Hello everyone! One of my major obstacles or weaknesses is staying on course during holidays or special occasions. I always find excuses to break the good impulse. I end up over eating or drinking too much. AND to make it worse, what it is supposed to be my "day off/cheat day" turns into an entire week off and even longer, which makes me get demoralized.

Does anyone have advise or any ideas on how to prevent this from happening?

Best to ALL.

We are leaving today for a long weekend camping where a big family group is meeting up and there will be TONS of bad food there. Breakfast is planned for all and its continental meaning coffee, juice and pastries...NO THANK YOU! I am in control of this weekend and I will be taking egg whites and lean ham for my breakfast...I have my own camp site and grill so I have the option to make it healthy. I will be taking lean turkey patties and whole grain buns when everyone else will be doing a huge community hot dog meal...no thanks again. (I bet you mine will taste 100 times better too!!!) We will be going to a Rodeo tomorrow and we're told to bring money to buy food at the stands, NO THANK YOU, we will be taking stuff to make sandwiches and fruit in...we all have options...you just DECIDE thats what you are going to do!!!! You are in control...make this holiday DIFFERENT for you...make YOURSELF proud that you were able to stay on course. Be safe.

Hey Ikigai!

Speak of the circumstances..........

Two days before the trip, bulk cook as much as you can. Cook an upwards of 20 chicken breasts, cook rice, hardboil eggs, prebake sweet potatos, clean and cut veggies, fruit, and get some healthy plain yogurt for a dip..........(add a ranch packet for a fun veggie dip or get some plain vanilla yogurt to dip fruit in)

Gladware and ziploc all of; it is easy to pack those guys in a cooler.

myoplexlite & Mellie,

Thank you so much for the advise. I'll take the support I can, as I made a true and deep commitment to myself: this time there is not way back to bad habits, and I must maintain my path through this Transformation.

I will make sure to utilize those important tools you are highlighting: *Plan ahead*, be prepared and maintain the commitment to myself!!

Absolutely PLAN ahead...don't let anything sabotage your progress. We have many baseball games and practices at night right now and soon to be football 6 days a week.... We have to be there early for warm ups or practice which is usually around our regular dinner time. The baseball field has concession but like Mellie says."NO THANKYOU!" We pack sandwiches and other healthy snacks. For potlucks I have discovered to bring a couple healthy dishes that way if there is lots of unhealthy choices we have enough of our healthy food to eat for ourselves and share. Funny thing is our dishes always are the ones to get emptied the quickest.

Hi guys! I hope you all had a great 4th of July Holiday and weekend. I had a very nice time with family and friends, although I need to be honest, I felt short with my will power on Sunday. I am not sure why.

Before the trip, I planned very well following everyone's advise. I brought to the trip my vitamins, healthy food like fruit, cottage cheese and a hand full of strawberry Myoplex Lites the powder kind (no offense to mioplexlite in this thread ;-) ). They sure came in handy. I was able to stay on course during the 4th of July party with 50+ guests that came and had a good time. I was very proud that I was able to be good during that party. I was a good person and very diligent up until Sunday night, when I broke down during another dinner where they were serving nice cocktails. Unfortunately for me drinking alcohol = no measuring or controlling what I eat, so I tend to splurge on large portions or desert :-(

So here I am on Tuesday back to being good. This time I made sure to dust myself off quickly and get back on track ASAP!! In the past I've let myself stay off track too long and that has been a terrible approach.

Obviously, I DO NOT want to fall into that bad pattern allowing myself to *cheat* constantly and then give myself excuses like "It's OK to cheat, I will restart Monday" (grrrrrr)