mo'mentum

What a long day - really great, but really long!

I'm proud to say I reached my goals for the day, which means no cheddar biscuits for me! I also resisted taking nibbles off of anyone else, which is quite a feat between 2 restaurants and 11 people. I almost took a taste of E's pasta tonight, but caught myself, and gave our server my cutlery instead. After all, no cutlery, no nibbles!

We ate lunch at Red Lobster, and it was pretty good. Wood-grilled Rainbow Trout, steamed unseasoned broccoli and a baked tater with pico de gallo. The potato came smothered in salt, so it took me a few minutes to brush it all off. There was at least 2 tablespoons poured on top of it, and for the life of me, I can't understand who'd want to eat that. With unsweet tea, lunch came out to 456 calories.

We headed straight from lunch to the School of Nursing reception - tons of food and tons of people. Normally, I'd take the opportunity to do a ton of grazing, but I resisted. I had my eye on a giant piece of carrot cake - thankfully, the university provided an awesome tea bar, so I had a Bigelow Vanilla Chai with nondairy creamer instead. The nutmeg, cardamom and other spices totally filled the cap, and at 15 calories was such a better choice! I loved the disposable mugs they had - not environmentally-friendly, but super cute.

The proud graduate! Even though he's not officially done until mid-August, we're so proud of him.

The ceremony took forever, or at least felt that way. By the time we were seated at Outback for dinner, it'd been 6 or 7 hours since lunch, and I was starving. My original plan was to bring some carrots for during the commencement, but I completely forgot! After a sip of E's Yuengling and my mother-in-law's Pinot Grigio, I settled for the best drink of all, a giant bottle of San Pellegrino with lemon. I nursed this all night, and it hit the spot - having the wine glass was just part of the effect.


I had a teensy slice of bread (probably 1/20th of the loaf), and decided on my starter. I could've totally gone for a bite (or 5) of this:
But instead, I chose this!
House salad, no cheese, with Tangy Tomato dressing on the side. I ate everything other than one crouton that mysteriously ended up in E's mouth, and 4 or 5 fork dips of the dressing. I feel like I always get the same thing whenever I go out to eat: chicken or fish, baked potato, steamed veg. It's been getting kind of boring, so I decided to mix it up! Grilled chicken and shrimp with grilled veggies, grilled pineapple and a huge sweet potato with cinnamon. Other than half the potato, everything ended up in my belly! Really good and a nice change, the night out ended at 520 calories.

I had a carrot when we got back to our room, which brings the daily total to 1465 calories. I'm actually really excited and proud, because I dodged some major personal landmines. Red Lobster and Outback are both well-known to be calorie-busters, and buffet service and I are the best of friends. Today could've been a total nightmare, and it was completely within range! It was a great test, and has given me that much more confidence. I know I can do this!