I'm really having a hard time enjoying going out to eat anymore. How do the rest of you feel about restaurants?
Story:
Last night I got home later because of an errand I had to run and my SO (significant other) had gotten busy and not cooked anything for dinner. (He is usually great about cooking for us!) I was famished by the time I got home and caught in a dilemma. Make something quick? Go out to eat? And if we went out to eat would I make it an off plan dinner or try to figure out some place to go where I could eat something that conformed with my new diet modification.
I decided to try to find something in my plan so I started with some online searching of nutrition information. This leads me to the first frustration about eating out. I really, really prefer interesting mom and pop restaurants or ethic food but I've found that a lot of those places don't provide calorie info! Chili's seemed like they had some options that would work for me so we decided to go there.
We ended up having to wait 10 minutes for a table. I asked for nutrition information from the hostess and a manager came by with some within minutes. (Yay, for them!) The server comes to the table and offers us drinks and an appetizer and my S.O. jumps on ordering chips and salsa without thinking about it. I was struck with this jolt of panic! Out came this HUGE pile of greasy tortilla chips while I was really hungry. I ended up eating some of them though I really didn't want to. I was really hungry! I could have ate and ate and ate, but I didn't.
It was nice that Chili had some "Guiltless Grill" items on their menu which were things low in fat and calories or versions of some of their items with less fat. I got a combo with Margarita Chicken and Lime Shrimp with a double side of steamed vegetables no oil. The whole dinner supposedly came to 390 calories, but it was a lot of food I bet there was more! I was stuffed and ate too much. (Yay, for a smaller stomach!) I also couldn't resist snagging a french fry off of my S.O.'s plate. I wasn't really enjoying dinner as much as I would have liked though. When the big basket of chips left the table I immediately relaxed. I think that was part of it.
It opened up a good convo with the S.O., but I felt awful having to have it. I basically told him that I didn't care what he ordered for his plate, but we really needed to discuss if we got an appetizer. He ended up feeling bad about ordering the chips and his menu choice when I asked for a french fry even though I didn't even mention that. He told me that he wanted to HELP me not hinder me. (I really didn't want him to feel bad at all. He is just such a sweetie!)
It all was really tough for me because we used to go out to eat (more than we should have) and order whatever we wanted. There isn't a lot to do around here and we love food so it became a fun, entertaining thing for us to do. It wouldn't be rare for us to split an appetizer or desert (sometimes both) and get whatever we wanted as an entree. I'd love to try new restaurants or try new dishes at restaurants. Something that was fun and enjoyable has become stressful for me!
A lot of times as well the things that I get at restaurants that seem safe or have lower calories I feel that I could have just made at home and had more control over how much fat was added to the dish. I'm not feeling as if I'm getting a special treat when I got out anymore. Part of my anxiety about eating out also might stem from not having control over how my food is prepared and not knowing how much fat is being used to cook.
Sorry for the long anxious, rant. I just really needed to get all that off my chest!