Going to a special function, party or event can be really rough when you are trying to eat healthy. There is usually awesome free food everywhere and none of it has nutrition labels. Plus there is no scale, so your estimation game has to be on point if you want to keep to the plan. If not there could be some major, non life threatening (lol), miscalculations.
Ish Happens, Especially When You Are On A Diet
It happens all the time. The first week of a brand new fitness plan and all of a sudden something pops up to shred the plan apart. Situations like this seem to emerge all the time when you are eating healthy. When you aren't, there is no free food, and when you are, there are barbecues every day.
In cases like this, if you have time, you can actually prepare your own food at home and bring it with you. From my experience this leads to people getting angry when you turn down all the stuff they paid for, or if you bring out your own food from your pocket when the place is packed with food, they get even angrier. Sneaking out to your car to scarf down some celery is not fun.
Don't fear! If you know your plan and are good at estimating (or have a crazy Internet phone) you can pretty much pick and choose different items and stay within your means.
Be A Terminator
On Thursday, a situation like this presented itself to me, and I had to stray from my plan and make adjustments on the fly. I was stuck at a lake house for the day with no access to any outside food and had to survive (lol) on what was provided. Considering there were about 30 hamburgers on the grill I realized survival would probably be possible, but would following my health plan?
Using my trusty Googling cell phone, a general idea of what is good to eat and what is not, and some estimation, I escaped the day safely and within my plan.
For example, there was a table of snacks set up when we arrived. With lots of experience learning about foods I was able to do a quick check of the table and see what would be good to eat and what I should avoid. Like a Terminator I scanned all the foods: raw shrimp (good) cheese (good in small dose), chips (not ideal but can have a few), buffalo wings (bad) etc. Soon I had a pretty great plate filled with energy and I wasn't overdoing things.
Cheese Asterix
The one snag I encountered at this table came in the form of a sliced block of pepperjack cheese. I had no cheese weighing estimation skills and had no clue how much cheese I was putting on my plate. Instead of skipping this item or just having a small piece like I should have, I put 4 slices on my plate and figured I would figure it out later.
Well later came and I was shocked to find out that I could have had anywhere from 100-800 calories worth of cheese! I estimated it at 400, but I still have no clue what the real number was. Asterix!
Trouble Averted
Later that day there was a barbecue and I had myself a cheeseburger. No problem this time! In this case I had the estimation skills required to guesstimate the size of the burger and I'm confident I was very close (always on the 'over' side). There was also birthday cake, which I turned down despite dirty looks because hey, I can take dirty looks if they lead to a hot bod.
When you are trying to get on a healthy track there are always things that arise that try to bring you down. But with a little knowledge and experience you will be able to roll with the punches, adapt, and maintain your healthy habits.
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