Sensible eating as a guest.I don't know about you guys, but I always find it particularly difficult to stick to a calorie limit when visiting friends and family and eating a meal with them. I don't want to seem rude by refusing seconds or dessert, but at the same time I really feel strongly about my motivations for addressing my eating issues in the first place. In my opinion, it's even worse than eating in a restaurant!
This weekend I went to visit my parents, and because all my siblings plus my grandparents were joining us I knew that meant a big family feast would be taking place at some point. Not really ideal! Despite being prepared and bringing my Saturday dinner & Sunday breakfast with me from home, the huge spread put on in the dining room for Sunday lunch was inevitble. The best answer was to get involved and make sure I knew exactly what was going into that food.
So, the ladies of the house made pasta from scratch which was brilliant fun. Who would have thought you would need to many pairs of hands for pasta? None of us had made pasta like this before, so it was a bit of an experiment. Seeing the pasta all laid out and ready to be cooked was a great moment, though. Totally worth it.
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The finished product was absolutely beautiful and totally delicious. It really made the work worthwhile, and eating a carefully considered portion helped me be able to relax and just enjoy it. The leftover pasta has been boxed up for my lunch at work tomorrow. Incidentally, I'm going to count that pasta towards my "cook something proper" goal for the second week of April even though it was a collaborative effort. It might be kind of cheating, but I defy anyone to try to make long fettucine from scratch by themselves!
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Yes, I did end up eating 1000 calories just for lunch. The cheese and oatcakes for dessert certainly contributed their fair share to that number. However, with careful planning I was still able to eat 3 meals
and stay within my calorie allowance for the day. That, my friends, is a Win.
I'm going to be eating out at restaurants several times over the coming weeks due to a variety of occasions, but with forward planning there's no reason why it should be an issue. Who said we can't lose weight and still have fun? ;-)