Eating Out in Moderation

I think I've posted a few times about eating out while trying to lose weight, but Sam & I went to Pei Wei on Friday night, and it reminded me of some of my favorite strategies.

First, if you are counting calories, try to go out to eat at places that post nutrition facts online, or at least have a "500 cals or less" menu or something of the sort. This way, you can take out the guess work. Since we were craving Pei Wei, we were able to go online and check the nutrition facts. My calorie counting app probably has Pei Wei food in the database, but it's kind of hard to browse the menu that way, so the restaurant website is the way to go. Since I wasn't totally sure what I wanted, I made a short list of options and took it with my on a note card. I ended up getting the Thai Coconut Curry Chicken, which is what I always get so I'm not sure why I thought I needed options!

One of my other favorite strategies is to plan for leftovers! Most restaurant meals have wayyy more calories than I should really be eating in one sitting, but only eating half is usually perfect. For me though, especially if we are out to eat with a group, it can be easy to mindlessly eat more than half. So, ask for your to-go box in advance! At Pei Wei, you can just grab boxes from the drink station, so I boxed up half of my meal before I even started eating - no temptation to eat too much and no accidentally eating to much!

Still plenty left with half in the box!

Other than going out on Friday, we didn't do too much this weekend. A bit of shopping on Saturday and then we watched football pretty much for the rest of the weekend. Sadly, the Packers, Texans and Seahawks all lost. But I'm on the Ray Lewis bandwagon, and I do like Matt Ryan and the Falcons, so I'll keep paying attention. Sam may or may not have written the whole thing off after this weekend - not much left to root for!

Oh and we watched the Golden Globes. Apparently Hollywood was impressed with Jodie Foster's speech - we were just confused and muted her halfway through. But the people on the Today show loved it and said it got good responses from Hollywood so maybe we missed something good in the second half? Anyone else think she was just rambling?

Yesterday I waited out the rain and I was able to do my run outside. Within the first mile I came across two large dogs that were not in a fence and they looked like they might want to chase/follow me. I was kind of worried but luckily a nice lady picked me up and drove me a ways down the street - she was worried about me too! After than I ran 10 more miles before my phone died and since I couldn't listen to the Seattle-Atlanta game without it, obviously that run was over! Priorities, right? I ran a couple more miles on the treadmill when I got home to hit 13 total. My plan was to run somewhere between 12-15, so not too bad!