Dinner Out

As part of my (new) commitment to a healthy lifestyle including (1) weight loss and (2) improving my BG levels, I'm really trying to do better with eating out.

As the term "drive thru" might imply, I have led a lifestyle pretty much committed to fast food. Two reasons for this: First, time management. Second, I love the stuff! There's really nothing better than a Big Mac! And those fries ... well, nuff said.

This has led to poor results generally (100 extra pounds for a start plus the fact that I'm writing this blog at all). So, I'm really trying to do better with eating out. But the fact is that I eat at restaurants about 50-60% of the time.

For instance, probably 3 of 5 days, I go out for lunch. A couple of friends and I usually hit the local sushi buffet, Mexican, maybe Mediterranean, Chinese. Pizza not so much, but once in awhile.

Twice a month there's a meal at work that is provided by my manager. She's a vegetarian (with chicken and fish) and a longtime Weight Watcher so the lunch usually has some healthy elements, but occasionally there's a cream sauce and there is ALWAYS, always a tempting dessert. (One of her favorites is Krispy Kreme bread pudding, a Paula Deen recipe that Teresa has amped up with extra butter and some rum.) See the problem?

On the days I'm on my own I might remember to bring a frozen Healthy Choice meal but more likely I just hit the McDonald's or the Zesto's next door or Wendy's. Whichever, the results are usually a Fatburger of some kind, with fries.

I've also gotten into the Very Bad Habit of grabbing breakfast at McDonald's on the way to work -- either the sausage biscuit meal (with hash brown) or, on days when the guilt is higher, the chicken biscuit meal (with hash brown). I'm asking you ... why is a fried chicken breast better than a sausage patty?

Okay, I've traded that option as of this week for breakfast at home: whole wheat reduced fat bread with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a fruit, or Uncle Sam's cereal with fruit and some 1% milk. Not perfect, but a big improvement! (About that cereal ... there are beavers chewing on trees down by the river that have a better dining experience than me eating Uncle Sam's cereal.)

Finally, there are the every-so-often "fine dining" experiences with friends or the SO. Like last night--we took our grandson to Olive Garden for his birthday dinner. In the past I would probably have opted for a pasta in alfredo sauce, lots of salad, breadsticks, etc. I'm not sure how much better I did last night, but not as much as I should have, that's for sure.

According to Olive Garden's own nutritional information, my minestrone soup (one serving) wasn't too bad--100 calories, 1 gram of fat, 18 carbs, but my three (!!!) servings of salad with dressing cost me 350 calories EACH, 26 grams of fat EACH, and 22 carbs EACH. That's a grand total for the meal of 1150 calories, 79 grams of fat, and 84 carbs. Could that possibly explain why my BG level was 149 this morning instead of 129 yesterday? 

Finally, once a week I eat dinner with knitting friends. Tonight it's Ted's Montana Grill. So now I'm checking out Ted's nutritional information. Ted's even has suggestions for diabetics and for weight loss. (My suggestion would be: avoid Ted's!)

Anyway, it's eye-opening. Typically, when I'm eating whatever I want, it's a burger with cheese and fries. Let's not even go there. But when I'm being "good," it's caesar salad with chicken or salmon, including croutons, dressing, and parmesan. According to Ted's site, that salad with cedar planked salmon (good for those Omega-3's) is 1280 calories, 109 fat grams, and 32 carbs. Holy shit, batman!

Need to rethink, obviously. Could any of this explain why I've been getting fatter and fatter over the last few years, even on the days when I think I'm behaving myself? There's clearly a badly needed education component in this whole diabetes-management thing!

Okay, tonight's plan: A cup of tortilla soup (160 cals, 8 grams fat, 12 carbs) plus an appetizer shrimp cocktail (170 cals, 1 gram fat, 14 carbs). Total 340 cals, 9 grams fat, 26 carbs. For another 10 calories, I could have a bowl of chicken noodle soup instead. I'm still way ahead of that fabulous caesar salad with salmon that I always thought was so healthy.

Well, I'm aiming for improvement (what the 12-step programs call Progress Not Perfection), and I can see that I'm going to have to do some serious planning if this is going to work. Baby steps, baby steps!