Tricks to avoid overeating

[dszil]

What can I do next trip to only eat a proper amount of healthy (-er) food without causing tons of family strife or avoiding the family all together? Has anyone else figured out what to do when everyone around you is engorging themselves and you're trying desperately to avoid doing the same?

Tom,

I spent a good number of years trying to maintain at 5% BF with a family that engorged during holiday celebrations. Family gatherings typically involved people consuming more calories during the "appetizers" stage of the meal than I would typically consume in an entire day! A few of the tricks I used to survive were:

Appetizers:
**Fill a plate with a little of everything. Identify the least unhealthy option on the plate (veggies, cold shrimp, etc). Eat that primarily and refill just that as needed. Your plate always looks full...is full of more than just "health-nut" stuff...and you always seem to be "refilling" it.

Alcohol:
**Red wine if available. Several red wines have fewer calories per glass than even the lowest light beers. Add in the fact that "savoring" a glass of wine is typically not noticed while "nursing" a beer is...and you can do pretty well.

Dinner:
**Scan what's available and identify some good plate fillers. For example...several slices of turkey only slightly overlapping (after all...stacking prevents good gravy coverage) can fill half a plate. Some cooked veggies fill space well. Etc Etc. The point is...get the surface covered as quickly as possibly with the most healthy choices. Then...the only option for the unhealthy ones is to save them for seconds. The key is to make sure you do then go for seconds or someone will notice you didn't even try their lard casserole. In my experience though...people don't tend to notice smaller serving sizes on seconds so you can cut your consumption of the "richer" foods from the meal drastically by just taking a little of each during this second round.

Dessert:
**Obviously the hardest but the fact that you already had "plates" full of appetizers and 2 rounds at dinner helps a lot. Claim you're full but still want a piece of something. "Make it a small one though because you're so full". Nurse this piece as you chat around the table. Hopefully...you've performance up until this point was good enough that no one will think twice about you not even getting through the piece!:)!

Really...IMO...the key is to make it seem that you are one of them rather than sticking out. The more you look like you're not avoiding eating...the less they'll notice you!

Hope at least something in my ramblings helps!
-Dan

[zen cohen]

Tom, Congrats on the weight loss. I had a similar experience and went from about 220 to a shade over 160, though it took me more than a year. Bef/aft pic here: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/26 ... 7538zWDejQ

I used similar techniques as you did to lose weight and my big weakness also was eating too much when I got around other people. I overate three days last week.

My two cents is don't worry about it. The advice here on ways to moderate yourself is good, but don't beat yourself up if you overdo it on occasion. The thing that will likely get you back on track is that you now have something worth preserving in that you have a good body and good health to maintain. As such you're more likely andable to get back on track after a few heavy meals than when you were a sedentary porker. If you're like me, you'll just work out harder to make up for it.

And if that doesn't work, I did my first 60-min piece and I notice it's better than your old 60-min PB. So get on your erg and when you beat my little PB, you'll also have made up for about 800 calories of those holiday meals.

[Steelhead]

(I'll post this in the weight loss forum as well, but figured additional people might see it here).

I was wondering if anyone has any creative ideas for my problem: I had been an over-eater (and under-exerciser) for >15 years. I noticed that, much like an alcoholic, there were certain environments/situations in which I didn't have the self control to not pig out (for example, on the couch after the kids go to sleep). So, last October I made a commitment to entirely avoid the couch at night, and to row 40-60 minutes most nights during my "time of temptation". Wouldn't you know I've lost 50 lbs (258>208) in 4.5 months? I love how I look and feel, and figure as long as I keep healthy habits, there's no knowing where I'll end up.

Here's the problem: I just got back from a weekend at the in-laws. Very obese family, lots of food (and lots of it bad), lots of deserts, lots of sitting around the table for hours talking (and then nibbling the whole time). It was like taking a recovered alcoholic and locking him in a bar overnight. Of course there's all this psychological garbage about eating (on top of all the usual psychological stuff with mothers- and sons-in-law). It was so horrible, that even after a 12 hour car trip home, I rushed to my erg in hopes of undoing some of the damage.

What can I do next trip to only eat a proper amount of healthy (-er) food without causing tons of family strife or avoiding the family all together? Has anyone else figured out what to do when everyone around you is engorging themselves and you're trying desperately to avoid doing the same?

For your next trip, you need to bring your own "muncies" such as unroasted, salt free nuts (even though nuts are high calorie, eating a few will allow you to sit around with your family/friends and munch -- and you will lose your appetite quickly -- besides, most of your family/friends will avoid your nuts and go for the salty, roasted ones; more for you. You could also include some cut up fruit too. And salt-free, butter-free popcorn is also good to bring along a pop-up for your snacks. In other words, eat the foods that are good for you always.

[billyd]

No refined sugar, soda, or dairy. No processed food or limited amounts.

Whole foods, raw veggies, nuts, organic foods and breads, and lots of water.

I lost 10lbs and my buddy lost 20lbs by just eliminating sugar, soda and dairy. His allergies also went away, that he had since he was a kid. I have also not gotten sick once this year. Last year I had about 3 bad colds.

[Nosmo]

No refined sugar, soda, or dairy. No processed food or limited amounts.

Whole foods, raw veggies, nuts, organic foods and breads, and lots of water.

I lost 10lbs and my buddy lost 20lbs by just eliminating sugar, soda and dairy. His allergies also went away, that he had since he was a kid. I have also not gotten sick once this year. Last year I had about 3 bad colds.

But the year is only 27 days old

[billyd]

No refined sugar, soda, or dairy. No processed food or limited amounts.

Whole foods, raw veggies, nuts, organic foods and breads, and lots of water.

I lost 10lbs and my buddy lost 20lbs by just eliminating sugar, soda and dairy. His allergies also went away, that he had since he was a kid. I have also not gotten sick once this year. Last year I had about 3 bad colds.

But the year is only 27 days old

this was over a two month period to three month period

[thomaspinckney]

The trouble with foods that make you fat - they TASTE good.

I am diabetic (under control) and I run into this once in a while while eating with others. I try to eat veggies (you can eat a ton of them without it hurting you), but occasionally have no choice to eat something that makes my glucose levels go up. Instead of eating (example pizza) a ton of it, I now just eat what satisfies me and go no further. You also might try drinking a lot more water or using a smaller fork (these things slow you down) to pace yourself.

Until the others realize that their lives may depend on what they eat - there's not much you can do to stop them from eating a lot or what is available. I now eat one plate of food in those situations. In the past - I ate SEVERAL plates of food.

No such things as bad food - just too much of it.

If you have not done it, you might consider meeting with a dietician (hospitlization will pay for it) to educate you.

[tbartman]

Thanks for all the advice.

I wrote the original message a year ago, and after a nice discussion the thread had died, but then new people come on and reply to old posts and bump it up to the top of the discussion list again! Anyway, I've personally gotten plenty out of the conversation, and have no problems if the topic doesn't get resurrected!

Tom

[michaelb]

Bringing the erg with you and setting it up in the basement and then rowing for an hour or two each day you are there would probably help a lot and let you eat more what they are offering. Ok, I did this for a family thanksgiving once and they may have thought I was a bit crazy, but it did let me eat both apple and pumpkin pie that night.

[larkl]

Bringing the erg with you and setting it up in the basement and then rowing for an hour or two each day you are there would probably help a lot and let you eat more what they are offering.

That's a nice idea.

I'm not overweight and I think a lot of the ideas people have about "how to stop overeating" may be illusion. My experience is that I don't have much control over what I eat. I sometimes binge on something sweet - I love sweets and I don't seem to be able to stick to rules about not eating them. But then after doing this I get tired of sweets and eat other things for a while.

I mean, I don't think eating behavior is as voluntary as people think it is. It really is on the borderline between voluntary behavior and something your body does automatically to take care of itself. Like breathing, really. You can decide not to breathe for a bit. But then your body will say "enough of this, it's time to breathe".

I think the reasons I'm not overweight are - first, I get really tons of exercise. I think it makes my body believe that it's better not to be fat, because not being fat is more optimal, if you're getting a lot of exercise. So getting a lot of exercise changes my involuntary behavior. I don't have a car, I ride my bike everywhere, and also I've added workouts on the rowing machine.

Also I put a really high emphasis on getting good nutrition. I make almost all my food from scratch. So a lot of it is whole food, with as much vitamins etc. as it can have. I have also tracked my diet using the USDA's nutrients database and a computer program to figure out how to eat to avoid getting nutrient deficiencies. So I really do have a good diet, not just based on some idea of what's a good diet, but based on checking the facts and making sure I really do get the RDA's of everything, get my omega-3's, get enough of various amino acids, and all that.
So having good nutrition really helps prevent overeating.

I eat some meat every day, except for one day where I eat amaranth. That has a good deal of protein so I was in the habit of not eating meat when I'm eating the amaranth.

But, I've noticed since I've been working out on the rowing machine, my protein needs have gone up. So on the meatless days, I've found myself sometimes eating too much of the amaranth, stuffing myself on that, in a vain attempt to get enough protein. So I decided, no more meatless days.

So if you have a craving often it's a good idea to give into it. Or at least to give into something more healthy that's similar to what you're craving. I used to binge for example on berries. It's hard to eat too much of something like strawberries.

But even if you do make personal rules about eating, or break them - your body is there regulating itself in ways you aren't even aware of, and it will make up for whatever you did, in involuntary eating behavior. Or indeed, involuntary exercising behavior. I've noticed that after I've eaten a lot I often find myself "just happening to" want to go on a long walk. And burn it off.

The idea of just bringing along the rowing machine and working out a lot and not worrying about your food consumption, in that context, is a good one.
Laura

[Bromley]

Awesome weight loss!

The simplest thing for me is to only have fairly boring food in the house. I can eat an unbelieveable amount of cheese or crisps when I want to, but I always say to myself that if I can't handle eating a full meal then there's no point eating crisps or finger food. It's always the little things that add up.

If the urge to snack becomes too much I have a drink, if that doesn't work I have a banana! BANANAS ROCK!

[Dreadnought]

Bringing the erg with you and setting it up in the basement and then rowing for an hour or two each day you are there would probably help a lot and let you eat more what they are offering.

That's a nice idea.

I'm not overweight and I think a lot of the ideas people have about "how to stop overeating" may be illusion. My experience is that I don't have much control over what I eat. I sometimes binge on something sweet - I love sweets and I don't seem to be able to stick to rules about not eating them. But then after doing this I get tired of sweets and eat other things for a while.

Laura

I have similar feelings about the eating issue. When I began training fairly consistently, I lost a fair amount of weight without changing my eating habits. Most of the weight loss occured during the first few months and subsequently leveled off. I am 5'9" and I started at about 195 lbs and I now range between 170 and 175. I would like to get down to the 160-165 lb range, and I believe I would have to make drastic changes in my diet to be able to accomplish this goal.

It is very hard to maintain a strict diet without being antisocial. There are expectations such as being at the dinner table with the family.

[Nosmo]

It is very hard to maintain a strict diet without being antisocial.

Yes but making small permanent changes can make a difference. Lots of small changes can make big difference.