The wonderful/terrible opportunity/dilemma.

I looked at the time on the lower right hand corner of my office computer screen. 4:42 p.m. Wait.... what? It was just 10:37am this morning. What the heck happened?

I had been working all day on a response to a petition for review to the Supreme Court of Texas. My family members and my office staff know when I am "in the briefing zone" and to leave me alone and not break my concentration. Today was a particularly productive roll, and I was glad to get the response filed before the long holiday weekend.

Within seconds of hitting the send button (efiling the response with the court clerk in Austin and serving my two opposing counsel simultaneously), it suddenly occurred to me that I was hungry. Really hungry. REALLY, REALLY HUNGRY. I checked MFP to see how many calories I had left. Whoa... 2530. That was a first. I got so busy and stayed so focused on my work that I literally forgot to eat. Another first. I dialed up my wife to see what the plan was for dinner. Our oldest son, Daniel was in from Boston for the long weekend, and while he had previously made plans for tonight, they fell through.

We decided that since I had so many calories left, we'd head to our favorite Brazilian steakhouse. She made 5:30pm reservations and I headed for the office door. But before I did, I remembered the sign on my desk. "If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail," it says. I thought it might be a good idea to run the numbers on my anticipated 2500 or so calorie feast just to make sure I'd stay within that allotment. I closed my eyes and mentally made a note of what I usually eat there, how much of each, and in what order. Then I looked it all up on MFP.

Holy crap. It totalled up to between 5,700 and 6,200 calories. No wonder I ended up a writhing, walking, talking tub of goo, albeit not for much longer.

I thought to myself, if I plan this right, I can enjoy a big, satisfying meal and stay within calories for the day. My usual M.O. is to watch my wife's purse (really more like duffel bag, but that's another story) while she and the boys visited the ample salad bar. Altruistic? Hell no. While they were there picking their salad selections, I usually scarfed between 10 and 12 of those little chewy cheese puff roll thingies. I counted up those calories. Ugh! That was between 850 and 1.050 calories right there. Damn. I love those cheesy puff thingies. I figured out a way I could enjoy them without falling into my usual trap of binging on 'em early in the meal and rolling up a lot of calories.

First, I went to the salad bar and literally filled my plate with HEALTHY salad bar items. Instead of scarfing down the salad, I would commit to savoring each item and really trying to enjoy the texture and flavors of each item. Additionally, before I began eating I drank two glasses of water, and committed to drinking a glass of water every 1/4 plate of food that I consumed. I figured that between the salad and the water, plus slowing down my eating, I could get through that first dangerous 20 minutes or so between when the food starts heading down toward the stomach and when the brain registers that it has been fed.

As far as the cheesy thingies, I would commit to eating one after my salad plate was empty, one in the middle of my meat fest, and one at the end of the meal. I promised my panicky self that if I still had the calories and still craved them, I'd eat as many as my calories would allow, or until I was satisfied.

Interestingly, while I was eating the salad, that same panicky little voice kept repeating that my family was eating all the good meat and there wouldn't be any for me when I was ready for it. I told the voice to shut up and that everything would be fine.

23 minutes into the meal, I was well hydrated, full of delicious, healthy salad, and not nearly as ravenously hungry as when I walked into the restaurant. Total calories consumed? Under 400. Oh yeah!

It was time to flip my card over so that the meat servers knew I was ready for them. I kept my smartphone on the top of the table, and committed to entering EVERY morsel of food before I ate it. That would further slow me down. Instead of 4-5 servings of my favorites, I was happy just to have one of each. By the time I had eaten my fill (literally) of meat, chicken, cheesy puff thingies, and sausage, I had used all but about 400 of my day's calories. I was totally full, very happy and did not feel a bit deprived. I did not even want the 600 calories worth of creme brulee or papaya creme that I would usually end the meal with.

My one concession to gluttony is that at the 600 calorie left mark, I eyed the two remaining cheesy thingies. I knew I had to have them. I also knew I had the calories to accommodate them. Very, very cool. As soon as the last one was gone, I knew I was done.

Before tonight, within a half-hour after one of my steakhouse fiestas, I would always feel sluggish, over-full and bloated to the point of nausea. Tonight, I am pleasantly full, and still have the taste of the seasoned, tender meats and cheesy thingies. More importantly, I am perfectly happy with my choices. If I power walk (and I feel good enough to do that in a little while) I will even have enough calories left for a venti skinny vanilla latte and some pears poached in brandy. All in all, it's been a good day. And I have MFP and all you wonderful people to thank for contributing to my success with your wonderful suggestions and advice.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Scott R. in Houston, Tx.