Keeping up with your social calendar and your diet can be a challenge, sometimes darn near impossible. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve indulged in my guilty pleasures (dessert, mojitos, and the sun) more than I would have liked to this summer.
It’s not that I don’t want to make healthy choices or know how, in fact I often do when I’m by myself. The challenge comes when I’m out with friends.
Until now, I’ve sort of lived by the rule that “anything eaten while in the presence of friends has no calories.”
Why? I don’t want to be that girl who orders a salad on a date or has to constantly remind people, “I’m on a diet.” I just find it so hard to diet AND be social. If everyone is ordering dessert, I feel bad, almost guilty if I don’t get dessert.
Fitness guru and personal trainer Teddy Bass (who’s worked with celebs like J.Lo and Lucy Liu) says I need to change my way of thinking in order to reach my fitness goals.
“You shouldn’t care what people think, just focus on what you need and want and it’s no one else’s business. Also, don’t address that you’re on a diet it’s no one’s business,” said Bass.
If you’re in the same boat as me, Bass says it’s time to start being more realistic. “If you eat more calories than you put out…yeah, you’ll gain weight.”
He also offered these tips for eating out with friends:
- Share. For instance, share two appetizers among four friends.
- Know ahead of time what you’re going to eat.
- Order first, so you don’t feel pressure to change your order while everyone else is ordering.
- Order healthy and have one or two bites from a friend’s plate.
- If you order a salad, put the sauce on the side. You’ll eat 1/3 the amount normally put on the salad.
- When the bread basket comes, just say no thanks.
- Remember that eating poorly can take years off your life.
- Slow down! You’ll eat way less. It takes 15 min for your brain to catch up with what you’ve just ate.
- If you mess up, no big deal, just try again. People forget that every moment is a new moment to try again
It is a bit of tough love, but it’s just the advice I needed to hear. After all, if I don’t change this habit, who else will?
What are your thoughts?
Yours Truly,
Lady Lex
Thanks for the article! This has actually been on my mind a lot lately. The culture here is to drink a LOT socially but I can feel the calories adding up. When I asked a friend how to avoid drinking all my daily calories she said just drink something else! Sometimes its just that simple. Thanks for your refreshing insight.
As someone who always tries to eat healthy (while I have the benefit of being naturally thin, I still like to look good and look healthy), I think these are some of the best recommendations I’ve seen!
Thanks so much!
Love,
Jaime
http://denimdebutante.com
I agree with Bass about ordering a salad and requesting the dressing on the side. I think far too often restaurants give you much more than you can eat or need to eat. I would also add that restaurant food often has alot of salt which makes people retain more water and not good for dieting. The best solution is to slow down the eating like Bass suggested. I have a good tip! Eat with chopsticks like they do in China. That’ll slow you down for sure! Happy Eating!
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