I CAN Enjoy a Meal Out...and Stay on Track! :-)

Hello, everyone! And Happy Easter to all my Christian followers! No, I did not eat any chocolate bunnies or Peeps. :-)

I actually got to go out to dinner last night. I went with my family to Lonestar up in Bridgewater, about 45 minutes north of my house. I knew going out would be a test of how I could stay within my changing for the better lifestyle, and still have an enjoyable meal.

Well, I knew it would be hard, but little did I know just HOW hard it was going to be.

First off, I did cheat and have a beer. However, I limited myself to one Corona Light. I figured at 110 calories, I was slightly better off with one beer than I was with bottomless soda. With the size of the glasses, I was figuring about 400 per regular soda. And some of my family were having two or three of them. Well, I was happy with my one beer and two of the huge glasses of water. :-)

Then, came the hardest part of the meal: THE BREAD! Lonestar brings bread out to the table when they bring you your drinks. My first instinct was to say not to have the bread out until the meals came out. However, I was with four other people, so that would not fly too easily. What I could control, however, was how close the bread was to me, so I wasn't as tempted by it. That's just what I did. We put it at the other end of the table, and I did not have a piece (well, two) until my dinner was served.

The worst part for me was when everyone wanted potato skins. I wanted them too, even though I knew I shouldn't eat them in the first place. Well, I ate one. However, I scraped the excess cheese off so that there was only a tiny bit on the skin and had no sour cream on it at all. I found the one plain skin to be enough to satisfy my needs, especially since I had spicy chicken tortilla soup as well.

As for my main course, I had a 6 ounce filet mignion. It had very little fat on it, except for the bacon, which I took off. I used to eat everyone's bacon, now I didn't even want mine. Shows how much change I really placed into my life. With the steak, I had a sweet potato. No butter on it, but I did put a little cinnamon sugar on top. Sweet potatoes are plenty moist and tasty without butter, so I didn't even miss the stuff. A very yummy dinner.

And, yes, I did have dessert. I try to limit my sweets to one a day, and this would be my one. I had half of a small hot fudge sundae. I then put the rest in the freezer so I could enjoy dessert again another day. :-)

After last night, I learned that there will be times that I will be tempted along this journey. Some temptations I can control, others not so much (especially when I'm with my family.) What I can control is how I handle them. Before, I would eat a ton of bread before dinner, eat a few potato skins with a ton of sour cream, my full dinner, and still want dessert. Now, I've learned how to eat those foods in a smart way so I can enjoy them and stay on course.

Just got to take it one step at a time! :-)

~Tracy~