CALM DOWN

I'm starting to get food planning anxiety.  It's a lot like the anxiety I get on Mondays at work- how it seems like I have so much work to do and I have to get it all done quickly and it stresses me out and I start to get overwhelmed.  But the day goes on and I realize that, yes, I have a lot to do, but I don't have to get it all done today. And by the end of the week, the work has been spread out and all the important stuff has been done.

This week I had a lot on my plate (haha!) in terms of social eating.  There was my Buffalo Wild Wing outing on Wednesday, margaritas and mexican food on Thursday, weekly potluck breakfast at work and lunch with my dad on Friday, bbq on Saturday, spent the day at my parents' on Sunday (which always means lots of food), and still a birthday celebration on Monday at Sugo.  

So, it's meant a lot of budgeting. And a few times of me stressing out over what I could eat so that I could have tons of WW points left over for dinner.  I've calmed down.  It's fine. But when I'm going out to eat for dinner, breakfast and lunch have got to be light, duh. DO NOT SKIP MEALS.  You will regret it.  It only messes with your metabolism and you are likely to binge later. Nonfat greek yogurt with fruit or an veggie-full egg white omelet for breakfast is a good start.  Calorically light, but high in protein to keep me full.  Fresh fruits and veggies for snacks.  Salads, easy on the dressing and carbs, for lunch.  Did you know Panera has a hidden menu of low carb, high protein and fresh veggie stuff?  You do not get a side of bread and instead of dressing they squeeze fresh lemon juice over it. I like the chicken and hummus bowl because you can use the hummus as a sort of dressing.  It was satisfying.  Strangely, I did not take a picture of it. 

I did take pics of my meal at Uncle Julio's, though!  YUM!  The salmon is really good.  Much better than Copper Canyon Grill's salmon, FYI, which is where I had lunch on Friday with my dad (I do recommend the french dip and burger, though).  Sometimes when I go out, I go whole hog (ahem, BWW) and order all the fried stuff on the menu.  But then I have to only eat half and take the rest home.  Other times, I'm just tired of taking stuff home and get something relatively light, like the salmon.  I eat all or most of the salmon, some of the carbs because they always give too much, and then I don't feel like I need a doggy bag. Oh, by the way, that's my usual just-happens-to-be-Skinny guava margarita and I shared that cajeta covered ice cream. Delicious, especially with a side of work gossip!

I also took pictures of my food at my friends' bbq on Saturday.

Look, Dana! It's blog worthy!

Dana and Chris have a bbq every weekend of the summer.  They provide drinks, hamburgers, and hot dogs and guest bring sides.  I was craving a hamburger (the bun is hiding under the salad), but there were also some artisanal sausages brought by Judy, so I had to have a taste.  I need to be more prolific with my photography because I forgot to take pics of the chips and guacamole, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, homemade pickles, hard cider, and open-faced s'more that I had.  It's hard when you're having fun. Next time!

Thankfully my other social meals have been reasonable.  At the potluck breakfast at work on Friday, there was lots of fresh fruit so I "didn't have room on my plate" for junk.

Though if there had been a jelly donut, totally different story.  Sunday at my parent's was decadent- ribeyes for lunch and crab for dinner - but it was easy to keep it in control.  I'm not actually a huge fan of steak, so I didn't eat much of my ribeye.  And crab is so much work to get out of the shell, how could you possibly overeat?  My brother, sister-in-law, and I also took a lovely 14 mile bike ride, so we burned a couple Calories while making our butts sore!

So, one more social meal before weigh-in Wednesday and I still have a good amount of my weekly allowance of WW points left that I'm not going to have to freak out and act like a sad anorexic.  

It'll be fine. No need to stress out.  It's just food.