When it comes to dieting and exercising, bad decisions make
good stories. At least I think they do. When faced with the choice of a
sumptuous serving of steamed broccoli or a gooey serving of baked macaroni and
cheese, how many possess the will power to choose the former? If I’m eating out and the choice is mixed
vegetables and French fries, which do you suppose I will choose? The mixed
vegetables? Yeah, right!
When dieting, eating out is a treat. My philosophy is that
if I’m going to blow it, then what the hell, just blow it. Of course, I could
or should use some discretion. The better part of discretion usually does not
include vegetables when fries are an option. But, there are times when I can,
or think I can, rise to the occasion. Take for instance the decision I had to
make Saturday.
My wife had a ladies’ golf association luncheon to attend so
I was left on my own. It would have been quite easy if I had remained home
while she attended her function. But, since the luncheon was seventeen miles
away, I did the husbandly thing to do and I drove her to the golf club where
the luncheon was held. I had no intention of driving seventeen miles home and
then return to pick her up. Gasoline prices are still a bit too high to waste
fuel pretending to be a taxi driver. Instead, I remained in the general area. I
decided to eat out and then return to the golf club. If the ladies were still
enjoying themselves when I returned from lunch, then I could buy a bag of
practice balls and try to figure out why I lost my swing recently and where it
was.
I had a choice of restaurants to select from. In the area,
there was my favorite barbeque place, a Mexican restaurant, Olive Garden, Ruby
Tuesday, Buffalo Wild Wings and Panera Bread. There might be more in the area
for all I know. After an agonizing decision process, I decided to eat at the
barbeque restaurant. After all, this is Alabama
Before leaving yesterday morning I went on line to check out
the restaurant’s menu. I love the home made style French fries at this
restaurant but I was determined to order a healthier side and avoid all fried
food.
Everything I’ve eaten at the restaurant has been good but
recently I’ve been ordering the hot pork link plate which includes three links
and two sides. The waiter suggested I order the hot pork link appetizer which
includes two links (hah! Calories saved) and a side of pimento cheese. The
appetizer was considerably cheaper than the plate. It sounded good to me but,
to assuage my desire to eat something healthy, I ordered a side of cream
spinach.
“I would also like a PBR,” I told the waiter.
“Do you want the small or large?” she asked. Before I could
respond, she added, “Oh, there’s a special. The small and large are the same
price today.”
I’m no dummy. Why pay the same price for a smaller version
of the same product. “Make it a tall one!”
After consuming two gratuitous small biscuits, I awaited my
meal. While waiting, I decided to check the calorie content of the spinach and
pimento cheese. The menu does not include nutritional values so I had to rely
on my phone app (don’t know how I would survive without a smart phone). I
searched for pimento cheese. There were a number of responses available but
none gave me the information I wanted which was that pimento cheese was low in
calories. I settled on pimento cheese spread.
A cup of pimento cheese spread is 640 calories! The cream spinach was
only 180 calories. Faced with this
dilemma I had a decision to make: should I eat the cheese or not? I compromised. I ate about 3 tablespoons of
the cheese (120 calories) and minimized the damage. I consumed a whopping 1261
calories for lunch alone. My decision to eat what I thought was reasonable was
anything but. I have no idea how many calories I consume when I order and eat
the link plate, including fries, and frankly, I don’t want to know.
I didn’t fare much better at dinner. I consumed 1315
calories! That cup of split pea soup must have really got me last night.
Yesterday was a free day, but I took the free day much too
far. In all, I consumed 3002 calories (nearly a pound worth of calories). I
burned 581 (running, walking, driving range). My net calories were 2420. I was
595 calories over my daily goal. Saturday was among my worse days since I began
this journey, all because of one – no, make that two – bad eating decisions.
Frankly, unlike the title of today’s blog, I don’t consider it a good story.
But, today is another day. It’s another opportunity to get
back on track and start pushing again. I can only hope my journey is not like
that of Sisyphus. I will probably write about Sisyphus in a future blog. People
trying to lose weight can probably relate to his story.
Note: I first published the blog several years ago, but
eventually deleted. After reviewing it, I think it is a decent story.
© William J. Charles, November 2011
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