Week In Review – Business Dinners And Weight Loss Just Don’t Mix

This week was not good for my fitness level, or my waistline.  I had mentally prepared myself for it, knew it was going to happen, and was right.

I had to travel for work this week, and that’s never good for fitness.  It’s even worse when you’re traveling with a group of co-workers.  I don’t really know what inspires this trend, but it seems as if when I travel for work, I tend to eat more.  I’ve talked with other people about this, and most seem to agree that being out on business promotes weight gain.  When the trip includes group dinners, it’s like there’s a compulsion to eat, and eat, and eat…

I’ll give an example.  Thursday night a group of people went to dinner.  There were eleven of us, and when we got to the table, everyone wanted an appetizer.  I resolved to be good and only got water to drink.  To be polite, I had one small piece off the appetizer (avocado bread of some sort).  Then the soup was served, which was a cup of clam chowder, followed by the house salad.  I ate half of mine.  Finally, the main course arrived.  I only ate 1/3 of what was on my plate, and felt miserable.  The people ordered dessert!!  I had coffee.  That was a long night.  To make it even worse, everyone wanted to go to a big breakfast the next morning.  And, of course, there isn’t time to get any kind of workout into the schedule.  The only thing I could manage was some body-weight exercises in my hotel room at 10:00 Thursday night.  Sad.

I probably consumed 30% more calories over the course of those few days than I would normally.  As I sit here and consider the WHY of that, I believe it must be linked with the psychology of those dinners.  Much as in the article about buffets, there’s what I guess I’ll call the boredom factor.  Dinner on Thursday night started at 6:00 and ended at 9:00.  Three hours of sitting there and talking, with plates of food passing before me, makes it feel as if I should be eating.  I can’t explain it.

I’d sure be curious to hear whether others have the same problem.  Hopefully next week will be better.

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