Wandering in the Dark

Yesterday was payday and since we didn't have anything in the house for lunch, I thought we'd go out. We were meeting Gary's brother and his wife for dinner, so I knew two meals out meant I needed to choose wisely for lunch and thought a salad would work. I'm questioning my judgment this morning. I know you really have to be careful because salads can be loaded with calories and sometimes a burger would amazingly have less calories. We headed to O'Charley's and I was really in the mood for a salad. It was hot out and a fresh salad sounded like it would hit the spot. I like their Pecan Chicken salad but I'm not shy to ask for it to be made with grilled chicken instead of the fried pecan crusted kind. I also asked for the blu cheese to be left off. With the balsamic vinnegrette dressing I figured I'd probably cut the points in half. But ..... checking the points/calories this morning (I know, I know, I should have checked first) find that the normal count is 46 points or 1925 calories. WHAT THE? So even with the special ordering and thinking that I surely cut the points by 50% would still mean I would be eating 75% of my points for the day with this meal. How could a salad have that many calories. I started to break it down by using Calorie King.com. The cranberries have 2 points, the oranges have 1, the pecans were 5 and the chicken was 4. The dressing was the biggie at 6.5. Yep, while not 24 or half of the regularly prepared salad, it was still 18.5. That would be okay if it was my main meal of the day but it wasn't going to be.

When we got home I worked on our household budget and then ran some errands before meeting Steve and Pam for dinner. The afternoon whizzed past and while thinking about hitting the gym, I didn't make it there. We were going to the American Legion for dinner as Steve said they had a real good deal on the Prime Rib Friday night special. I've read that prime rib is about the worse cut of beef you can have because of its fat content so I knew that wouldn't be my choice. I did want a steak though, so I ordered the strip. About half way though, I thought mmmm, I'm satisfied, I just take the rest home. The next time I looked down, it was gone. I just kept picking at it and cutting off a piece here and there while I was waiting for everyone else to finish. Another tip that I know, but didn't put to use, was to ask for a to-go container right away and not wait until the check comes. That way it gets the food out of sight. So, eating today was on the high side but I don't think disasterous or at least I wasn't going to let it get me down, I would learn my lesson and move on.

On the way home, I told Gary I was going to sit for a while and then planned to take a walk and asked if he wanted to go with me. About 8:30 we headed out, it was still light out. Our neighborhood is a great place to walk because of all the connecting subdivisions. You can really vary your route and not get bored. I knew that Gary would probably only walk for 30-40 minutes because he was complaining how muggy it was not long after we started. We started out in the opposite direction than we usually go, and before we knew it, the sun was gone and dusk had set in. We continued walking and Gary said "do you know where we are". I really didn't, nothing was that familiar but assumed he did. It now was dark and we saw a pond but there's alot of ponds around us. We kept walking and we had a difference of opinion of what busy street was ahead of us (but I was RIGHT) and we got our bearings. Everything seemed to look different when it was dark and houses were lit up. We started our walk at 8:30 and it was going on 10:00 when we got home. Sounds like a long time saying it that way but it was 70 minutes and maybe it helped work off some of that steak I meant to leave on my plate.