I posted this blog on another site: SparkPeople.com. I did a lot of posts on that site while I sent on a weight loss journey. I'm going to transfer all of those posts to this site, with the original dates.
Last Friday my husband and I decided to pick up my son at his apartment and have dinner at Fuddruckers. It's close to my son's apartment, and there are things there I can safely eat. I usually get a grilled chicken sandwich (without the bun because I'm gluten intolerant), a baked potato with butter and sour cream, and a strawberry milkshake. Those milkshakes are awesome: rich and creamy, with chunks of whole strawberries blended throughout. We're not talking McDonald's "shakes" with artificial flavors and precious little milk. We're talking the real thing.
But I sat down before we left to "track" this meal on my nutrition page. What a wake up call! The only strawberry milk shake I could find when I searched the food list was like 390 calories for 10 ounces. Fudd shakes are probably twice that size. That would be 780 calories for the shake alone. Couldn't do it. Better get diet Coke or water instead. The grilled chicken sandwich was about 6 ounces of lean chicken breast. I decided to eat only half of it for a more normal serving of 3 ounces. I also decided to skip the butter, and eat only a tablespoon of the sour cream. And I added a side salad, no croutons, dressing on the side. Now I had a reasonable food plan. Armed with this plan I ate a reasonable meal and enjoyed our night out immensely.
Last night I was watching Monday Night Football and snoozing in front of the TV. Suddenly I decided that a small snack was in order and got into the jar of roasted, salted pecans. They were delightful and I ate a couple of handfuls. Then I sat down to "track" my snack. Oops. Pecans in all their roasted, salted loveliness are full of fat and calories. How many nuts is in an ounce? How many did I actually eat? Granted, nuts have "good" fat in them, and a little bit of fiber, but I didn't need any more fat or fiber in my diet yesterday, so I blew my goals.
Oh well. Sometimes you need to remember that fat is not a personality disorder. One unplanned snack is not an eternal condemnation. I will hide the pecans at the back of the pantry and eat them again after I've tracked them into my food plan for the day, and not before.
My poem for today is one I can totally identify with. It's written by Joyce Huff:
The Hymn of a Fat Woman
All of the saints starved themselves.
Not a single fat one.
The words “deity” and “diet” must have come from the same
Latin root.
Those saints must have been thin as knucklebones
or shards of stained
glass or Christ carved
on his cross.
Hard
as pew seats. Brittle
as hair shirts. Women
made from bone, like the ribs that protrude from his wasted
wooden chest. Women consumed
by fervor.
They must have been able to walk three or four abreast
down that straight and oh-so-narrow path.
They must have slipped with ease through the eye
of the needle, leaving the weighty
camels stranded at the city gate.
Within that spare city’s walls,
I do not think I would find anyone like me.
I imagine I will find my kind outside
lolling in the garden
munching on the apples.
