Tonight I had to eat out and stay within my diet restrictions — and I survived!  No, not just survived, I SUCEEDED! I am not one to ever request my dishes to be altered, I don’t want anyone going out of their way to accommodate any nit-picky requests.  But tonight I had to be that annoying person asking for my order to be altered to fit my diet rules.  

After child #2’s choir concert, all 6 of us went to one of our favorite sports bars for dinner, Powercat Sports Grill! The other 5 ordered one of our favorite appetizers, Coach Mo’s Nachos — and I didn’t eat a single bite.  Everyone else happily chowed down on all their various versions of delicious burgers (or mini corn dogs for child #4), and they all had glorious mountains of golden fries — and I didn’t even swipe a single fry off anyone’s plate.  I poured over the menu and decided upon the All-Conference Chicken Salad (greens, grilled chicken, bacon, cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, guacamole).  My only alterations I requested were no shredded cheddar jack cheese, and salsa in place of salad dressing.  They happily obliged and I held strong to the diet. Thanks, Powercat, I was really worried I was going to cave-in while eating out, but you guys made it easy for me!

This would be an excellent time to bring up one of the problems I have always encountered when trying my best to be good and make the right choices: HOLDING TRUE TO A DIET WHILE EATING OUT.  

I have very little will power. I mean, like, nearly non-existent will power.  I can somehow always justify diet-cheating to myself one way or another when eating out. They don’t have anything on the menu that fits my diet. Or. This’ll be my one cheat day. Or. I hate seeing everyone around me eating all the foods that I like. Or. I just need to satisfy this enormous craving for (whatever food), then I won’t think about it so much. It never works, once I open the cheat door, it’s impossible to close.  I’m off the diet completely within a week.

Another thing I do is convince myself that I’ll work off my bad food choices with a little extra exercise.  This also never happens because I just stuffed my face full of crap food choices. Therefor, I have no energy for any extra calorie burning, let alone my regular workout.

But if all else fails, no matter what restaurant I’m at in the future…everyone has some sort of plain salad on the menu (even McDonald’s!). I may have to make up for some protein when I get home, or on the ride home if I’m out of town— but it CAN be done. In the interest of full disclosure here…if I had not been having the recent success with my weight loss, I can honestly tell you that I probably would’ve had a mouth full of nachos tonight the second our waitress set that plate in front of me tonight. In my mind I would have thought, “eh, it’s not like the diet’s really working all the great anyways, one ‘bad’ meal isn’t going to change anything.” But thankfully I have had much success over the last 9 days and I am terrified of gaining anything back — this is what stopped me tonight. 

Well, I’m going to keep patting myself on the back while I make my nightly hot herbal tea and get ready for bed.  Good job, Ames, you made a good choice and you can sleep guilt-free tonight! Good night — no, GREAT night — everybody!

~~ Amie