Eating Out

I can only reiterate how hard it is to eat out and to eat healthy. They just built a new Olive Garden near our house and Travis loves the OG. It has been packed ever since it has opened and we have avoided it. Yesterday however, Trav came home and said "I've ate left overs for the last three nights and I wanna take you out to dinner, wanna go to the OG?". I thought about it and knew that I had ate a very light breakfast and lunch so agreed that I could go. On the way there I scoured the net for low point items at the Olive Garden and decided to not eat any bread. Here is how my points added up:
1 small serving of salad with dressing: 9 points
1 lunch portion of eggplant parmesean: 14 points
1 bite of Trav's breadstick: .5 point

So 23.5 points for one meal. I only get 27 points a day. So I had to borrow some points from my Flex Bank. Thankfully I had started working out again yesterday. My knee is still hurting so only able to walk at 2.5 but walked for 75 minutes and earned 3 activity points. I figure it is better than nothing. I totalled up Travis's meal, a meal that I could of easily ate in the past...1 beer (3 points), 2 servings of salad (18 points), seafood alfredo (24 points) and 3 breadsticks (6 points). He ate 52 points in one meal!!! That is almost 2 whole days of points; and we wonder why people are obese in America.

It still was nice to eat out and I don't regret it. We have only been out to dinner three times in the past 6 weeks which may be a record for us. This is a lifestyle change and I know that I will have to eat out occasionally so glad to learn how to incorporate it into life. It also helps to treat yourself occasionally because then you don't feel too deprived and it helps you to keep going. I think when you diet super strict, you give up because you feel like you can't eat anything you love. I don't feel that way at all. That is what I love about weight watchers. You can eat what you want, you just have to be aware and watch portions. I really think that logging/journaling your food is absolutely a good tool for success. Someone told me recently, "if you bite it, write it"!