i hate how much i eat when im with friends.

i swear this has always been a problem. I was eating so well lately, and im at my friends hosue right now, we made cookies, and we already ate half of them. i hate it so much. ive atually been avoiding my friends just so i dont eat bad. i just hate it. i swear i need like professional help for this. i hate my friends but i hate how much i eat with them. it sucks so bad.

Yeah, I kinda know how you feel... I have a friend (who's chubbier than me, lol) who's really into baking and eating dessert, and it seems like every time I'm at her house we make cookies, and of course, eat a whole bunch of them. And then breakfast is stuff like chocolate waffles. Urgh!

There's really not much you can do except exercise some self-control, which can be hard, but you just have to keep your body in mind... if you've been really good, it probably won't hurt you to have a cookie (or maybe two), and then you just have to have the self-restraint to not eat any more. If you can, put the cookies away or move away from them, and then (obviously) you can't eat any more then. And then if you just do some extra exercise and are super careful about what you eat the next day, it should be OK.

You could also suggest some other activity, like taking a walk, preferably before she comes up with the idea of making cookies, lol. And the plus side is that when you're outside walking, there's no food to tempt you with! But in the end, it's really all about your self-control.

I have started changing what I do with my friends.  Eating out and food used to center around the activities we did.

They still do, but I make it a point to eat less than my friend(s).  I don't care if they feel bad because i'm making better choices, but I still want to go out, and live a realistic life.

Restricting everything and avoiding my friends is just going to make me gain weight when I start hanging out with them again. 

So when your friend suggests baking cookies, if you want to, by all means participate, but you don't have to participate in the cookie eating binge.

Oh and Rainhana, as for the chocolate waffles, suggest a different breakfast place.

I have found that friends have a problem with someone changing for the better.  Stick to your guns, you'll be happier for it in the long run! :)

I have the same problem too..so your not all alone! All of my friends are really tiny and can eat WHATEVER they want! Whenever we are together we always end up going out to eat then back to someones house to watch movies and pigging out on junk food! It's horrible. I know how hard it is to have self control in that sort of atmosphere. I've been doing better latley by telling myself that I can either have like ONE cookie at my friends house or wait till I get home and have an entire 1/2 cup of low-cal ice cream at home! It's sort of like my reward to myself..and its been working :)

-Malakai

I've also had this problem. But instead of just going out for movies/dinners/drinks with my friends as I used to do, I've tried to do more a healthy activities with them, like going for a hike, bike ride, canoeing, or whatever. That way you're still spending time together, but you're not compromising your healthy lifestyle. If eating is involved, I just order a healthy option at a restaurant... but if I'm at a friends house, I try desperately to control my portions. I'm really bad at this though.

I have the same problem. My friends, eat, watch TV, go on the computer, and play video games. It's boring, and unhealthy. I spend a lot more time with my mom now. I like it :)

woah i understand completly. i'm exactly like that. what helps me though is that some of my friends are trying to lose weight also. so we go to healthy places like jason's deli. i tell them to not let me eat bad or too much, and they respect that.

I have the same problem, but it's my boyfriend that sabotages me (actually, he's completely innocent; I do it myself).

He's 6'2" and is capable of eating PILES of food (without putting on weight, darnit!).  Since watching my weight and diet, I eat a few cups of food per meal, but I pretty much eat 6 times a day.  Except when I'm with him.  Then I'll eat a whole plateful of food at a time, and snack on chips and junk!

I finally solved this problem by telling him what the deal is.  That I would only be eating healthy food (even if it sounds like hippy-hippy-granola food to him), and that I won't feel guilty if I don't finish my plate of food at a restaurant.

I suggest that you have the same talk with your friend.  That you're watching your weight/diet and trying to be healthy.  If your friends like to spend time in the kitchen, maybe suggest making a salad... chopping up veggies can be as fun as mixing cake.  Or even concocting your own healthy recipe!  Remember the scene on Fried Green Tomatoes when they have the messy food fight in the kitchen?  Enjoy cooking/baking, but maybe bring a healthy cookbook with you next time!  :)

get new friends :)


jk, im sure your just lacking simple willpower, i mean when i have friends here they will order a whole pizza and i wouldnt even be tempted by the smell.  Cause i know if i eat something like that i will gain a small level of satisfaction for a minute, and end up throwing a lot of hard work away because i gave in for 1 minute of pleasure.

Well it's the same for me but with one friend.. Me and her were the same size through elementary school and Them as soon as we hit Jr high she lost all this weight in a not healthy way and has been smaller than me ever since BUT ever since that time when ever I go on a diet or try to lose weight she buys me Tasty Kakes for presents! This year I turned 18 and what did I get for my Present TASTY KAKES!!! I don't know what to do about this because its like she doesn't want me to lose weight and be happy... Idk.. But I learned that some people try to hold you down and you just have to learn to deal with it... like at my party after she left I gave everyone a package of tasty Kakes.. But you just have to learn disipline...

oh my goshhh same here.

and it's not even like my friends' faults. I just have this feeling that I HAVE to eat when i'm with them. I just try to stay really focused on not ruining my eating when i'm with them. It's a continuing struggle.

I really believe in the adage "everything in moderation". We may be watching what we eat but we need to indulge ourselves once in a while. I do not like thinking that we should not go out with our friends, just because they like to eat. Instead of eating 5 cookies. Eat one. If you decide to go out, then just get something small. I LOVE to eat, but I only eat very small portions and it seems to be working. Even when it comes to dessert. I think it is also good, to always half or quarter a normal size before you even touch it, that way, you don't eat as much and to  make things even better. Pawn it off to someone with better metabolism. I always pawn stuff off onto my boyfriend and he gets full and I get to indulge just a little bit. I say enjoy food to the fullest, but don't indulge to  make you full. Does that make sense?

nalugirl-

i give you props for having that much self-control, that's awesome!!

that's always been my goal: to eat smaller portions of the food i WANT.

thank you all for your advice, it actually helped me so much yesterday, i just posted a recent post about it, how i was with my friend who i avoided because i didn't want to gain weight, but i ended up eating even better then i usually do on my own, all i had with her was fruits and vegetables and she accepted it, it felt so great to know i have gained some will power! there was tons of temptations, pizza, ice cream (ben&jerrys!!), cannolis, chips, cake, donuts. i passed up all of them :]! I ended up grabbing fruit instead. woo!

A few things have helped me when hanging out with friends:

I try to know the restaurant ahead of time.  I view my calorie intake for the day and how much I have left.  Then, I get on the restaurant's website or CCC website and figure out what I can have.  For example, we had Papa Murphy's pizza the other night with friends and I was able to indulge in 1 1/2 servings as well as an orange soda and still be under my calorie intake for the day.  Fast food sites for McDonald's and Burger King allow you to "bag a meal" and figure out the caloric intake of everything you plan on eating before you get there.  It's been immensely helpful to me.

My friends and I LOVE going to the movie theaters but that means 2 hours of sitting on my ass and (often) indulging in buttery popcorn.  My husband and I enjoy going early and spending a few bucks at the arcade playing Dance Dance Revolution.  This gives us a fun, quick workout and lessens the guilt of being a couch potato the rest of the night.

I've also found a few sweet treats that I can keep around the house.  I often indulge on them when our friends are having the fattier treats.  If everyone's having ice cream, I have a frozen fruit bar or one small scoop of ice cream with some fresh berries on top.  If cookies or cake are the snack of the evening, I munch on chocolate teddy grahams to take away my cravings and they only have 140 calories/serving.

Keep it up and you can make it work!!

i totally used to go over to my friend's house after school at least once a week and totally pig out, like along with 2 other friends of mine. it would be our way of "stress relieving" but trust me, it didn't work out that way.

it's actually not even just when i'm with friends.. because i kinda suffer from the whole binge eating disorder. things have looked far better for me, though, when i realized my binging/restricting habits were ruining my life, that i had to do something about it.

to be honest the only thing that worked for me, was turning my life back to God. i'm not saying that you need to be a christian in order to lose weight or be healthy or stop binging, but i'm just saying that for me prayer before meals really helped, they took on a new role rather than just blessing the food lol. but it's been getting dramatically better within the last month, my life has turned around as well as my perspective on food. it's still a struggle at times but i feel like i have extra help on my side now :)

anyways end of rant! point is, is that yeah.. going out or just being with friends can cause me to eat more, too. but at least most of the time it's not all out binging like when i'd be by myself.

haha my friends have NO food in their flat, Its one place i can go and know i won't be able to eat anything no matter how hungry i am.

I started bringing food with me.  With close friends who know I'm working on my weight, I'm not shy about bringing a whole separate meal for myself if I know everyone else is planning on going for grease.  With more casual aquaintances, I bring along snacks for everyone to share, and that seems perfectly normal, even polite - I just bring things like pretzels and veggies to balance out the chips and candy that other people bring.