The FastDay Forum

It can be done! I considered moving my fast day but after a bit of thought, decided it was absolutely do-able to go and see a movie on my fast day.

I took with me two cups of popcorn which I'd air-popped, and a can of diet coke. 63 calories all together and I felt very smug as I watched those around me gorge on buckets of popcorn bigger than their heads, and soft drink cups which must hold over a litre. How many bazillion calories in those - not to mention they would have cost more than the ticket and mine was practically free?!

I didn't feel deprived one iota, and still had the 'popcorn and snacks at the movies wheeee' feeling.

So, no excuses - even if you're socialising

I too went to the movies with a bag of Smart Pop popcorn (100 calories) and a 100 calorie chocolate bar.
Was not a fast day but did not want to undo all the hard earned progress. I've even taken bell pepper strips in a baggie for snacks as well. You are right, it can be done! Go Us!

It's strange but I have never associated going to the cinema with food! Perhaps it's a generation thing? I am 64 and when I was (a lot) younger the treat was an ice-cream in the interval (we had them in those days) and for birthday treats maybe a packet of sweets. I don't go to the cinema much but, when I do, I see other people around me with drinks, popcorn, sweets etc and it doesn't occur to me to buy them - even during my many non-'dieting' phases!

Anyway, enough about me! Well done to you two for finding an alternative solution which saves you hundreds of calories and lots of money! Enjoy!

Oh I so agree! For those of us who call it 'going to the cinema' or 'seeing a film' then all that popcorn munching and enormous drink container stuff is not our kind of indulgence.At the big chain cinemas it seems to be the norm to have these things now? Often we go to the little theatre at nearby smalltown Alnwick where they show some good, current films and ice creams are sold by volunteers at the start but it's not an eating fest.

[Moogie]

When I was a kid our cinema wouldn't let us take our own food in, and mum and dad refused to pay the cinema prices for snacks so we didn't generally have any. Sometimes we might share a box of overpriced fruit pastilles.

To this day I don't eat popcorn or soft drinks at the movies (not a fan of fizz anyway). I try not to drink 'cos I don't want to have to go to the loo and miss any of the film, I won't have popcorn in case a bit gets caught and gets me coughing (with no drink to wash it down!). I tend to just take some fruit pastilles or opal fruits (sorry, 'starburst' - pah, stupid name) with me in case I feel thirsty

I wouldnt entertain the idea because I save my calories up for the end of the day and what with children, we rarely get to go to an evening screening anyway. Sitting around listening to everyone gobbling popcorn et al - nah - it would be a challenge.

[janeg]

Have to say that I don't associate the pictures with food. And the chains in Scotland don't sell Irn Bru, so nae chance I'll drink anything!

I have to have a choc top icecream at the movies.

I am also of the generation that didn't eat in the pictures, (it will never be the cinema to me, just as the hit parade is the top records). When I read the title of this thread I thought oh what a good idea that would be a great thing to do on a fast day. I do admire all you younger folks who have found a way round the problem, if you do attach going to the pictures with popcorn etc. My Son worked in a picture house when he was a student and did tell me then that they depended on the sale of Hotdogs and popcorn to keep the places running.

Maybe it's a cultural/geographical thing. I can't say I've ever seen anyone at the movies * without * some snacks. Even when watching a DVD here, one of the first things we do is get the snacks sorted.

Similarly I don't think calling them 'movies' is generational. No one in Australia ever goes to the cinema, or to the theatre (that's a live show), or to see a film, or to the pictures. Everyone goes to the movies. But as a very young Yorkshire lass, I used to go to the pictures.

I'm with Nessie and Tara - it's going to the pictures for me too! I do remember buying little cardboard boxes of poppets as a special treat though, and I remember if you went with a boy onto the balcony (instead of the stalls) then a small box of Cadbury's milk tray was usually offered (if he had any chance of you going out with him again, anyway!!)

When we go to the "pictures", showing my age! We don't have any snacks either, maybe just a bottle of water. The kids like the popcorn fizzy drinks etc as a treat so I reckon it's a generational thing.

I, like others, don't associate going to the movies with food. I usually take a bottle of water though and, occasionally, when I go to our local arthouse cinema, I have a glass of wine or a gin & slimline tonic.

I do find going to the cinema a good distraction on fast days though!!

Well, up here in the North East - it's 'gannin to a fillum'
But back home in Yorkshire it was always 'going to the pictures'
Showing my age, but can't stand all that chomping ... Or the constant texting