track. I just wanted to eat like I was. I wanted the 10pm snack that I had with my aunt when I was staying at her house, I wanted to sit on the couch and not work out. I want junk food and not the fruit I was craving before. I still want all those things, but I can feel myself getting back to it, but it has taken 3 weeks that I can't get back now. Learn from my mistake.

Thanks so much! I was very happy with myself. It's so hard to turn down free food, but it really did keep getting easier as the days went on. I came SO CLOSE to going off plan on the very first meal I ate on my trip... But then I ordered fish from their "550 calorie or under menu" rather than have the personal size pizza that was on special from their happy hour menu. (Of course, my meal cost TWICE what the pizza would have... Grrr!) I really wonder how my week would have turned out if I had let myself make the poor choice. I feel like it was a turning point.

You'll do great -- just remember (1) just because the food is free doesn't mean you have to eat it, (2) just because it's on the menu that way doesn't mean you can't have it modified, (3) the first few choices are the hardest and after that it gets much easier, and (4) figure out how to do SOME sort of exercise and you'll feel more inclined to stick to your plan.

Good luck!

I do this too. I also have looked up all the fast food places in town and found SOMETHING on the menu that I could order. Sometimes errands etc keep you out and about longer than you'd expected and you need to eat something. Having a few items chosen ahead of time can keep you on plan.

To set yourself up for success this week, plan as MUCH as you can ahead of time. Planning is really your best weapon.

Enjoy your week off!

Ah, man this is always the hardest thing for me. One trip is to CA so actually getting up and exercising those 2 days might actually happen but the other one is going to east coast time and I rarely pull off morning exercise despite always lugging the stuff along. I can't get to sleep at night the first couple of nights and the mornings just slay me w/the time change. Evenings are always tied up until I'm bleary eyed. I'm not sooooo very enamored of the meeting this time so maybe I can sneak off after lunch for some treadmill time at least one of the days.

Peg

From a waitresses' stand point. Modify, modify, modify.

At the chain restaurant I work at we pour faux butter on almost every cut of meat that isn't on the healthy menu. We also slather this "butter" on veggies. But, it makes no difference to me, or any of the cooks if you order your food without butter/oil.

And be picky. You are always welcome to ask how things are prepared. Change sides if you'll be tempted by fries. I actually prefer (polite) pickier customers, because if you get their food right, they're always appreciative, and generally tip well.

Also, asking for a box ahead of time, or ordering off the kids menu makes it a lot easier to control your portion size.

Good vibes to you on your vacation~