Just Cause I Am On a Diet Doesn't Mean I can't Eat Out!!

This weekend was the first true test about whether or not I could eat out! I am here to report that it can be done!!!!

Friday night a friend asked me to go out to dinner. We went to a local restaurant to visit her sister and hang out. Before going to dinner I had a piece of fruit as I knew that I needed to have some with dinner. For dinner I had a delicious salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, feta cheese, grilled chicken, and some pita slices. I had the dressing some on the side as I knew I did not want everything drenched in it. The dressing was low fat balsamic. Yummmmmy!! I had one small triangle of the pita and then put the rest to the side. Since the pita seemed to be white bread instead of whole wheat I figured one piece would be good. The portion of the salad was a big one, however I did not eat the whole thing. Just because it was there doesn't mean I needed to eat it all! I did also have a couple of light beers. I might have gone over my fat intake for the day, however I was proud of myself for not ordering a burger and french fries!!!

My nutritionist gave me a great app to download on my phone. It's called "restaurants" and has a picture of a fork, spoon, and knife. This is a fantastic app that lists most major restaurants. In the app you can select what restaurant you want, select the food, and see how many calories each food item is. The app has everything from Subway, Starbucks, California Pizza Kitchen and many others!! This is a great way to plan ahead to see what meal you might want and how many calories it is. At my first appointment we took a look at what I had that day (coffee from Caribou and a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese from Brueggers). We pulled up the total calorie amount which was around 800!!!! Next we plugged in a coffee with skim milk no whip and light cream cheese on the side. This amount was more the half the original!!! I believe it came in around 400 calories. The reason for sharing this is to show that even if I wanted to have the same breakfast that day there were other options I could have selected to not have as many calories. This option would still be able to work as long as I remember to have my dairy, protein and fruit with it!!

My nutritionist also writes a blog. On her blog this weekend she talked about Chili's and how they have a newer lighter menu. You can go directly to their website and look at the menu. She also wrote that the menu has a QRC bar code that you can scan and it will bring up all the nutritional information! I love Chili's so to know that they have a fairly bigger healthier option menu, I know that next time someone says dinner I am going to suggest there!!

Big shout out to my college roommate Chris! She writes the blog Traditional Life on Hold and was recently tagged in her first post. Chris wrote a post about seven things people didn't know about her and then had to tag 15 people. She was so kind to tag yours truly!!! I meant to follow the trend but lost track of time this weekend (hence why this post is so late). I feel so honored that she mentioned me!! Little does she know that I copy ideas from her blog all the time!!! Thanks Chris :)

Wednesday is my follow up appointment! I am excited to go back and she what other advice she has to share. In the back of my food record I am keeping track of all the questions I have. Look for the questions and answers on Wednesday!!

Quote of the day "Always concentrate on how far you have come rather than how far your have left to go" So true!!! If I was to look at how far I have left to go then I would probably stop. Since I am just beginning my path might seem like it will never end. If I look at how far I have come already that I am excited!!!

Hope everyone had a great Monday :)