WOW!!! I am soooo mad at myself!!

Get into the habit of asking for everything on the side and adding back about half of what is giving with the salad. I normally eat all of the protein on a salad, but never all of the toppings. It's always way high in cals.

Restaurant food can be SO deceptive. One travel day, my hubby ordered the McD's breakfast burrito for me while I made a pit stop. I thought "Ok, it looks fairly healthy". Turns out it was the WORST thing on the breakfast menu. I think it was 600 calories! Lesson learned. I go on-line before we go out to eat, plan what I am going to order and refuse to look at the menu. Those tempting pictures and descriptions can weaken my resolve. I also have a brochure from several chains in my car so I can check things out before we go in. The good news is that one meal simply cannot ruin all your hard work. A little extra exercise, a bit of dietary tweaking and you are right back on track. Good luck!!

It looks like over half of the calories from the salad was from the dressing. Maybe as a rule of thumb next time bring your own dressing or maybe it would be good without the dressing with all of the yummy flavors.

Have you got a smartphone? If so, you can use the MFP app and check calories BEFORE you eat them

This is all that saves me I swear! Just one more reason I justify having it!

But don't punish yourself... You may wake up tomorrow morning starving and that's not good either! Eat your normal meal... Go for a walk and enjoy your cheat day!

I LOVE LOVE that salad and the first time I looked it up and saw how bad it was I about had a heart attack. That dressing is horrible for you but taste so good! I didn't do good today either at lunch. First time I ate somewhat bad this week but going to excercise to work some off so I won't be so mad at myself. We will bet back on track tomorrow. Gotta cheat sometimes!

I went to Applebees with my family from out of state and looked up the nutrition info before we left ...they do have a 500 under calorie menu..the steak and potato salad is under 400 calories and VERY GOOD!!..Dont dwell ..just look forward...:)

Don't fret please, I have done the samething but what I do now is I go online find the restaurants menu and see what I will possibly order and then i plug it into my journal to see what the cause and the effect will be on my caloric intake for that day. :-) its trail and error I have been doing this thing for quite some time. My starting weight was 278 pounds and now I tetter between 204 and 208.

I had gotten down in March 201 to 194, but my oldest child got married in May and so diet and discretion went out the window,. LOL So i'm refocused and back at it once again. Remember if you've over eaten drink plenty water to flush the salt intake and then don't deprive yourself find some fruit which is a health snake or take a 1 mile walk to compensate for some of that which you've eaten. An then just tell yourself "Oh well that was my reward for doing so well for the past weeks". In the end its all good smile you will be just fine.

Lady

applebee's in new york have calories listed in the menu. also, you can request a half an order. dressing on the side too.

As people have said, Applebee's has a pretty extensive "under 550 calories" menu, which is really cool for us trackers, but a good way to look at those options being on a menu is to immediately assume that everything else is probably way higher in calories! Sorry about the calorie-shock! Those dressing are killers!!!

That sucks. I've been there too - not with a salad, but still. I ordered a vegetarian burrito, thinking I was doing pretty good but did not realize that it was 1700 calories!! That was my first week, and I've made a lot of progress since then when it comes to making food choices.

How to not let this happen again:

+ Pre-plan your meal. If you know that you're going out for lunch/dinner, then take a few minutes to check out the nutrition facts either on the restaurant's website or here in the database.

+ If you choose a salad, skip the cheese and put the dressing on the side. You can get the dressing flavor without as many calories by just dipping your fork in the dressing, then stabbing some greens. Alternatively, you can get salads without dressing at all. I do this. At first, it was weird eating plain lettuce, but now I look forward to it. There's a lot of subtle flavor in a good salad that you miss when you smother it in dressing.

+ If the protein on the salad is fried, skip it and get something else. If you have any doubts about whether a protein is covered in butter or anything else, either confirm with the kitchen or just skip it. Personally, I just save myself the trouble and leave it off.

+ If you don't have time to pre-plan, find the restaurant's fit/diet/under-500 menu and order from there. Sure, it may not have exactly what you want to eat, but it's better than getting home and being shocked by a 1500 calorie meal.

+ Don't be afraid to box it up. You can order the box when you order your food. Split the food so that you don't see it on your plate. Out of sight, out of mind. Plus, you get two meals for the price of one!