An Adventure In Italian... Food

We went to Carrabba's Italian Grill the other night. It took me about an hour of online researching to figure out what I could even order there without throwing my diet out the window. They keep the nutritional value of some of their meal items guarded. In fact, when I asked the waiter if he knew the calories and fat of the bread. He said he could try to kind out, but that even if he could get the numbers, he probably wouldn't be allowed to tell me! What the hell?!

I plan my meal before I get to any restaurant now that I am dieting. It helps me know where I stand POINTS-wise and it also is a great way to avoid the temptation of ordering something more fattening when I get to the restaurant.

My dinner consisted of:

Minestrone (1 cup)= 4 POINTS

Spaghetti Marinara = 5 POINTS

Unsweetened Iced Tea= 0 POINTS

This meal only cost me a total of 9 POINTS and was filling. The minestrone was delicious. It was one of the best soups that I have ever tasted. My main course didn't fair so well. The marinara was mad spicy for me. I must have downed three glasses of iced tea with my meal! I am sensitive to spice so maybe it isn't too spicy to a normal person with normal taste buds.

If that was my only complaint with dinner then I'd recommend the restaurant to other dieters. However, I have nit picking to do. If the following two gripes don't bother you, my fellow dieter, then I would say you might just enjoy a dinner out to this Italian Grill.

Here goes:

This is NOT a restaurant to take a child. My kid is not picky. She'll pretty much eat whatever I give her. We ordered her the the pizza from the children's menu. The waiter said it was made with mild cheeses and a milder sauce (which should have been an indication of what I was in store for with my meal's sauce, but I digress) on a thin crust. She had NO INTEREST in this meal. I apologized to the waiter, who kindly offered to bring her another meal. I opted for the Cheese Ravioli. What kid doesn't love ravioli? Ok, let me rephrase that. How many kids do you know that would eat ravioli that smelled like stinky feet (according to my non-Italian hubby)? My daughter sniffed that dish and then pushed it away from her. I tried to feed it to her several times, but to no avail. She has had ravioli before at other Italian restaurants and loved it! In all fairness, I tasted the ravioli and thought it wasn't bad, but I don't mind most strong cheeses. However, I did think that it was a poor choice for a children's menu though.

Lastly, the bill was a little too high for our tastes (haha, get it!). We were expecting something on the lines of Olive Garden, but got something more fancy schmancy. If we wouldn't have had a gift card, we probably wouldn't have chosen to eat there. I highly doubt you will see us in a Carrabba's again.

Measuring Results

I had to recalculate my weigh-in date. I had originally set my weigh-ins for Sundays. I thought to myself, "Start off the new week by measuring the success or failure of the week before." Good on paper, not in life. Weight Watchers allows you to cheat on their diet. They give you these "freebie points" each week for you to either use on one big splurge (Pizza Hut pizza, anyone?) or to spread out over the week (Starbucks lattes, watch out!).


When would someone be most likely to cheat on their diet?


The weekend! Yeah, Rock on!!!! Okay, not so much rocking going on here with me being a toddler's mom, who would rather spend her free time soaking in a bubble bath with a good book then going out drinking at the bars, but whatever.


I, myself, haven't used the 'extra' points yet. I'm pretending they aren't there so that I don't count on splurging every week. On the website, other dieters will tell you on the message boards that you will not see as drastic results if you use your weekly allowance points each week, so why would you then? Plus, I think of splurging as a 'once in a while' kind of thing. However, if I were to use these 'cheat' points, I would do so on the weekend. By setting my weigh-ins to Thursday, I'm giving my body a chance to rebound from any potential cheat days.

That's enough about the 'weekly allowance' points and my strict avoidance of them. Back to the weigh in. So I weighed myself on Thursday as opposed to Saturday.

I am down a total of 7.4 pounds! Yay!

The First Weigh In

After one week of dieting, I have lost almost five pounds!!!! Well, ok, 4.2 lbs to be exact, but I think it sounds more impressive the first way!

This would not have been possible without the help and support of my scale, who mocked my fat ass every time I stood up on it. I would also like to thank the growls of my belly for trying to tempt me into secretly consuming that 1/4 bag of grandma utz potato chips in our snack drawer. Without those protest growls, I might not have realized the strength of my will to lose. I'd also like to acknowledge the carb industry, they are the true victims here. Without my big mouth chomping down all their tasty goodness, the companies will surely suffer.

In no time, my baggy clothes will be baggy from weight loss and not to hide my muffin top! yay!

~ the dieting momma ~

*Anyone else craving muffins now? no? oh, ok. I'm not neither then.

When Things Can't Be Planned

Last night, we were going to go out to dinner. We do that alot since I'm not exactly Rachael Ray. The past few days of this diet, I have been planning my every food related move online before each meal so I know exactly where I stand in relation to my allotted POINTS.

Then my daughter had to go to the doctor. They could get her in right away. So I quick finished up folding the laundry, changed her diaper, changed out of my pajamas (yes, it was five o'clock, but I wear my jams pretty much all day unless I'm leaving the house). I did not have time to log onto Weight Watchers website to figure out my dinner selection.

Doctor's visit over. She has a mild virus that when mixed with her teething has been making her miserable. He said she'll be fine in a couple days.

Now dinner. We weren't exactly going to take her out to a restaurant now that we knew she was sick and not just pushing out new teeth. I called my hubby, who preceded to suggest a list of yummy, but diet disastrous take out restaurants. I consider just cheating on my diet. It's only one night, right? I can apologize to myself tomorrow and jump back on the faithful dieter's bandwagon. Pizza sounded so good. I could almost taste the french fries drenched in cheese, bacon and ranch dressing. I pictured swallowing a delicious gulp of sweet tea. no, No, NO!

I couldn't do it. If I cheated then these past few days of belly growling, non carb indulging, unsweetened tea drinking, vegetable overloading would have been for nothing. I resigned to eating at Chick-fil-a for the third time in the past four days. Their salads are really good and low in points as well. As a compromise, I ordered myself a small french fry serving for 6 POINTS. They were cold by the time I ate them, but I still enjoyed every last salty, potato bite.

Life can't be planned. I should know that by now, but I still try to have things scheduled out. My life can't always wait while I check the Weight Watchers website for my next meal's options. I'm going to have to trust myself to make the right choices when I can't rely on the safety of the program. I can do this, right? If not, there is always Chick-fil-a.

I told my hubby that maybe I should exclusively eating Chick-fil-a salads throughout this diet. Then when I lose all the weight, they can hire me to do for them what Jared did for Subway!

The Great Thirst

I hate water. Even when I put tons of lemons or oranges in it, I still am not a fan. I end up eating my fruit garnish and leaving the water behind. I do not drink my eight glasses a day, I won't even have one glass of plain old water in a day. The only water I drink is in my iced tea. I am an iced tea fiend! Eight glasses a day of iced tea? No problem.

I had been tested for diabetes a few years ago because my doctor thought the fact that I am always thirsty was a clue that I was diabetic. Tests came back normal. I have my own theory on my constant thirst.

This theory has two parts:
1. I'm always thirsty because tea has caffeine which is known to dehydrate. Though when breastfeeding, I only drank decaffeinated iced tea and was still thirsty all the time.
2. My body craves the taste of tea. The thirst comes from my desire to drink more tea.

When deciding to start this diet, the most troubling part of changing my lifestyle was my iced tea obsession. How was I going to continue to drink iced tea when I couldn't have all that sugar anymore? Was I going to have to learn to like another drink such as those fruit flavored waters or worse yet, plain water?

I bought a gallon of Diet Iced Tea. I used to drink it all the time before I had my daughter, but for the past few years, I have only been drinking sugar added iced teas. I added lemons thinking it would up the flavor factor. In my opinion, it still didn't have much taste. Actually the only taste (other than the lemon) was that weird fake sugar taste. You know that taste, I'm sure. It tastes like you have a mouth full of the paper from drinking straws. Yuck!

The first diet day, I barely drank anything. I woke on day two with a huge headache. I knew I was dehydrated. I tried to drink the Diet Iced Tea again, but couldn't do it. When we had gone out to dinner, I order an iced tea. They only offered unsweetened tea. Usually, I would add sugar to it. Since I'm on the diet, I sipped my tea without any sweetener. I quickly drank the first glass. The poor waitress had to refill my glass THREE TIMES. She even filled a to-go cup for me!

The answer to my drinking dilemma was obvious. Unsweetened Iced Tea, duh! I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of it sooner. According to Weight Watcher's website, drinking unsweetened tea was 0 POINTS.

I drove to Chick-fil-a yesterday and bought a gallon of their unsweetened tea. I'm going to work on perfecting my own tea blend at home, but until then it looks like I'll have to buy my gallons there. Unfortunately, my local grocery stores offers only two types of tea, sweetened by sugar or sweetened by chemicals.

I guess the moral of my story is not to let yourself be limited by the ideas that years of dieting have pounded into our heads. If there is something you just plain love and need to have everyday then find a way to make it happen without sacrificing your dieting goals.

Getting Into Diet Mode

I was excited to start my diet. I had signed up for Weight Watchers online program after researching a couple different dieting options. I needed a diet that would still allow me to eat out and would not be tough for a cooking challenged girl like myself when making meals at home. This one seemed the easiest for me to follow. Plus who wouldn't love a diet where you can still eat a slice of pizza or french fries if you wanted?

Day ONE (aka January 2):

I woke up in the morning anxious to munch on some of the healthy groceries I had stocked our kitchen with a couple days ago. I had decided prior to then that I would eat cottage cheese in the morning. I bought some Breakstone Cottage Doubles so that I could have this exact breakfast all week long. According to the website, they were only 3 POINTS so I was psyched. I don't normally eat breakfast, but I know that eating breakfast is key. So this was the perfect, quick and small meal. I usually make sure my daughter has breakfast, but skip the meal myself. It was nice eating together.

When my daughter went down for her nap, I made myself lunch. In the past, if I even ate lunch, I would throw some noodles or rice in a bowl and call it my meal. Not exactly healthy, but filling and tasty! I love carbs, they're my weakness. For my first dieter's lunch, I made myself a tuna sandwich with the following ingredients: tunafish, Kraft Free Miracle Whip, celery mixed together on a Pepperidge Farm Deli Flat (7 Grain). I also had some Herr's Barbecue Baked Potato Chips and a Light String Cheese. All this for 6.5 POINTS.

For Dinner, I had a salad from Chick-fil-a and a cup of fruit. I even had dessert! Hostess makes these 100 calorie cakes that are only 1 POINT per package. Yeah, they taste like diet food, but it kept my craving for ice cream away.

I was on that "first day of the diet" high.

Day TWO (aka January 3):

I woke up hungry. I never wake up hungry. This was the day that I actually realized that I am addicted to carbs. I wasn't feeling "satisfied" without my normal food aka noodles, rice, potato chips, noodles, bread and more noodles.

I had the same thing for breakfast and lunch as day prior. Dinner was a bit different. We had gone to my favorite Mexican restaurant. I packed a baggie full of raw carrot chips (who ever thought to slice carrots into the size and shape of potato chips is a genius!) and some celery sticks. While my husband and daughter dipped yummy chips into the fresh salsa, I dipped my carrots. It was surprising how satisfying this simple switch turned out. I was afraid of the temptation of the chips, but came out victorious in the end. For the actual meal, I had one chicken taco, a side of rice and beans. I also had half of a house salad with fat free mango vinegarette. The meal was delicious! I did not feel like I missed out on any good food despite being on a diet!

I even discovered that I could have candy (in moderation, of course). For dessert at home, I had a cup of hot cocoa minus the whipped cream and five candies (half a serving) for a total of 3.5 POINTS.

Day THREE (aka today):

I woke up hungry again. I was determined to give myself a carb 'treat' sometime today. For breakfast, I opted for a cup of yogurt instead of the cottage cheese for a total of 2 POINTS in preparation for my carb snack later. In between my yogurt and lunch, I had a cup of hot cocoa (made with water, not milk).

At lunch, I had a yummy meal. I made some chicken salad with fully cooked chunk chicken, Kraft Free Miracle Whip, celery, a handful of red, seedless grapes and some Nature's Seasoning. I put the Chicken Salad on a Deli Flat. Alongside my sandwich, I had those wonderful raw carrot chips, some celery sticks and a cut up string cheese stick. I learned that cutting the cheese up into smaller pieces made me feel like I was getting more food. I was amazed at how something that was good for me (and that I had actually made) could be so tasty. Lunch was a total of 6 POINTS.

Still not having the carbs that I so desperately craved, I decided to splurge on a small serving of waffle fries. I needed my salt and potato fix. This decision cost me 6 POINTS and was completely worth it! For dinner, I'm going to have a Grilled Chicken Salad and a glass of unsweetened iced tea with lemon. In fact, I'm getting hungry now!

Meet the Dieter

Hello there.

You may wonder why am I dieting? Why am I choosing to start a blog about it? What makes me and my blog interesting enough for you to take time out of your day to read it? And lastly, why am I so special?

I picked my New Year's Resolution back in September. Though, I have always struggled with my weight, I have never made a new year resolution before now. I have been on many diets in my life. Some have worked while on them, but most have not. I hate exercising. My favorite activities are more sedentary like book reading and puzzles (not the jigsaw kind, but the brain teaser kind). I'd much rather exercise my mind than my body.

I'm a mom. It is the most important and most fulfilling aspect of my life. My daughter is my joy. That being said, I learned I was out of shape pretty quickly. At a year and a half, my daughter is twenty five pounds. Carrying her up and down stairs leaves me winded. Running around after her leaves me tired. I need to lose weight so my activities with my daughter never get limited.

I don't know if this blog will be interesting for everyone. However, I know alot of women are in the same position that I am in. I am not a food guru. I am not a nutrition expert. I'm just a girl who wants to lose enough weight to feel better about my health and appearance in a bathing suit!

And to answer that last question, I'm not special (in the subject of dieting). I am just like you. This is why I have started this blog. If I can encourage one other person to do the same thing for themselves then I'll be one happy carrot eating momma!