Saving Calories for Alcohol?

Okay, so I've been SUPER careful today about calories because I know I'll be drinking tonight. I'm hosting a casual get together with friends, where we'll play poker and drink and eat. Yuck!

I purposefully only ate the following today:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup plain yogourt, 6 strawberries, a tsp of honey, 1/4 cup fiber one and a 4 oz serving of V8 Fusion fruit juice. (250 cals)

Lunch: Jugo Juice Watermelon Smoothie and 1 pce of 45 cal bread with 1/2 tbsp peanut butter. (250 cals)

Dinner: Steamed Lobster - plain, no butter or anything, a handful of butternut squash fries and a green salad - no dressing. (250 cals)

So this averages at about 750 calories and I'm hoping to stick around that number so that I can have some pita chips tonight (150 - 200 cals) and salsa. I'm hosting the party so it shouldn't be a problem monitoring the food!

Now - that'll get me to about 950 - 1000 cals, and I'm hoping this is ok, considering I'm planning on having 4 - 5 drinks this evening with friends. (they are ~100 cals each - check out my recipe at http://caloriecount.about.com/recipe/121974.h tml)

 I also walked/jogged 5km this morning (7:30am with the hubby!) and then spent an hour and fifteen hiking in a nature park with a friend this afternoon. Cleaned the house from top to bottom and got ready for the party. My hope is that I probably will consume 1500-1600 cals total today and likely burned 2000 - 2100. I desperately want to keep my deficit.

Does this sound reasonable?
H

 

This sounds more than reasonable to me.  Even if you shrink or negate your deficit tonight, remember that everything here is cumulative.  One night of treating yourself is not going to kill your progress, especially if you plan ahead like you are.  Think about shaving a few more calories in the next couple of days too, nothing drastic, but you can erase anything out of spec for you by the end of next week, and still have a great time tonight.  Have fun!

 

Hello Heather!

Hope you have a lot of fun tonight!  Your plan doesn't look bad on the surface, and certainly the math seems to work out, but I wonder if you're compromising nutrition for the sake of counting calories?

Personally, I wouldn't count the alcohol calories in my daily allocation - when you're restricting your calories to 1,500 -1,600 per day, I think it's a fair assumption that those really need to be nutritionally significant, which alcohol isn't.   Plus, with so little food in your system, the alcohol could hit you faster and harder, thereby lowering your resistance to overindulge in both alcohol and food.  From your profile: Also, a major goal is to cut back significantly on alcohol (there is alcholism in my family) and save 'out food' for special occasions.

If it were me, I'd eat my full calorie allotment for the day, have 1 or 2 drinks instead of 4 or 5, and consider the alcohol consumption a rare indulgence, log this as a cheat day and carry on tomorrow.

Split

Ugh well....

I only had three drinks - it occurred to me that I should just make the rest of the ones for the evening without vodka, no one would notice or give me a hard time.

I did, however, eat a small bowl of 'Skinny' corn chips, a few pieces of bread, and Spinach Dip (which I made with FF Cream Cheese, Sour cream, mayo, etc so I know the dip was pretty decent)

Ended up probably adding 600 cals of food and 300 cals of drink to my diet for almost a 2,000 cal day. I've gained .4 lbs since yesterday but hoping some of it is just poop or food in my stomach. (lol)

Going to make it up with tennis AND a run today, and watch my intake very seriously.

 

Don't be super hard on yourself, sounds like the sodium content maybe a tad high in the snacks-probably just water retention!

Drink plenty of H20 and relax!!! 

Let me just stick my 2cents in here:

Yes, I'm with splitrail only more so: you need those calories for nutrition. With all the exercise you get, you need to focus more on high protein foods: meat, fish, eggs, chicken. Yogurt and whole grains (and vegetables which are also sadly lacking in your plan) contain small amounts of protein, but nothing like you need for running, tennis and the other activities.

Also, pardon me, one time only, but if alcohol is that important to you, you do need to look at that more closely, especially since it is (as you seem to know) passed down in families. I know, I come from one. It is amazing to me to look back to my 20's and the decisions I made, the choices, the lifestyle, and humbling to realize I was doing those things because I was stoned.

Good luck to you, and I hope to see you around the forums some more.

I have this same problem.  I love to drink but am only recently realizing how terrible it is.  I don't drink beer, but even a vodka cranberry is around 200 calories.  Maybe next time stick to lower calorie mixers like Diet Coke?  That's my plan, at least. 

just wanted to caution you about 4-5 drinks when you are decreasing calories/ losing weight.  I have lost about 20 pounds and I cannot drink what I could when I started.  At least you will be at your own home, but this is something to really consider if you are out somewhere... not too cool to be the drunk girl.