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Ended up at Applebees' Saturday night with next to no points left. The menu looked like a sea of deep-fat food. Arg! I couldn't find anything. My daughter could tell I was struggling and asked if this was going to be a Weight Watcher moment? Yes, I assured her. I was determined to feel good about the outing come Sunday morning. Simple solution. I told the waitress I was out of points and in an instant she directed me to three very user friendly solutions to choose from. The moral of the story: Don't be afraid to ask for assistance! They are the experts. PS I ate a steamed rice and veggies with a side of teriyaki sauce. I did threaten lives if it came out shiny. The other choices were a blackened chicken salad and a cold wrap. Enjoy.
I read an interesting article this week that was written by a woman who eats out often and keeps her weight under control. She suggested that she would order a chicken breast, baked potato and a side salad with double veggies or perhaps a shrimp coctail, or pasta with marinara sauce.
What was most interesting to me was that she said that there was almost never a time that the restaurant would not accommodate her needs by serving her any combination of what was on the menu. What she enjoyed was going out, being served, and spending time with the people she was with. The outing was far more important than the food. HMM...
Eating out often? You can never be off program, you can just spend too many points. Here are some tips from a leader in the midwest.
1. Begin your day at 5:00pm -so my journal will reflect tonight's dinner and tomorrows breakfast, lunch and snack. In that way if I have 15 points for dinner I just bring in tomorrow for 8 points. I can do that easily! Remember, 24 hours is 24 hours!
2. Be a menu collector. Have a menu faxed to you at work or go by and pick it up and study it before you go to the restaurant. Pick out what you want to eat and look up some points.
3. Call the restaurant and ask if they can saute veggies in chicken broth or dry broil your meat or make the pasta in a red sauce instead of white sauce or....
4. Be the first to order. When they ask what to drink - I place my order. I don't want to be swayed by what everybody else has.
5. If you're a bread lover take your piece and ask the waiter to take your piece and ask the waiter to take the rest of it away. I bribe them by telling them if they don't let me have any more they'll get a biger tip. They'll bring more to my husband but not to me.
6. Either ask the waitperson to put half away before they bring it to you or bring a take home box with your order and you put half away. You know you don't need all that food and it'll make a great lunch and dinner tomorrow. Wow, no cooking for two meals.
Scott and I went to LA this week for a business trip. I left Sacramento with no food in my possesion. A vunerable position to say the least. The airport did have nonfat frozen yogurt available, along with fresh fruit (apples & oranges) at the coffee shop and pretzles, water, and gum in the magazine shop. In retrospect, I should have picked something up just in case I got caught without food for an extended period of time. I would suggest that you carry point friendly foods with you when traveling.
It wasn't until 9:00 pm that we finally ended up in a restraunt, a brewery, for dinner. It could have been a set up, I was starving, tired and in a beer joint! After examining the choices, I decide to avoid the enchiladas and choose chicken fajitas and a glass of beer. 3points for the beer, 2 points for the totilla, 3 points for the chicken, 2 points for the black beans, 0 points for the lettuce, and salsa. 1 point for the peppers and onions for the oil it was stirfried with. 11 points total. They did bring twice that much chicken and I used my hand to gauge my portion.I left the sour cream and guacamole. Too many empty points.
Breakfast at the hotel was a buffet. There was nonfat milk for my coffee but I had to go look near the juices. Oatmeal, cherrios, muslix, yogurt, scrambled egg, bacon and whole fruit were the point friendliest choices. I avoided biscuits and gravy, sausage, juices and sweet rolls. I ended up with a bowl of oatmeal w/nonfat milk, a slice of bacon. 5 points. I only went to the buffet once, but it was better point wise to use the buffet choices rather than ordering off the menu. More about the mental choices in an essay later. Coming soon...
Brandon, Katie and I went to Fresh Choice this week for lunch. I am usually wary of any buffet but I went in with a plan this time. The plain cold veggies at the salad bar were wonderful topped with a smidge of Balsamic vinegarette. Yum!
There was a marinara sauce that was user friendly and a lowfat chili. Baked potatoes topped with 1/2 cup chili would be a filling rational point choice.
OK, I dream of laying under the yogurt machine with it on, but I resisted. One serving around a 1/2 cup in one of the black bowls, not as my sister says"get the soup bowl." While I waited for the kids to eat mass amounts, which is why I took my teenage son in particular, I grazed on sugar-free jello. If you are in the frame of mind and have a plan FRESH CHOICE is a reasonable choice for a meal.