Don’t panic Aud. On normal days you should be able to eat up to 2000 cals and still lose a small amount of weight per week. On the day of the Chinese,eat a small breakfast and lunch then look like you’re tucking in but take small portions. Since I started I’ve eaten out at least once a week including 2 all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets and still managed to lose weight by not going mad.
And so what if you don’t lose weight one week-it’s a marathon not a sprint. Get back on it ASAP afterwards. Good luck .

Hi Aud, I agree with Sonunda that it is a marathon not a sprint. I know how important it is to see those scales move downwards each week – but it is also important to balance this with important things in life – like occasional family visits, or other things that it would be a shame to miss out on.

I try to look at each week as a whole and figure out if I know I am having a heavy weekend eating out/drinking(for example) where I can make allowances elsewhere. At the moment that means doing 4:3, but there have been weeks where I have fasted all day on a non-fast day and then eaten an evening meal that exceeded 500 cals (it actually should be 400 for my TDEE!!) but was less than 2000 or just generally restricted calories on a non-fast day. I think planning is quite important – and I do think this way of eating provides the flexibility to do that. In fact yesterday I looked at the next few weeks to figure out my fast day pattern as with various Xmas events there’s no way I can stick to what I have been doing.

This won’t be the only challenge of this type you come up against – but stay strong and focused, and if you stay the same this week it is only 1 week in the scheme of things, and one Chinese meal shouldn’t completely blow it.

Good luck – hope you can enjoy your weekend and not be too anxious.

Cath x

I really feel for you Audrich. How many partners and best friends have subliminally sabotaged their loved one’s diet? Endless numbers of them, and they’d be horrified if they were confronted with it. The reasons are extremely complex but we all know the results.
If your husband is having difficulties staying on the 5:2, I suspect it’s pointless trying to convince or persuade, and he has to find his own way. But if this works for you, you’ll need to tell him gently but clearly that no, you can’t have chocolate or Chinese take away or whatever on your fast days, but that is just for 2 days out of 7. For 2 days you cook for yourselves and for 5 whole days (i.e. MOST OF THE TIME) you can cook and eat together. It’s a hard conversation to have, but people have to be told not to wave the cake/chocs/crisps etc around you. Explaining why you find it so hard to maintain a good way of eating and that you’d appreciate his help in becoming healthy should make him more conscious of his actions.

Hi audrich,

Men! What are they like! Yours sounds like a sweetie but shares with so many others of his gender, including my Him Indoors, a total inability to get inside women’s heads, in this instance telling you to have “just a couple” of chocolates, only take a small portion, and suggesting you are too busy to do something hearty and healthy for his sister’s visit. Fortunately, my fella works hard to stick to 5:2. And if he does blow it from time to time it’s usually on something I can take or leave anyway. I’m lucky, I don’t have a very sweet tooth, but please keep me a way from highly-calorific smoked salmon taramasalata and certain other savoury naughties.

I think my solution would be to relax a little over the weekend. As Sonunda says, don’t panic. And as she also says, the Fast Diet is a marathon, not a sprint. Be strict where you are able – but don’t beat yourself up if you do give in to temptation. Once sis-in-law has left, you can go straight back to your preferred routine and hopefully reach your next mini-goal or get very close to it by Christmas.

And Humphrey’s advice is very, very wise. Do you think you can have that conversation?

Audrich I have been on two cruises since starting IF and you know they are floating buffets!
Follow the advise – relax a bit with your visitors. If your husband buys chocs let him have a few then pop them in the freezer.
As for chinese food – get people using chopsticks. It will certainly slow you down so you wont eat as much.
Whatever you do – enjoy your weekend visitors and don’t let a couple of days ruin your hard work so far. You could always do 4:3 next week 🙂

audrich,

It would be great to get your sister-in-law on-side. Not that having TWO women sharing the same view of food will make that much difference. What you could do is both of you to try to opt for some less calorific Chinese dishes, nothing fried in batter and lots of lean meat and stir-fried veggies. A bit of on-line research re calorie counts might be useful.

Enjoy your weekend anyway.

“PS Nika, I am really looking foward to your posts after you return home”
Me too!! Mainly because that means I’ll be back home 😉

Congrats on surviving the Chinese! 😉 How did your weigh-in go?
I must admit I’m one of those left-over kids. When I order a pizza and the delivery is free if I order two, I’ll just order a second one and eat that the next morning or during the day… lovely. Cold pizza (well, room temperature, not fridge-cold) is almost as good as hot pizza.
Damn you made me think about pizza again 🙁

Aye, I read. Hmmm I hope you find a way where you can have at least some treats sometime! Otherwise you may start feeling deprived and all this will become a lot harder!