Visiting-timing big/special meals

[shootingstar]

Maybe I'm being abit picky, but not to sabotage recent efforts to eat better, more healthy, I am trying to control my frequency, food content and size of meals I'm having with all the visits with different family members and friends for next few weeks.

Hence, aim towards 1 big/special meal each day with much smaller remaining 2 meals.

Oh yea, I also try to continue to cycle everyday while I'm visiting too. Rides aren't as long as I normally do at home consistently, but it's something hopefully to keep the belly in check. It worked for me over 2 years ago. Not sure about this time.

What do you do during such visits with faraway family and friends? Or just let food gluttony creep in for awhile?

[redrhodie]

I should start giving this some thought. I'll be going to visit my father in a bit. He and my step-mother don't understand that I'm a vegetarian. They think chicken is a vegetable.

Last time I visited them I had a really hard time, not because of too many choices like you're faced with shootingstar, but not enough choices. I couldn't even find any bread in their local grocery store that didn't have high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oil.

I'll probably eat a lot of fruit to balance out the grease. The meals out are always in those horrible buffet type places that they like because of the "all you can eat"ness that grosses me out. Eating with them is always really hard. I had a discussion about weight (well, actually exercise) recently with my step-mother, and she proudly admitted to not caring about her figure. They are both really overweight and diabetic. Yeah, all you can eat is a really good idea for them.

Anyway, I don't see them that often, so I'll get through it somehow.

[GLC1968]

I think it really depends on who you are visiting and what their habits normally are... I was worried that when my parents were going to be visiting, that I'd gain back all the weight that I'd lost earlier in the summer. I didn't do much formal exercise while they were here and I didn't log any foods either. I didn't gain any weight though because my parents eat reasonably healthy (or at least they know that we do). I had a few deserts, but I was careful to make good choices in general and stop eating when I wasn't hungry. It worked!

This will be my same philosophy when I get to go on vacation in October. I'll make reasonable choices and be mindful of my eating habits. Plus, for that trip, I'll probably spend a lot of time in a bathing suit which I've found is a natural appetite suppressant!

[shootingstar]

Plus, for that trip, I'll probably spend a lot of time in a bathing suit which I've found is a natural appetite suppressant!

LOL. If that could work for visiting in wintertime and if one had access to facilities to even wear a bathing suit. Not going that far, but wearing shorts while still warm now is a tiny bit helpful.

Where I'm staying with various people, they do tend to be healthy eaters at this time, but of course, not perfect. And they view my visit as a special occasion, to prepare dishes they normally would not have or we eat out at a restaurant. Not really the pressure to be offered unhealthy food, but just people offering even healthy food, when...tummy might be full already.

With parents, I am guaranteed to be served a healthy meal, since they have been eating healthy for a long time. It's just food from my mother is a signal of her love/care for each of us. She again reminded me of questionable certain Chinese food ingredients that might have unknown chemical perservatives or fish/seafood from strange unknown waters. This is the level of "health" awareness alerts I get ..still at my advanced age. Ah well, she means well and it is for my health after all.

You have to understand: my mother prepares bags of healthy steamed little dimsum wontons homemade and frozen for her youngest grandchild now.. rather cute seeing a little 18-month old baby gobbling with wontons and steamed chicken breast pieces. This how far and meaningful healthy food preparation means in our family.