Until last year, I had work dinners or drinks with coworkers two or three times a week. Dinner after overtime, dinner when a project wrapped up, or just drinks because it had been a while since we’d caught up. While I was losing weight from 90.9kg to 75.3kg with jump rope, this was the spot where the whole thing nearly fell apart the most often. Exercise is something I can decide on my own. A dinner table with other people at it is not.
Before Dinner: I Stopped Showing Up Hungry
I used to skip lunch or eat almost nothing on days I had a dinner planned, saving room for later. That backfired. I’d end up eating too fast the moment I sat down, and drinking on an empty stomach meant I got drunk faster and ate more. Now, on dinner days, I eat something small in the afternoon: a boiled egg or half a block of tofu. Showing up with some food already in me has cut down on overeating from the first dish onward.
Three Habits I Actually Changed at the Table
First, I don’t eat whatever comes out first. I go for protein, meat, tofu, egg dishes, before touching anything fried.
Second, I put a glass of water between drinks at least once. I used to finish almost a full bottle of soju without thinking about it. Now I notice myself slowing down around the halfway mark.
Third, I try to skip the second round, or move it to karaoke or a cafe instead of another bar. Just these three habits made a noticeable difference in how I felt the next morning.
The Mornings After I Couldn’t Avoid
There are still nights I don’t manage to keep all three habits. On those mornings, I go lighter than usual with jump rope, around 300 slow reps and done. I’ve pushed through at full intensity before and just felt worse for it, so now the point is simply to move my body, nothing more. Breakfast and lunch are light, low-sodium soup or mostly vegetables, and I try not to carry the restriction all the way through dinner. The real point was not letting one off day turn into two or three.
I Never Fully Cracked It
Honestly, I never got full control over work dinners themselves. A couple of times a quarter I still drink too much, and I’ve stepped on the scale the next day to see it up more than a kilogram and felt genuinely discouraged. What’s different now is that I don’t let one bad night turn into an excuse to keep eating poorly for days, telling myself the day is already ruined. I don’t think it’s realistic for someone with a job full of dinners like mine to cut out drinking entirely. Figuring out what I can control before and after has been the part that actually lasted.
Wrapping Up
Sticking to a diet through work dinners was never about cutting out alcohol. It came down to how well I kept a routine before and after: not showing up hungry, changing the order I eat in, putting water between drinks, and moving my body lightly the next day even if I skip everything else. None of it is dramatic, but these four habits are what actually kept me between 90.9kg and 75.3kg over time. I had far more off days than perfect ones, and that gap is exactly why the routine mattered.