Wednesday Weigh-In & Wows

First the bad news, I gained 3 lbs even this week.  Wow!!  Bringing my total weight loss for 5 years to 48.4.  Most of that gain happened yesterday because I ate out for lunch & supper.

I met my friend for lunch to finally get the girl scout cookies.  We had rescheduled no less than 5 times.  We rescheduled a couple of times due to weather, once because she was sick and twice because my car was out of commission, and I could be forgetting a time or two.  I was secretly hoping that she'd need to sell the cookies I ordered to someone else and I'd be off the hook.  She didn't but that was OK, I had a plan.

We met at a place we knew had good salads.  Neither of us even opened the menu.  We knew what we wanted.  We both ordered the same salad, with dressing on the side.  I did the fork dipping thing with the dressing.  I'm not a huge fan of salad dressing, in fact, I don't like much of it at all.  So, dipping my fork in the dressing and then the salad is not as big a deal for me as some folks.  I ordered water, much to my own surprise! I skipped the bread too.  I felt like I'd done a fine job at lunch making good choices.  I left feeling satisfied without feeling stuffed. (another "Wow")

Then I came home to deal with those cookies.  I knew I was going to put them in the laundry room freezer from the moment I ordered them.  I had the idea the other day to take them out of the box so that I didn't accidentally notice the bright colors and be reminded that they were there.  I put them in freezer bags and hid them behind other stuff in the freezer.  I'll forget they are there soon enough and they'll be a happy surprise when I'm jonesing for sweets one day.  I confess to eating a couple of each type -Tagalogs & Samoas - so that they would fit in the bag.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

So far so good for the day at this point.  March 3 is a made up holiday for 65MD and me.  We have several of those that wouldn't make sense to anyone but us, so I won't try and explain it.  Suffice to say it was a day of celebration for us and we'd agreed to go out to eat.  At the last minute we changed our minds (OK he did) about where to go.  The place he wanted to go is big on atmosphere for this type of celebration, who was I to decline? 

I had researched the menu of the original place and new what I was going to order.  The romantic place serves Italian food, which is almost impossible to be low carb.  But since I am doing my own plan and making the best choices I can as I go, I decided this would be a good time to learn to roll with the punches.  I knew I could always fall back on a Caesar salad.

When I got the menu, I was delighted to see that they had been updated with what the menu labeled "Lighter Fare."  (one more "Wow") The traditional offerings were still there, and along side a lighter version of the same item.  I selected the lighter version of fettuccine alfredo because it came with asparagus and grilled chicken.  I also started with a Caesar salad.  All was scrumptious.

About half way through my meal, I began to feel sated, so I stopped.  As silly as this sounds, I told 65MD that I was stopping and wanted to take the rest home.  I knew once I told him, I wouldn't eat any more.  I didn't.  He decided that he'd take the rest of his home as well. (once again "Wow")

All in all, we had a delightful evening and I felt no guilt as to what or how much I ate.  It was as if a burden had been lifted.  It was far easier to make the right choice, when it was truly that, a choice.

Finally and most importantly, the biggest "WOW!" is for all of my readers.  The comments that have been left lately have been so kind and uplifting.  As I read through yesterday's comments, I actually cried.  Everyone has been so supportive.  I really appreciate it.  I'll do my best not to let you down!  Next week, I'm posting a loss.