[Healthy Mama]

Okay - normally I eat healthy food and have no problem being full and keeping within my calorie range (1500 ish) for the day - this includes planning in treats like frozen yogurt and a handfull of my favourite cheesy bunny crackers (if you have a toddler you will understand). So yesterday I got up late and didn't have my normal bran cereal but instead finished the yogurt that my son decided after I opened that he no longer wanted. It is a full fat yogurt so about 200 calories - but not very filling. We go grocery shopping and then meet up with friends to go to the petting zoo. On the way my girlfriend wants to stop at Tim Hortons (coffee/donut place in Canada) for a tea bisquit and coffee. I decide to order a Sausage Breakfast Sandwich which exactly like it sounds with egg and cheese. Yum. I also get the large coffee with cream. I eat all of mine and help my son finish his since he only wants the sausage part (waste not want not ). When we get home a few hours later I am so hungry! I decide to log my food into fitday to see where I'm at. Thankfully Tim Hortons has their nutrional info on line. OMG That breakfast sandwich and coffee with cream cost me less that $5 but over 700 calories! Oh right, I also finished my son's so I add another 250 for good measure. Oh wait, I had that yogurt and coffee at home before I left - aaaggghghh! I'm over 1100 calories, sooo hungry and hardly have any wiggle room left for dinner and mid-afternoon snack!

So I have decided that I like food waayy too much to make bad food choices - I would so rather fill up on low calorie food than starve on high fat ones!

That's my story

[rockinrobin]

Hey Healthy Mama, that is QUITE the realization that you've had. Amazing, simply amazing how people (restaurants) can take perfectly good and healthy food and make it uber-caloric, isn't it.

I'm with you. I need to get lots of food (volume) for my calories. I don't like being hungry! It's amazing, all those calories and almost zero satisfaction. Sooo not worth it. Love how you used this as a learning experience. Thanks for sharing.

Oh yeah, what's done is done. Don't punish yourself. Go have yourself a healthy snack and then later a good healthy dinner.

[LaurieDawn]

That is a great "aha!" moment. Let me suggest to you, though, that using your digestive system as a garbage can will not do either you or your wallet any favors. The food is wasted either way. Your body does not need it. But when you consume it, you set yourself up for potentially higher health care costs - definitely not worth the $.50 you saved by eating that yogurt that neither you nor your son wanted. The ability to throw food away is a skill I fought hard to acquire, and it's become one of my most important tools in making progress with weight loss.

[rockinrobin]

Oh my........ "The ability to throw away food". Oh Laurie Dawn, I LOVE how you worded that. I guess I've never thought of it quite that way. Oh but definitely. The trash is a wonderful "diet aid".

[Lyn2007]

What a great AHA moment. It will serve you well. I was in the kitchen today PMSing and noticed that my dear, kind husband who "doesn't like skinny women" and likes my butt "the way it is" (at 278 pounds) left me a huge bag of chips and 2 bags of cheetos in the kitchen. He bought them the day before he left on business for 3 weeks.

I was tempted but thought, "I will NOT be satisfied with one serving and then I will be hungry" so I opted for vegetables instead.

[kissingginger]

Don't feel bad! One day I ordered my old "usual" from timmies - extra large decaf w/triple cream and a honey crueller. After checking their info online I found the coffee has 7 grams of fat and honey crueller has 19 grams of fat!!! It was beyond ridiculous. I had eaten tons of healthy food, my total intake of fat prior to the order at timmies was 23grams for the day. Which ended up with total fat grams at 49grams. Oh and the price ticket on the crueller and coffee was just a measly 2.50.

That was definitely an ah-ha moment for me.

Now I know I can get a extra large decaf with triple milk for 1.5 g. of fat and 40 calories and now I skip the whole donut thing.

Congrats to you on checking on the info online --it certainly does help see the big picture!

Cheers,
Ginger

[wendymeows]

I know what you mean...I look at stuff I used to eat to see the calories, fat, etc. and it's no wonder that I have ballooned up like this!! It's amazing how we shovel it in and not even think about it. I caught myself earlier looking up Wendy's menu nutrition facts since it's "tha weekend"! What the heck was I thinking? On WW, just the points does not matter to me anymore...I'm learning to check out the different types of facts and what ingredients to run from! *lol* I forced myself into the kitchen to make something healthy to eat! It was a proud moment!!

[GirlyGirlSebas]

Hubby and I wanted to go out to an impromptu dinner one night, so we decided to look up some options online at Calorie King. Unless we wanted to go to Applebees (not a favorite) all of the "good" choices at our favorite restaurants would have put us waaaaay over our calories limits for the day...heck, maybe for the next 2 or 3 days! So, we stayed home. Eating out and staying on-plan is tough.

Needless to say, we've become fans of Applebees...(no, I'm not an employee there and own no stock)