As you know, it is one of my April goals to learn how to eat out in a way that is healthy and controlled, so when a friend and I decided to meet at Olive Garden for dinner yesterday, I made sure to do a few things that have helped me eat healthy when eating out in the past...
- I chose a restaurant where I know there would be healthy alternatives.
- I decided what I wanted to eat before ever stepping foot into the restaurant or looking at the menu.
- I ordered water.
These 3 steps are HUGE ways to at least ensure some success when eating out. So how did I end up doing? Well, here's what I had...
I ordered the soup, salad, and breadsticks with approx 4 servings of salad (w/dressing on the side)
2 bowls of Zuppa Tuscana (which happens to be the BEST soup ever!!!)
and 2 and 1/2 breadsticks (I couldn't resist!)
Well, I left the restaurant feeling pretty good about my choices. I mean, when I first sat down at the table I almost decided to change my original decision to get the soup/salad to getting a pasta dish, but I stayed true and I didn't get a diet coke, which is good thing.BUT one thing I didn't do before going out yesterday which I should have done was check the nutrition facts of the meal. While not all restaurants make nutritional information available, a LOT of them do and regardless, you can usually find a ballpark figure for calories at the very least. Well, I WISH I had looked up the calorie count of my meal before having eaten it because it would have saved me about 1,775 calories!!?!?! Ummm...wtf?? Yea.
2 servings of Zuppa Tuscana= 340 cals (NOT bad at all!)
2.5 breadsticks= 375 (to be expected)
and then I saw the calorie count for the so called "healthiest of foods" the salad...4 servings= 1,050!!!
O-U-C-H!!!!
In the end, I'm not beating myself up about it- I had good intentions and I really was in control, just not educated.
The next time I hit up the good ol' OG I'll adjust my meal to something like this:
2 servings of salad (minus the croutons and cheese) with dressing on the side, 2 servings of my fav soup, and 1 breadstick. That right there is already saving almost 800 cals!
In fact, check out this link out to see an article that Hungry Girl just posted about the best appetizer, meal, and dessert choices at OG!
Ah well, you and live and you learn right? But I can't lie, it does stink when you have the best of intentions and find out that you consumed a bunch of calories completely on accident!
Has anyone ever done this before?
Either way, I'm pretty sure I worked those breadsticks off though- I probably had the sweatiest workout of my life! I did 30 mins on the elliptical (ummmm heck yes!) followed by 30 minutes on the upright bike! Check me out... :P
Alright ya'll- catch ya on the flip side!