Saturday, March 6, 2010

T + 12 Days

Yesterday I cheated a little. Not on the diet, but on the blog posting. Sorry about that. I have to tell you, my week was long and stressful and I was in a mood. What kind of mood, you ask? Well, the kind that generally would have resulted in my begging dearest husband to either:

  1. Take me to a restaurant where they serve tons of bread and have at least 20 items whose descriptions end in "smothered in mozzarella cheese" or
  2. Take me to a restaurant where they serve tons of tortilla chips and have at least 20 items whose descriptions end in "smothered in Queso."
Of course, the dinner would have been followed by a trip to Marble Slab Creamery, Jeremiah's Italian Ice or Cold Stone Creamery, no matter how full and disgusting we felt. Why? Isn't it obvious? Because I deserved it. I had a bad week. I remember one time we went to Fishbone's Orlando and the food was so amazing, we ate so much I literally could not sit up straight in the car seat on the way home. Not only did I have to recline the seat back as far as it would go, I also had to unbutton and unzip my pants. I'm just a girl who can't say no! 

Which brings me to today. We knew that "events" might be a challenge when it came to eating. How would I handle myself? Would I find an excuse to cheat? Today is our 6th wedding anniversary, so we were teetering on if we should go traditional, tempt fate and head to a restaurant or if we should just bite the bullet and hang at home. Without really planning it, during a day of consuming (going out and buying things we don't really need), dearest hubby found himself hungry. I, of course, being the warm, calm center of the Universe and on appetite suppressants could probably go for days on the "fat of the land" right now, but hubs is still a calorie burning, food consuming machine, albeit eating much better now that I am dieting. So anyway, we found ourselves "out there"...in the wild...needing sustenance. As a side note, there are many, many fast food restaurants open in the Longwood/Lake Mary area at 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday, but there are virtually no sit down restaurant open (until 3:00 p.m. or later). We drove around for about an hour before finally stumbling upon a Romano's Macaroni Grill. I was thinking I could order a fish dish and eat in serious moderation and maybe stay in a decent calorie range and have to admit, I was a little worried. We sat down and the waitress came over and wrote her name upside down on the paper table cloth and reached over to pour big globs of olive oil onto a plate (the prelude to the nummy bread) and my darling supportive husband said, "No, we won't need that. We are watching what we eat." Our waitress, Shannon, looked at us both and said, "Well, do you want me to go get you our other menu then? It has 10 items on it that are less than 600 calories." Other menu? What is this? Is there some hidden world for dieters I was unaware of? This menu has never been presented to me before. Interesting! I learned from Shannon that you have to ask. Hmmm. I like it. 

I had a wonderful warm Scallop and Spinach salad: Seared sea scallops with fresh spinach, wilted and tossed with aged prosciutto, roasted garlic, fresh lemon and extra virgin olive oil. It was only 360 calories. I even reconstructed its ingredients in FatSecret.com to make sure and hit it pretty much right on the nose. The thing that fascinated me the most was that if I had not been on this diet, there is no way I would have ever branched out and tried such an amazing and wonderful dish. Nice going, Romano's. Really good job. 



2 comments:

  1. Awesome. When I stopped eating meat I branched out into all sorts of things I had never tried/knew about/thought to eat. It's also made me very conscious of every single thing I eat and helped me to become healthier. It's not for everyone. But, the drastic change I made -going cold turkey after a gross chili dog meal on Halloween night '07- turned out to be the key to my well being (eating well, mental well being, and all). Glad you're happy. A lot of people don't have the guts to do what you are doing and I am damn proud of you. It's a good feeling.

    To quote Robert Frost: "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Love you.

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  2. Wow...the "other menu." I feel like you have been ushered into a secret society. Thanks for posting that, I've been avoiding restaurants, but now know to ask.

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