All of us have situations where we think we simply cannot diet. it could be the food choices, the social pressure, whatever. Typically at these times our attitude is “Well I can’t possibly diet then”, so you don’t.

The problem with this is that normally diets are restrictive (they have to be by their very nature) and deciding that a day or an evening is going to be non-diet is like a bull to a red rag. It’s a free pass.

You then proceed to eat and drink everything you can, to abandon, without a care in the world (especially for the diet) with the full intention of ‘getting back on it’ tomorrow.

For most people, especially the social butterflies, these periods completely undo any progress you make when you ARE dieting and leads to a continual cycle of ‘on and off the diet’.

You never make headway, invariably you put weight ON actually over time.

But you DO have one last line of defence even if the food available is not technically ‘on your diet’, and that is..

PORTION CONTROL

Bearing in mind that ultimately ALL weight loss success comes down to calories in versus calories out, even if you are eating food you consider to be ‘bad’, if you simply eat LESS of it, you WILL reduce the calories you consume and the damage you do will be minimal.

• You don’t need sweets and desserts when dining out, you don’t even need a starter
• You don’t have to have seconds at the buffet, you don’t need to pile the plate sky high
• You can alternate your drinks with glasses of water
• You don’t need to eat the whole bag/packet whatever

Maccies for example, a great hack is to simply get a Kids Meal instead of your normal ‘non dieting’ order. No it is not a LOT of food, but calorie wise IT IS. No it wont leave you ‘stuffed’, but being stuffed leads to fatty central (and you know this is true, you’ve bought the t-shirt)

So when next faced with a situation where you would normally think “I can’t diet here” change your thinking.

Instead of a defeatist, oh well start again tomorrow approach simply go, enjoy, but exercise common sense and portion control. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat anything

JUST EAT LESS

Unless you want to be overweight and dieting the rest of your life, in which case go ahead and fill your boots!