Controlling eating when eating out with a friend

Helloooo! Just saw a great post about to-go boxes/takeout at restaurants and I wanted to post this because where I live a lot of restaurants won't give you them.

Yesterday my friend suddenly asked me to dinner in the afternoon. Now normally I like planning my outings at least the night before so I can plan my meals, but yesterday I had eaten breakfast (a decent one anticipating a smaller dinner too). I did want to see her so I didn't reject her request. I also like to eat my most decadent food outside because...what's the point if going out if it's not going to be good.

We went to an All You Can Eat pork place which was good for me because I don't like pork all that much. It took about 40 minutes of walking which was also good because I actually originally wasn't planning on working out, and it would also mean at least another 40 minutes to walk back! I used to feel guilty about ordering food with other people to share and not eating an equal amount, because I would hate when my skinny friends would ~portion control and leave me to eat the rest of the food.

But recently with my diet I've learned a couple of things:

1. My Body Isn't A Garbage Can - If the food you're eating would otherwise go in the garbage and you choose to eat it instead, you're basically replacing yourself as the garbage. If eating that extra food is damaging to your health in the longterm, it's also food waste imo.
2. Not Wanting to Eat More is Reason Enough to Stop - You don't have to be stomach burstingly full to stop eating. I got to a point where as soon as I put a piece of meat in my mouth I got nauseous, but I wasn't exactly "stomach full". I stopped anyways.
3. Portion Control Doesn't Have a Size - Honestly, I used to be really resentful of my skinny friends for not eating a lot compared to me, but I've realized that I can do it too! If I need to take care of my weight, even if other people don't take that into consideration and don't hold me accountable, I can do that for myself. I have a lot of people in my life who tell me I don't need to lose weight, it's good that I enjoy food, etc. but at the same time work really hard to maintain their weight and I've always felt inferior next to them. So...I'm changing it. And I'm going to stick to that! (Sidenote: that being said one of the most natural times I lost weight was with a friend I was smaller than, but who always active in the pursuit for food. just being active and enjoying my life with her made me lose weight naturally).
4. Pacing! - The easiest way to control how much you're eating is to not eat it all in a hurry. Give your stomach time to process. For every 4 or 5 pieces my friend was eating I only ate 1, on top of the sides she was eating. By the end we ended up getting full at the same time. I also added stuff like water and side vegetables to the meat so I would mostly be eating that rather than just high calorie meat.

I input everything on MFP at the end of the night and while I still went over my daily calorie goal (1000-1200), I was under my TDEE which is ~2000. I was actually around 1700 not factoring in all the exercise. As soon as I decided to go out I managed my expectations and knew I wouldn't meet my goal, but I'm proud of myself for doing "damage control" to the extent I did while still enjoying my time with her.

submitted by /u/Icy-Session-3956
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/me5nnm/controlling_eating_when_eating_out_with_a_friend/