It's Fair Week! What does the fair mean to you? For me the fair means a Vose corn dog. Maybe a pork chop on a stick, lemonade shake up, etc. So how do you eat healthy at the fair? That's a tough one, right? Yes it is. The pork chop is grilled, it's probably 2 servings of meat, I'd guess 400 to 500 calories. Just about everything else is either fried, full of sugar, covered in sugar or all of the above.
So, what should you do? I'd say you go to the fair. Once, twice max. Enjoy, but don't go crazy. The danger in the fair is that it could lead you back to bad habits. Going off the reservation once in a while is not a problem (once a week is not once in a while, more on that later) the real danger in indulging is that feeling that the corn dog will make you feel guilty, then you'll beat yourself up and decide that as long as you've already "blown the week" you might as well stop at McDonalds on the way home, and tomorrow for breakfast and, well you get the idea. The week is not blown, you haven't fallen off the wagon. Side note on the fallen off the wagon thing, at some point in our history did they make recovering alcoholics ride a wagon every where they went? That's one of those sayings that even though it makes no sense, I know what it means. Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program. It will not hurt you to have one day a week where you consume "extra" calories, stop dancing and read on. Seriously, one higher calorie day will keep your metabolism going, I'm not talking about 5000 calories, I'm talking about a little pizza, or pasta or whatever you feel like you are missing out on. Once you have reached your goal weight, it's ok to eat pretty much anything within reason. Track your weight, as long as you keep up your workouts, you didn't think I was going to let you stop working out, did you? And you don't gain weight, you're doing it right. Right for you will likely be different than right for anyone else. The only way I could lose weight was to be really careful of my diet, track everything, and obsess over 35 cal bread as opposed to 50 cal bread. Now that I am at my goal weight (YAY!) and have maintained for almost 2 years I don't worry about every calorie as much. I look at my general diet on a daily or even a weekly basis. I stay level by really controlling 2 meals a day. Breakfast is 300 calories, lunch is typically 300-400 calories, that gives me some room to eat a couple of snacks and a bigger meal in the evening. That's what works for me. You'll have to figure out what works for you. My general goal is to try to pick foods that will add up to about 1200 calories a day not including my "big" meal. Remember that I'm on maintenance, I could not, and have not lost weight on this plan.
For anyone out there counting, here is my list of fair food:
1 Corn dog
1/2 deep fried brownie yum, yum
1/2 order of river fries
3 glasses of wine (approximate) it was a tasting
I promise the next post will include some fitness tips.
And a side note to my editor, I'm getting old, I don't always remember what year it is. I feel good that I was only a year off on the date on my last post. I'm glad I have someone paying attention and keeping me in line.
I'll see you at the gym.
