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Confessions of a Party Girl

Trying to make healthy choices while dating is not an easy task!

A few months ago, I wrote about my new venture into the dating world after taking a hiatus during my major weight loss period.  I felt like I was ready and the time was right.  Now I've never been one to dip my toe in to test the waters out, I'm more of a jump right in kind of gal and that's what my approach to dating has been these past few months.  What I was not prepared for was the flood of water!  So why am I writing this and what could any of this possibly have to do with being a Fat Runner? Well let me tell you...

I have been enjoying myself playing the dating scene, meeting some really great new people and have loved the new-found attention that you seem to get once your out in the dating world.  But I seem to have forgotten that with dating comes a lot of other things - dinners (food and drinks), parties (food and drinks), going dancing (drinks, drinks,  drinks) and the beloved " just hanging out" ( drinks, some food, more drinks).  In case you missed that, everything has been revolving around eating and drinking.  Now I would say that for the most part, I have quite a bit of self control but when it comes to dating, I seem to forget things like one drink can have 200+ calories or that after a few glasses of Merlot, my ability to say no to french fries is about as good as a 3-year-old being able to say no to free candy.  With each passing date, I kept telling myself, "It's ok because I rarely ever go out." Here comes the confession.

While it use to be true that I rarely ever went out, these past few months I can honestly say I go out to socialize 3-5 times a week. YIKES  So that's 3-5 times a week I've been telling myself it's ok to drink more than I should and eat more than I should and it's all shown up on the scale in a BIG way.  I have this sense of trying to make up for lost time and it's only encouraged me to eat and drink like it's the last day of my life but I keep meeting new people and my social calander is filling up fast!  Not only has the food and drinking been less than stellar, it's effected my whole schedule. 

My life was very ME centered, I had my work time, my cook time, my running time and my sleep time.  Now I have to squeeze in room for dates and then the social events that go along with dating like meeting their friends and their friends, friends.  Don't get me wrong, I am having a total blast and I've met some really amazing women but more often than not, I find myself out way too late waking up just in time to get to work the next morning and being exhausted throughout my day.  To stay awake, I've cut out the workouts and increased the food consumption - again a habit that has shown up on my scale. 

Dating and the pursuit of romance is suppose to be fun, not fattening and now that Marathon training has started up, my party girl lifestyle is not going to cut it.  Most importantly my scale and my pants are about to hold an intervention because neither of them are liking the changes.  I spent all weekend at home (a rarity) thinking about this and trying to decide if I could really have both worlds, is it possible to date in DC and diet at the same time?  Maybe, but there's only one way to find out!  The game plan for me is to skip the drinks and focus on just being myself sans the liquid liberator and if I'm not comfortable enough to do that, than I have some things to work on and shouldn't be dating.  I'm confident that I will do just fine without it. 

As far as the food, it's time to start to get creative with where we're going when we go out.  There has to be a million and one activities that we can do to get to know each other that don't involve sitting down to a meal.  I decided that I was ready to open myself up to the dating world because I felt like I was finally at a place where I could be honest about who I was and if I really want to be honest with them, then I need to make it known that I am not ok with the way I've been partying because it does not fit my healthy lifestyle or my weight loss goals.  If she's worth my time, she'll understand. 

Looking for love while losing weight,

The Fat Runner

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