Longhorns -Turning Pitfalls into Positives

One night recently my hubby announced that he wanted to go out to eat - which is very rare in itself! He said he wanted to go to his favorite place - Longhorns. My blood ran cold for a moment. Here's some interesting facts about Longhorns. First, I calculated how many points I USED TO eat there: half of tunion, half of steak, 3 pieces of bread with butter, salad drenched in 1000 Is, baked potato with sour cream and butter, and half of fried cheesecake. That is 83 points, friends, and I can only have 26 per day!!! I thought I was doing good all those years by sharing the appetizer and dessert! I did my homework and checked for the lowest point items available. I had lobster tail for 1 pt. and the 4 grilled shrimp for 1 pt. Salad was free but the 1 tbsp. dressing was 2 pts. I had one bite of my hubby's fried cheesecake for 3 points. My total was 7 points! I came home with 1pt. left so I had a WW snack size fudge bar! So glad I made pretty good choices. I could have done better without the bite of cheesecake but that is what kept me from feeling deprived. I savored it!!

When eating out, it is best to do your homework BEFORE you go. There is an amazing phone app Fast Food Nutrition by fastfood.com that has the nutrition value as well as the WW points for almost any restuarant in the USA! I like to know ahead of time so I can "save up" my points. Broiled seafood is so very low in points that it is almost always my choice. I ate at Atlanta Bread Company with my cousins and I got a half of Chopstick Chicken Salad and a half of a fresh fruit salad. My total points was 5 because the fruit was free. That also included a slice of bread. Yummy!

Special occassions like birthdays pose another potential pitfall....especially when cake, ice cream and chips are what is served. My youngest grandbaby girl turned one year old and I really wanted to celebrate by having some cake with everyone else. So this is what I did, I sliced my own piece of cake and only gave myself one-third of a piece of cake for 3 points and one-third of a cup of ice cream which was an additonal 3 points. I ate slowly and savored it! I also drank a bottle of water to fill me. I swam and went down the water slide with the kids so I burned off a little of that cake, too!

You may say that you would never be happy with a small amount of cake or doing without the steak and tunion. I will say that losing weight is all in how you think about things. When I felt like that I would tell myself to get off the pity pot, be a big girl and DO IT!!! In just a short amount of time, I no longer had to say that. I had replaced my old habits with new ones. Success feels good! Success breds more success! I am enjoying feeling good about myself and my choices! Eating without the regrets!