Surviving other people's dirt weekends

This weekend was a challenge for me. I've often struggled with my relationship with food, and I use people as an excuse to celebrate and indulge (indulge meaning eating 1000s of calories without blinking an eye)

What? You have a birthday today? Let's eat cake!

You got a new job? Let's eat cheesecake!

Your cat used the cat box? Let's make cupcakes!

I could celebrate anything with food.

This weekend Philip and I visited with our two favorite people, my cousins Rick and Steve. Often when we've visited with them, I've used it as an opportunity to eat as much and as horrible as I want. It's a food-cation for me. So when we decided to go spend the night with them, I knew I was going to have to play it smart. While I know eventually I'll feel comfortable partaking in meals and days where I don't count calories, I can't afford to now. It's too early in the process for me, and my commitment to living a healthier lifestyle is to fragile to do anything to threaten that. This is too important.

So what did I do? Did I eat whatever I want? Or did I count calories? I'm happy to report, I counted calories. On Friday, Philip and I had recommended going to Fudruckers for dinner. After much research, and realizing Fudruckers does not put their nutritional info online, I finally found that they offered a Turkey Burger. win! AND they had a side salad I could get instead of fries. It was an expensive caloric meal, but I still came in under calories for the day.

This morning I asked to go to IHOP. IHOP has some healthy options on their menu. Again, I knew this before going. I knew exactly how many calories to plan for, and though it was a rich

breakfast, I could afford it nutritionally speaking. The option I chose was a 560 calorie breakfast that included blueberry harvest grain pancakes, bananas, and

egg substitute. Definitely yummy and went great with sugar free syrup. Try the sugar free syrup people. It's tasty.

To sum up the weekend, everything went well. I planned ahead, and knew what to eat and what to stay away from. I'm pretty proud that I survived my first weekend.

Next post.... weigh-in on Tuesday. Yikes.