The Olive Garden! Oh Noooooooo!!!

PhotographerOfNature
PhotographerOfNature Posts: 452 Member
edited September 18 in Motivation and Support
It's 6:47 am here, I have a bridal shower at 10:30 a.m. that should have a lot of good food at, :sad: and tonight we are going to the Olive Garden to celebrate my friend's birthday. I lost 1 lb. this morning when I weighed and 1/2 pound yesterday morning when I weighed. :happy: I'm soooo afraid that I will totally screw up today. I really don't want to see the scale at 185 again tomorrow. I have been bouncing between 185 & 185.5 for about 1 1/2 weeks. This morning it was 184. I don't want to go back up again. So, I'm trying to decide what to do. I've had 200 calories this morning between my Fiber One bar and my 2 cups of coffee. Hopefully the shower will have fruit. Then I can wait and not eat until the Olive Garden. Any ideas on what to safely order at the Olive Garden? Italian food is my utmost favorite. This is going to be really hard. HELP!!?????

Replies

  • PhotographerOfNature
    PhotographerOfNature Posts: 452 Member
    It's 6:47 am here, I have a bridal shower at 10:30 a.m. that should have a lot of good food at, :sad: and tonight we are going to the Olive Garden to celebrate my friend's birthday. I lost 1 lb. this morning when I weighed and 1/2 pound yesterday morning when I weighed. :happy: I'm soooo afraid that I will totally screw up today. I really don't want to see the scale at 185 again tomorrow. I have been bouncing between 185 & 185.5 for about 1 1/2 weeks. This morning it was 184. I don't want to go back up again. So, I'm trying to decide what to do. I've had 200 calories this morning between my Fiber One bar and my 2 cups of coffee. Hopefully the shower will have fruit. Then I can wait and not eat until the Olive Garden. Any ideas on what to safely order at the Olive Garden? Italian food is my utmost favorite. This is going to be really hard. HELP!!?????
  • yoginimary
    yoginimary Posts: 6,789 Member
    Here are some calorie counts:
    http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/olive-garden

    or

    http://www.olivegarden.com/menus/garden_fare/

    fill up on soup :happy:
  • mililani
    mililani Posts: 17
    I'd certainly spend 5 minutes on thedailyplate.com and check how your favorite foods look like nutritionally. Additionally, I'd eat something filling and low on carbs about an hour before starting the meal to avoid the cravings for breadsticks and similar snacks. Don't go there hungry! Cheers. :drinker:
  • jsmalla
    jsmalla Posts: 140 Member
    I feel your pain! I just ate there last night. May I recommend the Venetian Apricot Chicken (somewhere around 448 cal) & thier lowfat Italian dressing on the salad. Somehow, maybe by the grace of God, I escaped without downing several of those yummy breadsticks. At our Olive Garden, they set out a nutitional information guide with a few details on their low-calorie & low-carb meals. I think you'll do just fine. Let us know how it goes for you.

    Pre-plan your attack at: http://www.olivegarden.com/menus/garden_fare/
  • age1389
    age1389 Posts: 1,160 Member
    whatever you eat or don't eat don't weight yourself tomorrow. You might see a gain no matter what. Restaurant food as more Sodium then when we cook ourselves so you'll probably retain.
    Have fun and just be aware of what your putting in your mouth. And drink lots of water:drinker:
    Also whatever you choose just eat half. Everything in moderation.

    -Adrienne:heart:
  • PhotographerOfNature
    PhotographerOfNature Posts: 452 Member
    Thanks Marywilldiet!

    I am having Grilled Chicken Spiedini, ministrone soup and of course the salad. Hopefully I'll hold the 184 today. Thanks!:flowerforyou:
  • PhotographerOfNature
    PhotographerOfNature Posts: 452 Member
    Thanks everyone! I'll have to ask for a nutrition guide. I don't think ours puts one out, but I'll ask for one. And I like the eat 1/2 plan. Thats good.
  • jenbar
    jenbar Posts: 1,038 Member
    A couple of things.
    Either order the salad, with vinegar dressing. Stay away from the bread, get soup.
    Have you hit a plateau? You might WANT to eat a little more today. It might break that bouncing back and forth business! That happens to me. Get stuck for awhile, eat more than usual one day, lose a pound!
    Good Luck and have a good time.
  • PhotographerOfNature
    PhotographerOfNature Posts: 452 Member
    I have hit 2 plateaus since May 17th when I started. But, like I said, I dropped 1/2 pound yesterday morning and this morning I dropped 1 more pound, so hopefully I'm rolling again, which is why I really don't want to screw this up. Thankfully, I can easily stay away from the bread sticks, it's the actual food that I like, Manicotti, lasagna, anything basically that has to do with pasta and sauces! I feel like I've gained weight just talking about them.:laugh:
  • shorerider
    shorerider Posts: 3,817 Member
    I've started asking for "no seasonings" on my food when we go out to eat--everything just tasted horribly salty to me anymore. Then I can add my own salt and/or pepper at the table.

    That salt can cause fluid retention! Make sure to drink plenty of water! :drinker:
  • auranda
    auranda Posts: 59 Member
    I'm fairly new to this site, but what about some exercise that would allow some additional calories w/o blowing the continuing effort? I agree, don't weigh yourself tomorrow.
  • crospierski
    crospierski Posts: 1
    Don't go to Olive Garden hungry!! Eat a small amount of fat before you go such as a tablespoon of peanut butter or Almond butter. Also, when you order the salad, ask for the dressing on the side. Try and eat 2 bowls of salad (dressing on side for control) before your main course. Moderate on the soups because it has alot of hidden fat. Chew food very slowly to allow chemicals to tell your brain your full. Split your main course in half and box it. Set a goal to leave food on your plate. You don't have to finish your plate. No cream sauce!!
  • sindyb9
    sindyb9 Posts: 1,248 Member
    You sound like you are planning so you will do fine. Do you weigh yourself daily? Everybody goes up and down in weight, try weighing once a week the scale is evil. I know I dont always loose weight but I know i have been loosing inches. You might want to try measuring too. Just a suggestion. Go and have some fun. :drinker:
  • Poison5119
    Poison5119 Posts: 1,460 Member
    Very good advice. Go already full of low cal food.
  • Nich0le
    Nich0le Posts: 2,906 Member
    I found that I can't eat at the olive garden anymore without ending up with horrible stomach aches and gas. I thought it was a one time thing and went for a work meeting and ugh, so bad I couldn't sleep that night and then family wanted to go so I did, same result. So maybe it took me three times but I think my body was trying to tell me it was tired of bad food.
  • studentRN
    studentRN Posts: 440 Member
    I order the salad w/ low fat dressing... has about 1/2 the calories of their regular house italian... I order cappellini pomodoro w/ whole wheat linguine... I eat about a 1/4 of it.. somewhere around 350-400 cals... bag up the rest and have lunch for 3 more days... its a nice light dish.. olive oil, basil, tomatoes & garlic! yum! Stay away from the evil breadsticks and alfredos!!

    Good luck!
  • PhotographerOfNature
    PhotographerOfNature Posts: 452 Member
    Well, I survived the Olive Garden! I had Grilled chicken spiedini, which, I wasn't real crazy about and probably wouldn't reorder it. I had salad and the bad stuff which was the smoked mozzerella fonduat (sp??) 50-50 isn't too bad at the olive garden. but since I started this program , May 17th, I ate off the plan on May 30th (my anniversary) and this Saturday and Sunday. Every other day, I have been on program. So, with that said, while we were at the restaurant, my mom called and said that my dad who had been taken to the hospital was not expected to live. the dr. said to come right on if we wanted to see him one last time. So, we went home, packed up and made the 4 1/2 hour drive to the hospital. We got there about 1 a.m. and got to see him for a while. They thought he had congestive heart failure, but, it turned out that he has pneumonia (AGAIN) and is on antibiotics. He was somewhat alert and trying to talk to us. It is hard to understand him. So, we finally went to a hotel about 4 a.m. to get a few hours of sleep. We went back about 9:30 a.m. and he was alert, bright eyed and doing pretty good. The nurse said that they switched around his meds, decided that it was not congestive heart failure, but just the pneumonia and a UTI. His time has been tetering on the edge since last October. The dr. called everyone in last November because he didn't think he would make it through Thanksgiving, but he did. So, we just got home about 2 hours ago, and I wanted a Pizza Hut P'Zone real bad and we ordered one. It was soooooo good! I plugged it in to the database and about fell over. It's 1220 calories by itself. That's already 20 more than I am allowed all day. So, I think I may need to go out to the track for a while. But, like I said, other than my anniversary, yesterday and today, I have been on program since I started May 17th. Tomorrow I am back on target again. Thanks for all the advice everyone. And yes, I am a daily weigher and I haven't weighed today and maybe not tomorrow. We'll see. I'm kind of addicted to the daily scale. :embarassed:
  • cp005e
    cp005e Posts: 1,495 Member
    I'm sorry to hear about your dad being in the hospital. Take care of yourself and don't worry too much about the scale. :flowerforyou:
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