Saturday, August 16, 2008

No self-sabotage

I took my title today from Vickie's post...she brought up something that I meant to blog about yesterday and forgot -- preparing in order to avoid "temptation".

Last night I had a business dinner at a very very expensive and "cool" restaurant with one of my bosses and a new band with whom we are working. Obviously, I don't get to go to really pricey places every day, so I knew I needed to check out the menu before we went -- if I go to a really yummy place when I'm hungry (which, right after the day at work, I was sure to be), it's dangerous for me read the menu "cold". I might make bad choices in my hunger and excitement. And this was a steakhouse -- I rarely eat beef so had no real idea of portions, calories, fat.

So...I went on-line to look at the restaurant menu. LOTS of HUGE (one was 22 oz.!) steaks. Some "smaller" (16 oz.!) ones. So I went on-line to find out how much calories/fat are in steaks (and which one might be lowest in fat/calories). I learned that the portion size they talked about (at least at the site where I was) was 3 oz.!! And that small size mostly had around 250+ calories and around 10 g of fat. Hmmm...I clearly wasn't going to get the biggest bang (size) for my buck (calories/fat) if I had beef! ;-)

Back to the on-line menu. They had several fish choices. A few looked cooked in butter, but a few also looked very yummy and less dangerous. So I decided my main course (this is an a la carte restaurant -- you just get your meat for your main course and order appetizers and sides separately): braised swordfish with tomato caper sauce. Sounds yummy? It was! And I think MUCH yummier than the steaks that most everyone else had.

What about appetizer? I decided on a mixed field greens salad with mustard vinaigrette. Another great, yummy choice -- and much less calories/fat than the lobster cobb that another diner wanted to share with me! ;-)

For sides, they had all kinds of preparations of potatoes (I would have gone for baked if I wasn't avoiding white carbs -- kinda -- at night). Pass. They had veggies (and they included their famous onion rings under "veggies"...yeah, right!). Someone ordered those -- I had one bite -- good, but very not worth the calories/fat. I decided on steamed asparagus which was delicious. Another person ordered "creamed spinach" (I had a small bite -- it wasn't too fatty and also very good).

When the dessert menu came, I skimmed it, but didn't even really pay attention -- I hadn't looked at it on-line either -- because this week, dessert is NOT an option! ;-)

A couple of "bad" things: they serve amazing popovers and I had almost a whole one (there goes my no-white-carbs-at-night!) and they also serve a tiny round soft brownie (about the size of a 50-cent piece) after dinner and I ate mine. THAT was the perfect size dessert.

Booze? I had two beers -- carefully chosen and sipped during the meal.

So, with the exception of the popover and tiny brownie, I ate EXACTLY what I had planned in the afternoon. Did I feel "cheated" that I didn't eat the tower of onion rings or a huge steak? Not one bit! My food was totally delicious, I was full and felt like I had a splurge even.

My result? Today I weigh less than I did last Friday (must have been the sodium/no poop yesterday...). ;-) And I'm off to the gym in a few minutes ahead of a very busy weekend...

I actually think I might need to start weighing more often than every Friday...I think I might need to start watching the daily fluctuations. But we'll see.

5 comments:

Cindy said...

Great job being prepared at the restaurant! I have some places where I know what is safe but I never thought about doing the online search in advance for those business dinners. I have a weight watcher book somewhere that shows points for meals at a variety of places. I weigh almost every day. It helps me stay in reality and watch the fluctuations.

Vickie said...

If you start weighing more often - you have to (in my opinion) figure out a way to DEAL with the fluctuations (is that spelled right) - because they are often - if you are eating any processed and I think probably alcohol is what we would consider processed. I find that if I eat 'clean' the fluctuations go WAY DOWN. But it can play with your mind - big time. I used the 2 pound UP leeway and didn't sweat the 2 pound scale wiggles. I also didn't sweat anything at all to the right of the decimal point - EVER.

Your careful-ness at the restaurant was VERY smart.

Grumpy Chair said...

That's so smart to look up the menu on line prior to going. Your lunch sounded delicious.

I would love to come be your assistant and I would make the best darn assistant . . . but alas ,I have to stay around here until the divorce is final and the custody (more than likely I will have no problem with the sole custody and no visitation thing) finalized. Bummer.

Lori G. said...

I think you are awesome to prepare yourself and pick out choices beforehand. I like how you didn't give in to the steaks, no matter how tempting.

I would imagine that there's not too many places that serve fresh popovers. And how often are you going to encounter those? So you're absolved from Popover Sin. :-) The brownie size sounded perfect.

I hope you had a good time; it sounded like you had good company.

If you do the daily weighing, are you going to average it out to account for fluctuations?

Laura N said...

Way to stay strong! I am almost hopeless in those kinds of situations. But you're right. When you stay with the healthy stuff, you feel so much better afterwards, and then the scale doesn't go up.

I love swordfish. Haven't had it in years and years. Gotta get that next time we go out to dinner.