The Two Day Buffet (Otherwise Known As The Weekend)
Why is there something going on every weekend that involves food? It seems like I do good all week long; I eat right and exercise and drink my water and take my vitamins and everything moves along splendidly. Then Friday night, Saturday and Sunday come along and it feels like I’m at risk for undoing all the good that I’ve done Monday through Friday afternoon. My husband and I were talking about how tired we are lately and how we feel like by the time Monday morning comes along, we’ve had no rest. But then we realized that every weekend over the past few months has either been someone’s birthday/house/backyard barbecue party, or guests visiting, or dinner with friends and family or other event. For me, these events always pose themselves as big scary hurdles to jump. I’m always wondering if I’m going to make good choices. Will there be something at this party for me to eat or will I be shoveling spinach dip and cheesecake into my mouth for the next four hours? And if I eat sparingly, is someone going to ask me why I’m not eating more? Are they going to ask if I’m on a diet? Am I going to have to decide whether to tell them yes or make up some lie about how I already ate and I’m not that hungry? And if I do indulge myself and eat a boatload of crap, will I wake up and work out tomorrow or will I continue into a couple of days of binge eating? When I look at my food journals I see that in general I’m handling weekend eating relatively well, but I feel like it’s requiring too much mental and emotional energy. I also think that as I get closer to goal I'm going to have to be more strict. In the past I knew that I could fudge a little more on the weekends when I had fifty pounds to lose. I won't have that same leeway when I start to get down to those last ten or fifteen. At some point it won't be enough to do well for four days and then half-ass it for three. I don't know where I'm going with this and I'm sure I'll keep plodding along. It's just that sometimes I wish I could just show up to some social event and not care about how much mayonnaise is in the potato salad.
posted by Lynne @ 6:37 PM
2 Comments:
I'm battling with the same thing myself. There's ALWAYS something and I've had to resign myself to the fact that it will always be so. Out-of-town guests are the worst because they are with you for every meal. My recent plan of attack has been to try to eat ultra lean when I can to try to counter those occasions. One thing we've done that has worked well, is replaced carbs at dinner with even more vegetables. Also been doing lots of soups/veg stews with salad, adn eating lots of fish. In addition, I'm trying to exercise even more than I had been. Then when the occasions come along, I really don't worry about them. I've 'paid' for the priviledge in a sense. Not worrying, in turn, means I'm less apt to carry on pigging the next day, because as far as I'm concerned, I'm still on plan. It's working so far, but I haven't been at it very long. Time will tell I guess.
I know EXACTLY how you feel. And, in fact, I had to tell Fiance "no" to an upcoming event for this reason. It was a young professionals happy hour that involved food and drink from a restaurant we've been wanting to try. Finally, last night, I just said to him, " I can't eat that way right now...not yet at least." I wish I could be the type to just go and eat the appetizers sparingly at such an event...and be satisfied with just that. But right now, at least, I'm not that kind of person. Maybe someday...maybe never. I guess we just have to take these things one day at a time and be really honest about what works (and doesn't) for us. Hang in there and take solace in the fact that there are many of us who feel the same way you do!
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