I have noticed a pattern during these past couple weeks since I started my weight loss program. On saturdays I always end up eating more calories than I should. It always starts out a good day, I'm eating healthy food, working out, and keeping track of my calories. Then my friends or family will call me for last minute dinner plans and it completely screws up my system. When I eat out, I don't make unhealthy choices; however, overall restaurant food has a lot more calories than food I cook at home. I am not a believer in giving yourself cheat days, and any time this happens to me I feel like I'm cheating myself. I don't want to stay at home all the time, but I feel like I have to if I want to stay on track with my goals. Does anyone have any advise?

in situations like the one you described... i opt for a low calorie salad. Just because you go out to dinner doesn't mean you got to get the fried chicken.
And if they are having everyone at the house for dinner... offer to bring the salad. Even if they say no... bring it anyways and fill up on that... then have a little of the other food not to upset anyone... im sure they will understand.

I honestly believe this is the reason that most diets fail and most people fail at them. This, to me, is an all or nothing mindset. You have to remember that this isn't just a temporary diet to lose weight - this is a way of life. You have to be able to accommodate LIFE in your plan or you will fail.

I don't believe in cheat days either - but I do believe that you have to live life and that means that once a week I have a free day. I don't go overboard and don't binge on thousands of calories, but I do have one day a week where I don't worry too much about calories so that I can go out with friends or enjoy a meal out. I posted about it in another thread here:
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/nutri...free-days.html

Perhaps if you stopped thinking in terms of "cheating" and more in terms of moderation and how you're going to handle the rest of your life it will help you gain a different perspective.

This is the hardest thing. Moderation is something I have always struggled with. I order a pizza, and know I shoulod only have two slices, but I wind up eating the whole pie. Willpower is something I have never had.

Thanks for the advise everyone . Its great to have people who can help me put things like this in perspective. Its not that I go out to dinner and binge on fatty food; I usually opt for a salad. It was really hard the night my parents took us out for mexican food though.

Kara, I think you hit the nail on the head. My plan does have to be workable and adaptable to situations that come up. I tend to get too obsessive about my diets and when I feel like I've cheated or failed, I quit. In my past attempts to lose weight I can actually pinpoint the specific meal where I messed up and ate more than I should have, and after those meals I never got back on track.

I know someone who has a VERY good analogy for this. She says ... think about walking down a flight of stairs. You're standing at the top step and you trip. So what do you do?

Do you grab the railing, steady yourself, and keep walking down the stairs?
Or do you say "god I'm such a clumsy idiot" and then throw yourself down the rest of the flight of stairs, breaking your legs and harming yourself?

I think that's SUCH a good analogy for eating healthily. When you slip up and eat something you shouldn't ...when you find yourself drinking that 2nd margarita or eating that 4th piece of pizza ... do you say "screw it - I can't do this" and throw yourself off the diet? Or do you regain your balance and say "ok, I'm gonna drink a big glass of water to balance out all the salt I ate and do better tomorrow"?

That is actually a brilliant analogy. I am so pleased that I looked in...

If you know that you are going to have a restaurant meal on the Saturday (or there is a good chance of it) - there is nothing to stop you building up a calorie bank during the week so that even if you do have extra on the Saturday you know that you have a solid deficit for the week. The thing is that if you are anything like me you will probably have a gain the next day. Restaurants dont just throw in extra calories compared to how we cook - the chances are that they fling in the salt like it is going out of fashion. If you know that it cannot be fat - I find it a lot easier to handle the notion of the scales being up.