Sunday, January 17, 2016

Temptation Nation

As in years past, I have been watching the new season of the Biggest Loser on NBC. The theme for this season is Temptation Nation. Simple, and appropriate for America. The U.S. has, in the past few years, ranked anywhere from 9th to 26th on the list of World's Fattest Countries (from various sources or studies). The contestants have been tempted with money; $25,000 the first day to go home right then, and $40,000 for the second challenge. But they have been tempted with food most of all. All the foods they used to eat that got them to this point in their lives.

Yesterday, I went out to eat with my family. Ten of us at Ruby Tuesday celebrating my mom's birthday from Thursday. In line with the obesity/overweight rates in America, 6/10 of us fit into one or the other category. The food that was ordered! For appetizers, there were fire wings, boneless wings, shrimp fondue, and quesadilla ordered. I had none. "Salads" (a little lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, a TON of cheese, a TON of ham, and a TON of full fat ranch or thousand island dressing, plus pasta salad, and apple/grape salad with a mayonnaise dressing) from the garden bar were had by 6 people. I had none. 9/10 people had tea, soda, or strawberry lemonade. I had water.

Onto the entrees. There was steak with loaded mashed potatoes, steak with loaded baked potato, bacon cheese burger with fries, seafood sampler, chicken fingers, ribs, etc. I had looked up the menu the night before and knew what I was getting. I ordered the Chicken Bella with grilled zucchini and steamed broccoli. And it was delicious! I ate every bite, as by the time I finally got to eat, I was starving. Everyone else had been chomping on appetizers or salads for a least 30 minutes by the time I got my food! The chicken bella was 332 calories, the grilled zucchini was 41 calories, and the broccoli was 52 calories. For a grand total of 425 calories. I very proud of myself for sticking to my plan in the face of SO much temptation. I realize this is my first week on plan and I may not always be as strong, but I'm giving myself a little pat of the back for now. At a different time, I would have been tempted by all that food and would certainly have (over)indulged.

In other eating news, I loved the Panera salad I had so much, I decided to recreate it at home. I bought the ingredients on Thursday and made the salad for the first (and only so far) time on Friday. I was pretty good. The dressing recipe that I got from here tasted a little too vinegary to me. I think I'm going to make again, and try to play around with making it not taste so vinegary.


I also just made lettuce wraps for the first time ever. Nothing groundbreaking here obviously! 


(Romaine leaves, natural turkey, natural honey ham, one slice of swiss, light cucumber ranch dressing) Less than 260 calories

On Friday night, I got on the bike again. MUCH easier than Wednesday. I'll still need to exercise once more today to get my four days for the week. 




2 comments:

  1. I come from a "fat family" and now that I'm older (and maybe a teeny bit wiser), I often wonder what people thought of us when we all went out together to a buffet restaurant. I remember one time, a waiter was absolutely shocked at how fast we all cleaned our plates!

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    1. My husband actually suggested we go to a buffet for his birthday last Saturday, and I was like, No!, I am not going to a buffet to waste money by only eating salad. Or get tempted and eat too much because I feel like I'm wasting money. So I know how that is!

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