I'm so frustrated right now. Walked to my moms house and back with my kids for dinner (12:30pm Italian dinner). I thought I did good. I had 1 cup of pasta with about 1/3 cup of her homemade sauce, a salad consisting of romaine lettuce and tomato, with maybe 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar and a piece of bread. I also had couple of baby carrots, about 1/3 cup of pomogranite seeds and a small sliver of baby swiss cheese.

I came home and updated myfitnesspal.com and it says I had 1204 calories from that meal alone!!

That leaves me with 154 calories left for the day and I haven't had our normal dinner yet.

And we are supposed to go back tomorrow for my fathers birthday dinner. She's making lasagna and of course there will be cake.

I don't know what I am supposed to do. I thought I was doing good today.

Sometimes we can only make the most of a bad situation, so today you did well! Much better than you might have done had you not been taking note of what you were eating.

As far as tomorrow, could you not take your own prepared food with you seeing as it's your family? They might make a comment to begin with, but people don' really care what you eat - Put yourself first!

Perhaps you could take some sort of veggie dish for everyone as a "side" for the lasagna, but just take a small piece of lasagna and eat more of the veggies. Try to avoid bread with your meal tomorrow. You will still probably eat more calories than you want to, but sometimes there is no way around that. Just enjoy time with your family. Your diet won't completely derail by taking a day or two off.

Did you input 1 Cup of cooked pasta or uncooked? 1200 calories seems extremely high to me for what you listed

1204 seems like a lot to me for what you had. Did you just estimate high with the numbers to make sure you got it all covered? I didn't have a chance to load it into MFP but it just seemed high to me when I first read your post. (I always overestimate too, that's why I ask. )

I agree, sometimes you just have to make the best out of a tough situation. Enjoy tomorrow!

I agree that 1200 seems really high for what you listed. Without knowing specific ingredients, I would have said what you listed was 900 calories tops.

I calorie count, and from a rough calculation of what you had, it comes to about 800 calories. How did you come up with 1200? I would take another look at what you put into MFP; something isn't right.

Beyond that practical advice, though, I agree with what the others have said. There are going to be times when we just have to make the best eating decision we can even though we'll still be over our calories. In fact, I consider even those times a victory: After all, in the past, you probably would have eaten a lot more and not even thought about it. Remember: The goal should be improvement, not perfection. If you aim for the latter, you'll only end up disappointing yourself, possibly saying, "Oh who cares, anyway!" and overeating (at least this used to be my pattern).

I'm having a hard time even coming up with 800 calories.

If you meant "vinegar" on the salad, then I agree that 1200 seems high. If you meant "vinaigrette" then it might be closer.

That being said, I wouldn't stress too much over this one meal. This is how we learn! I can't tell you HOW many times I've chosen what I thought were "good" options at a restaurant only to put them into my calorie counter and be appalled at how much they really were. So then I think back and determine what i could have chosen differently that would have fit into my plan. Half a cup of pasta instead of a cup. Half a piece of bread. Less oil or butter on my bread. Eat the salad first, so I would be so hungry when the pasta/bread came.

That's how we learn the strategies that will help us next time.

No guilt and move on!!

I think 1200 sounds high, too.

MFP shows 8oz od Barilla Penne Pasta is 800 calories. Then you ad everything else like the sauce, bread, salad w/ balsamic vinegar, not vinegrette. I probably didn't mention the stew beef that I had that my mom cooks in the sauce. Only one small piece.

I guess tomorrow is another day. I will be more conscious of what I eat and maybe skip the lasagna.

A quick search came up with:

So, you didn't eat 8 oz of pasta--you ate 1/4 of that.

Echoing everyone else that you overestimated your cals. It looks like 800 (to be on the high side, really.)

From my days of calorie-counting, I have to agree with the other posters who feel that your estimates were really high.

Personally, if I had eaten a meal that heavy in calories, chances are I wouldn't be hungry again for the rest of the day. But that's just me.

I ate at Waffle House this morning - not exactly a bastion of healthy, low-calorie delights - and I can tell you that what I ate wasn't even close to 1000 calories. And I'm still full from that meal. Of course, lots of fat in a meal will do that.