Won the battle last night...

mer55

We went out to a local bar/restaurant last night. I ate lightly all day, knowing we would be going out. Big mistake. I was STARVING when we got there, and was ready to throw in the towel and have my favorite thing they serve- a garlic roastbeef French dip sandwich. ( In my mind I knew I had about 700 calories, so how bad could it be, right?) And of course the onion rings to boot. HOWEVER, the menu posted calories! My "not so bad" sandwich was 1500 calories!! I saw those numbers and actually started to tear up! Then as I searched the menu for something a little more reasonable, I was APPALLED at the calories in some of my other "favorites" there! Guess I never paid attention to those numbers before. So, I sucked it up, thought how hard I have been working on better choices, saw a Mediterranean Chicken Salad for 400 calories, asked for dressing on the side, and ate a little over half,2 tsp of greek dressing and 2 glasses of wine. Came in within 50 calories of my calorie target. Eye opener for me, but I won this battle.

TavistockToad

you ate light all day, then only ate half of a 400 cal salad to be able to hit your calorie goal...?! how many calories do you eat per day?

crb426

Awesome! I do appreciate those calorie labels they throw in. Understanding that they are not 100% accurate at least gives an idea of which foods are better choices than others. Way to go! And you got some wine.

crazydogladyjess

She said she had about 700 calories left. She also did eat during the day, just lightly. I don't think that's the point of this post though.

***

I love restaurants that post the calories. I wish they also posted the macros, but maybe in the future. WTG on picking healthier options, especially when eating out - it can be tough in social situations.

kristen8000

It's really eye opening to see those calories on a menu.

There is a chain restaurant called Ted's Montana Grill that both my BF and I really like. We go early, so it's quiet, we sit at the bar because the bartenders are nice and tend to chat us up. When we started going, I was toying with the idea of losing weight, but honestly wasn't ready to go full hog. I looked up their menu online before hand to see what the damage would be, knowing even that my maintainance calories are around 1800. They have a Pecan Trout dinner that's 1750 calories a plate as served. Now, we typically split a meal, we can't eat all the food and it goes to waste, but that's still 1/2 of my daily calories in MAINTAINANCE in one meal. For fish.

Anyway, we still love the place, still go, but I know what I can order. Their bison pot roast and bison meatloaf is very doable split and I still feel like I'm splurging. And it's enough food for both of us...

Francl27

That's one of my issues with eating out. I typically don't eat at places that post calories, and I TRY to estimate my meals properly, but who knows how off I am...

Plus yeah, a 1500 calories sandwich will only fill me up for a few hours most of the time, sadly

MalkinMagic71

I would have gotten what I really wanted and called it a night out and got back on track the next day. Wouldn't have settled for s salad.

81Katz

This is why I rarely eat out. You either settle for food you really don't want to eat or you get what you really want possibly blowing your cals for the day and possibly feeling regret or guilt.

riffraff2112

Eating out is tough, but I found a few things I can do to 'limit' the hit.

1. Limit myself to one or two beer
2. No dessert
3. eat half my meal, pack up the rest for the next days lunch
4. garden salad or veggies instead of fries (mostly because fries are amazing and I find they taste gross the next day so leaving half is something I find tough to do, and when I do it...they taste terrible anyway)

It is definitely a sacrifice though, unfortunately due to work meetings and travel, I tend to eat out a fair bit and it was necessary to adjust my pattern of eating.

Graelwyn75

Unless eating out is a regular thing for you, I think it is better to set to maintenance for that day and make allowances. If I eat out, I opt for something I will enjoy as I realise that there will be meals out and holidays and the like for the rest of my life and that these days are far outnumbered by the regular, on plan days. I would say part of winning the battle is being able to have the occasional meal out without feeling guilt at having something you truly want and enjoy, even if it is higher in calories than you are accustomed to. But that is just my view. I have been there with the studying the nutritional guide for restaurants, before and during a meal out and in the end, choosing the lower calorie option did not go well for me personally if there was something else I was craving.

Sunna_W

Good for you... it is really sad that most restaurants don't have satisfying (filling) / low calorie offerings...

quiksylver296

MalkinMagic71 wrote: »

I would have gotten what I really wanted and called it a night out and got back on track the next day. Wouldn't have settled for a salad.

Yeah. This. ^^

callsitlikeiseeit

yeah i eat out so rarely now, that when i go out, i eat what i want. in the grand scheme of things, it doesnt make a difference.

if im going to eat a salad, i can eat at home

you always could have eaten half the sandwich (at +/- the 700 cals) and had half the next day for lunch or dinner. and gotten to enjoy the meal twice I do that a fair bit, simply because often i cant finish a full restaurant meal.

Seffell

I rarely eat out so I eat whatever I want when I do. Plenty of opportunity for me to lose the extra cals.

I do agree however that spending 1500 cals on a not so bad sandwich is not worth it. It has to be something very apealing which I don't make at home.

davidylin

This... may not be helpful, but a Subway 6" Steak and Cheese clocks in just under 400 calories.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

TavistockToad wrote: »

you ate light all day, then only ate half of a 400 cal salad to be able to hit your calorie goal...?! how many calories do you eat per day?

And 2 glasses of wine, which if it was red, and a big pour could easily be > 150 calories each.

mer55

As for the calorie content of the salad- the menu said 400 without dressing. It was a greek dressing and I estimated a tablespoon is what I used. I ate most of the chicken out of it, and it was still guess work. My two glasses of wine were 5 ounce pours. It was my trade off. The point of all of this was how eye opening it was to see those calories posted. We don't go out often, and yes, I could have ate what I wanted but my new outlook is not deprivation, but food choice challenges. This was a win for me.

nicolega2001

What on earth does one put on a sandwich to make it 1500 calories?? I'm glad they had the calories posted to deter folks from ordering it.

NotGuiltylawyer

Great job! those situations are very tricky, glad you pulled tru and won the battle! Keep it up

cryonic_273

Well done staying strong.

I was at a 50th birthday party on Saturday. And knew it was going to be tough. I ate normally before going and allowed myself a treat day - and budgeted 1000cal for drink and nibbles. A sea of finger food and cake. I stuck to sipping wine with my target in mind. Had five small glasses of prosecco and a single whiskey. Had a great time and managed to weigh in the next morning with a new daily low. I had to keep in mind that none of the finger food nibbles were worth it for a few seconds satisfaction.

Of course everyone was simultaneously congratulating me on dieting but encouraging me to break the diet ' just today'. The worst was the person who had motivated me to start - they lost 6 stone over a year. He was really irritating.

WilmaValley

Good for you!