Socially Over Eating.

Days until Con: 103

05/22/2011

The grandparents are gone and I've conquered something that I think everyone who is overweight has problems with, socially over eating. Individually I think most people have the ability to eat reasonably but for some reason when you add a group of people together suddenly there's this rush to provide and devour as much food as possible.

My last girlfriend's father would take us out to eat every Sunday, and though it wasn't something insisted upon, there was always an appetizer, an entree, and dessert ordered. This is an example of socially over eating because it was always way more food then necessary. But it was fun to indulge while in the company of others and to celebrate the union of family. When my friends all get together and we eat out at a restaurant or bar it's like suddenly everyone has to get the worst possible food complete with appetizers and beer. I think there's something psychologically, and possibly it's just Americans, that we have to celebrate occasions with large amounts of food. If your'e only eating out like this once every other week it's not a problem, but odds are high you eat out a lot more than that.





When I look back at the foods I purchased over my time doing Hot for Con, I'm eating out way more than I intended and a good number of the higher calorie occasions are because I'm being social and eating with someone. There is a certain level of restraint you have to acquire when wanting to be healthy, and learning to make better decisions while eating out socially is very big chunk of that.

I've been number crunching my goals, and if I can catch up in June I'll still be on track for 180 by Sept 2nd. Having a bum lower back which in turn caused some extremely light exercises for the last two or three weeks has really got me behind for the month of May. I needed to get at least 10 pounds a month down, and May so far has been lack luster. The good news is that I'm continually losing weight at the weekly weigh in, which there's nothing wrong with at all. Any weight loss is good weight loss and I'd rather get to Con healthy then attempt something that's clinically awful.

Depending on some heavy career choices I'll be making this month, I may join an actual gym and get some coaching from a few friends so I can start getting some muscle definition. I'm also going to seek some nutrition advice from a variety of people who may able to offer ideas I haven't come across yet.