Today was the first day in a week that I ate out at a restaurant. I was really nervous at first because I was doing really well at tracking, but the plan for my lunch out did not include a restaurant that posts nutritional information.
I did really well. I was able to find the menu online so I had a good idea of my choices before arriving. I had a lighter breakfast than usual and I also had a snack at 11am so I would not arrive starving and make a poor choice because I was so hungry.
My lunch choice was a house salad with a grilled chicken breast, dressing on the side and a single piece of the restaurant's famous celery bread. I figured that the piece of bread would be my indulgence.
After lunch I got to the task of tracking my food. The salad and chicken were not a problem because I even knew the size of the chicken breast, but I was at a loss for the bread.
I did some quick research and was able to find some recipes. Basically the bread was made of bread, butter, celery seed, salt (and maybe a couple other spices) My single piece - roughly 400 calories.
I was not impressed. It was good, but not that good.
I tracked it and accounted for it and planned the rest of the day having eaten those calories, but even so I vowed to work off the bread at the gym.
. . . that equaled 39 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Yes 39 minutes to burn 400 calories or 1 piece of celery bread.
My biggest problem, I only got a little piece of bread. I could have had a giant bowl of frozen yogurt or a number of other things for the same amount of calories.
I think that working off the bread really put the choice into perspective and will help me in the future when temptation is in front of me.
For the record. I did not take a picture of the bread. I found it on the internet. This is the actual bread for the same restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to this. I remember starting off and finally working into my calories Pizza Hut Pizza... and I could eat two CRUSTLESS pepperoni pizzas and basically little else for the rest of the day. I was hungry, bloated and unhappy.
ReplyDeleteGreat job working off the bread! Isn't it mind-blogging how high the calories are in APPETIZERS!?
It can be really frustrating to try to figure out restaurant calories sometimes, but it sounds like you handled it really well, and you got to try something new. When you start turning down new flavors because you're scared of calories, that's when weight loss isn't what it should be.
ReplyDelete