Olive Garden!

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rachelnally
rachelnally Posts: 16 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Today is day 55 of my diet...Everything was going great, until there was Olive Garden! I always find the weekends to be the hardest days to count my calories. As long as I made good decisions though out the day, I still seem to be within my daily calorie goal. To celebrate day 55 I decided to go to Olive Garden, because how bad can a salad and soup really be? I wish I would have checked it before I left. One serving of salad is 350 calories!!! One bowl of Zuppa is 170 calories!!! One bread stick is 150 calories!!! I ate 2 helpings of salad, 2 bowls of soup, and 3 bread sticks = 1490 calories....WHAT THE HELL?

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  • gailygail99
    gailygail99 Posts: 582 Member
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    Before I go out to ANY restaurant I always look it up on line. If I cant find the nutrition info, i dont go! Crazy, I know, but that works for me. i wish that i could go to Olive Garden and have a pasta feast, but it would burn all my calories for three days! haha!

    now you know, to always look first, those restaurants give the biggest portions! plus, it was just one day and congrats for making it to 55!!!

    now you just have to throw in an extra workout session! :)

    youre still doing great, keep it up!!
  • crystal_sapphire
    crystal_sapphire Posts: 1,205 Member
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    yeah i worked there and never would consider it calorie friendly or italian tbh.
  • atrayubrandy
    atrayubrandy Posts: 188 Member
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    Yeah, Olive Garden is a killer. The bread sticks are so amazing, though. It's one of my favorite restaurants and I only eat there 2-3 times a year because it's a treat. Just let this be a life lesson and move on. There is nothing you can do to change it.
  • rachelnally
    rachelnally Posts: 16 Member
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    I will work harder to eat smarter for my next 55 days! Thank you for all the support!
  • DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo
    DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo Posts: 296
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    I think I was Italian in my last 3 lifetimes.... I would've left Olive Garden after "only" eating 1500 calories considering it a WIN!! I can & DO a LOT worse damage when I go there.....which is why Ive sworn off the place until Mother's Day

    so I say consider it a reward for going 55 days... no way you are going to erase the calories with exercise....just suck it up & move on...

    I too have a hard time on the weekends.... between sleeping in late & then getting up nearly noon STARVING, combined with a husband who is NOT watching his calories, sugar, etc...

    Also, I dont have a microwave at home like I do at work
  • Bviera
    Bviera Posts: 106 Member
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    My boyfriend and I occasionally get together for lunch with his mom and sister (and her family) and a few weeks ago, they decided to do it at Olive Garden. I spent 15 minutes going through the menu and checking the food on MFP to figure out how to do the least amount of damage. I ended up having a serving of salad, half a bread stick, and a lemon chicken dish and it was about half of my daily intake. Thankfully, I didn't like the bread sticks (too salty) cause bread is my weakness and I would've gone waaaay over. It's so hard to eat out because even the meals that are supposed to be "healthy" and would be if I had cooked them myself at home, end up being way too calorific because of all the extra stuff they add to it!

    However, we can't deprive ourselves completely and I think an occasional cheat meal out isn't such a big deal, as long as you don't pig out and watch your portions. I almost always take half my meals home anyway because restaurant portions are way too large for me.
  • Lunachic77
    Lunachic77 Posts: 434 Member
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    My suggestion for eating at Olive Garden is to get the salad with the Light Italian dressing on the side that way you can control how much you put on the salad. The calorie count for the salad has the dressing included. Don't eat the croutons and you'll probably save a few more cals too. For the soup I would get the Minestrone. It's the healthiest one and it has the least amount of calories. I would avoid the breadsticks completely (maybe even tell the server not to bring them). You can still walk out of there feeling satisfied and not guilty and have plenty of calories for the rest of the day.

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