Strategies for Pubs, time away with work, holidays

[G1234]

Hi everybody,
I'm not the kind of person who stops doing evenings out with my wife, because of the diet. I have no real difficulty in avoiding bar snacks (which doesn't mean I'm not tempted), but do struggle with drinks choices.......I am good with sparkling mineral water, with ice/no lemon..... it almost looks like a real drink! I assume that soda water would be ok..... but I don't know? Tonic water? I know coke zero is ok, but most pubs I go to don't stock it and diet coke is a nono....... take my own and pay 'corkage'! (I think I would get laughed out of the pub!

Any suggestions very welcome.

I also have a work break away in the US soon and a holiday in May.

I appreciate the idea that you have to come off diet at 12 weeks and then get back into ketosis..... timings are just a pain though.

Naturally, I understand 'don't go crazy' if I go off diet...... but is there any virtue in 'eating normally (yes I know , a misnomer)' when with colleagues and using S&S the rest of the time? Or just generally restrain what you eat?

I would welcome your advice and any strategies you have used.

PS lost a stone in 2.5 weeks so far.... and looking forward to more.

rgds

Graham

 

[BordersGirl]

Mostly the low calorie drinks contain citric acid and they can knock some people out of ketosis but I have to admit that I don't worry too much about that as I don't have them very often and I don't seem to have kicked out of ketosis as a result of drinking them. Personally if I was in the pub I'd have a diet coke or a slimline tonic but just leave out out the lemon. I'm not a purist however and there will be plenty of people who say you shouldn't. It's not like I have it all the time though, just on the odd occasion so that the diet doesn't get in the way of real life.

If I wasn't on a planned break then I'd low carb if I had to eat out and fill the plate with lean protein and salad. That's not particularly odd - lots of people still follow Atkins or Dukan or whatever. I've planned my breaks around longer events so I had a break after 6 weeks for a holiday, a break about 12 weeks later for Xmas and then a break about 13 weeks later for Easter. I'm now back on it but have a hen do at the end of May and will come off for the day then, but get straight back on the following day. Yoyoing in and out of ketosis is not generally a good strategy and mostly leads to people failing on the diet (in my experience of having been on this forum for a few months) so I really try to limit the times I do that, but you can still be 'normal' when you want to using protein and salad etc.

 

[Mhara]

I have a work trip to UK next week which I'm a bit concerned about. I don't normally eat breakfast and lunch will be okay, I'll just take my shaker and have that as normal in the office. But there's plans for dinner both nights and as I'm veggie I think I may find it difficult to eat low-carb in a restaurant. Hoping I'll be able to get omlettes! I don't know which restaurants we have to go to either, so I can't check the menus. Bit of a pain, I may try to have a shake before we go out and just get a green salad, but not looking forward to the comments and questions.

 

[BordersGirl]

You're pretty much guaranteed to be able to find an option that centres around chicken or fish. If it comes with potatoes or rice you just ask them to leave them out or ask to swap for salad or veg, or if you don't feel that you can you just leave the carbs on the plate. It might not end up quite a low in calories as a S&S protein meal but it won't be too bad and you will stay in ketosis which is the main thing.

 

[Mhara]

Unfortunately, I don't eat meat or fish, so it's a bit of a nuisance. I was asking Weasy on mfp about her changing back from being a veggie and I can see it would be a lot easier to eat less carbs/more healthily if I did, but I don't think I can. That's why sns is great - all veggie!

 

[BordersGirl]

Ah yes, I can see why being veggie would be more difficult when eating out.