Reflecting on weekend eating

I haven’t posted any pictures of myself lately, so I am going to include one from this weekend.

Over the weekend I enjoyed lots of leisure activities and time with friends and family. There were a few things that happened (or that were said) that are worthy of sharing…

While having lunch with a friend and our kids at McDonalds on Friday, my friend pointed out that I was “being good” with the selections I chose for lunch. I had a grilled classic chicken sandwich with no mayo (360 calories) a side salad with a partial packet of vinaigrette dressing (about 50 calories) and a Diet Coke for an according-to-McDonalds total of 410 calories. Yes, I thought that was pretty good, especially considering we were at McDonalds and there were plenty of ways I could have messed up, including:

1. I could have played garbage disposal and eaten all of the stuff my toddler didn’t finish (which was most of her sandwich)
2. I could have ordered an angus bacon and cheese burger with french fries (which would have been what I’d ideally order if I wasn’t trying to lose weight)

Why do I mention this? My friend ordered a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (I think) and some french fries. He made a comment about how he “wasn’t good” referring to his menu choice. However, he has also impressed me with news that he is training for a half marathon and is up to over 8 miles running! With burning calories like that (and continuing to lose weight even though he’s off his original eating plan) he doesn’t have to worry as much about limiting a meal’s caloric intake to just a few hundred calories. In a way, I envy him. I’d like to be able to eat more of my favorite foods more often and without worrying all the time about how I would limit them to fit my diet — case in point — we ordered Dominos pizza Sunday night and I ordered two pizzas so that my family could get the kind they wanted (that I also love) and ordered a second one so that I could make my meal lower in calories. So, while they ate pepperoni and cheese with bacon as a second topping, I ate chicken and onions on a pizza with barbeque sauce instead of tomato sauce and without cheese. Honestly, it was still good, but without cheese, can you still call it pizza?

I guess while I am still this determined to make my 100 pounds goal by January 1st, I need to keep my eyes on the prize and not on bacon angus cheeseburgers and cheesy pizzas with pepperoni and bacon. (Can you tell I like bacon and cheese together?)

Anyway, this past weekend was chock full of additional tests and compromises. On Saturday my family went to a cookout at my brother’s house because my dad was visiting from out of town. He grilled burgers, dogs and brats and had corn on the cob, pasta salad, potato chips and corn chips, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. I had a little bit of everything and consumed 967 calories at that meal. However, I didn’t have any snacks that day and had a very light breakfast and lunch, coming in with a daily total of just 1334 calories! I don’t like consuming that many calories at dinner time, and I know spreading out the calories over more frequent smaller meals would have been ideal, but fortunately I didn’t get “burned” on the scale from my weekend behaviors.

Sunday I went to a picnic with our local adoptive families group. Again, more grilled meat, but at this one I supplemented my burger with watermelon, fruit skewers and lots of raw veggies. I did opt for a small dessert, but by far fruit and vegetables filled more than half my plate. And, I wasn’t hungry for more, despite the potluck-nature of the event providing lots of different temptations. That meal came in at 613 calories, and by choosing the lower-calorie options on the pizza meal at dinner time, the daily intake (which was three meals and two snacks) was only 1317 calories.

I’m pleased to report that even though I had lots of unplanned meals that I did not prepare (and therefore in which I had a bit less influence or control) I did well this past weekend, staying under my calorie goal of 1406 calories each day. (Livestrong.com says I should consume no more than 1406 calories per day if I want to lose two pounds per week.)