Night Out & Tracker 34



In the "best coffee" bathroom.



We had a blast tonight! First stop was the restaurant I asked for your help with earlier today. There was actually an item on the menu tonight that was not on the menu I found online today. It was roasted chicken with root vegetables. That's what I ordered. My hubby got the pecan crusted catfish. Both dishes were excellent. I exhibited great restraint in only consuming 1 piece of some incredible sourdough bread.

(Oh my gosh! I just remembered the fried green tomato with buttermilk ranch dressing that I ate. I did not put that on my tracker :( Need to add about 120 calories for that. It was worth it)

After dinner we headed to a coffee shop and ordered the french press. I did add one packet of raw sugar and some cream. It was okay but a little too acidic for my taste.  Kind of a downer after I had waited all week for it. But, oh well. As we were leaving, the server suggested a little chocolate shop around the corner, so how could we resist?

**Warning! This post now abruptly turns into a chocolate shop spectacle!**



Here's the chocolate--chocolate, chocolate & MORE chocolate!









 









Crack in a Box! I sampled this one. MMMMM.




Yup--cheese n' chocolate. Unbelievable!




Me and my date ♥




My little brother and his wife ♥



This was such a fun night. We ended it at yet another coffee shop. Here I had an iced coffee with sugar free syrup and half & half. There was a great local band playing while we were there. So fun!

Here is my tracker minus the fried tomato :-/ I think that puts me right at 1600 calories.

Dinner Dilemma--Help Me!

My brother, husband and I have all celebrated a birthday within the past two weeks. We always have a big family party, usually on Superbowl Sunday.

Birthday party, 2010. 200+ lbs.


This year it will be tomorrow. We all get to request certain food items for the party. Being the little health nut that I am ;) I requested grilled chicken breast and salad. The boys' requests were more of a pastry nature and involve chocolate. We will not discuss that.

But along the lines of "How in the world am I going to avoid all the cake and cookies that will be available to me tomorrow night?" I would like to focus on some fun facts.

• Last Saturday I attended a birthday party where cupcakes, buttermilk pie and apple cobbler were all served. Oh and fruit was served. You know what I ate? Fruit.
• This past Wednesday we served pizza, cheese dip with chips and various hand-held desserts to our students. You know what I ate? Mashed cauliflower. Before I left home.

I know that willpower is like this muscle that gets stronger and stronger the more you use it. Quit using it and that baby is like an iPhone that falls into a sink full of water. It won't do anything for me. I am counting on the hard work of temptation resistance training that I have been doing the past couple of weeks to pull me through tomorrow night.

Oh, and there's also tonight. We are going out with my brother and his wife for a pre-party celebration, minus the kidlets. There has been talk of going to this amazing low-country influenced bistro for quite a while now and tonight is the night it is finally going to happen. I couldn't be the one to say this menu is just not going to work for me. But I'm wondering...is this menu going to work for me? I have about 700 calories to work with. Check it out:

Appetizers:

The entrees:

Amazing, right!? What should I order? Please help me!!!

And then I will get to indulge in my birthday "treat" of COFFEE! (What the heck? Sounds so ridiculous to say that, but this seems to be life as I know it these days.) This is the coffee menu! I LOVE any place that has a coffee menu. Pure love, I tell you.

I'm thinking the 3 cup French press to share with my loved ones and a latte for just moi. They create beautiful foam art on the lattes. Can't wait!

Okay, seriously help a girl out and tell me what you think I should order for dinner!!!!!

Tracker 33

Forgot to put it on here but I ran about 2.5 miles and did some bleachers today!

More Coffee Talk & Tracker 32

I've had so many thoughtful comments/emails regarding my back-and-forth about the coffee. See this post. I've taken all of your advice and pondered it today. I also dreamed about my coffee. {Sigh}. I even made a pot and tried it with some Weight Watchers smoothie mix in there. FAIL. EPIC.

Anyway, I think I have arrived at this: For this month only I am going to abstain from using anything that puts calories into my coffee, besides a milk product that will count toward my daily allowance. If at the end of the month I am still wishing I could have it my old way then I will go back to that. What I am hoping is that I will get used to going without it and then I can save coffee with real sugar in it for my splurges or "treats." I did not realize that I have been misusing the word "treat," as one reader pointed out. A treat is not something one would consume on a daily basis...great point.

Anyway, I can easily get caught up in word meanings and coffee creamer calories--things that to some might be considered "majoring in the minors." But to me these represent much greater issues and things that I am trying to break free from. Everything is permissible for me but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Cor 6:12

So I guess you could say I am tentatively trying to break the habit of sugar in my coffee. :)

There is one caveat: I am going out to eat in Dallas this weekend to celebrate my birthday (and my hubby &little bro's b-days) Afterward we are going to have coffee at a place that my bro says serves the best coffee in Dallas. All bets are off at that point; I will have that fine cup of coffee with some sugar in it. And some heavy cream if that's an option. I feel that if I have passed up multiple opportunities during my b-day week for cakes, pies, cupcakes, cookies, irresistible little desserts in shot glasses (which I have) and all I really want to do is enjoy a good cup of coffee with some sugar in it for my birthday, well...

I've come a heck of a long way, baby.

Now roll that beautiful tracker footage...

Coffee, The Way I Like It

So. This whole not having my coffee (the way I like it) is going to be way hard. Not fun. At all. I didn't realize how important it was to me! (Actually I did, but now the reality is setting in.) As Stacey said in her comment, though, it could be that it's more about the ritual of having the warm mug in my hand in the morning. If that is the case, then eventually not having the sugar or sugary creamer won't bother me as much. Right? I don't know though. I'm pretty sure it's more about the ritual of getting the warm cup of deliciousness in my belly. I am sitting here just dreaming about the Hazelnut creamer that is sitting in my fridge. I guess I need to pour it out. :-(

Or do I?

I could go on a mission to try and find some alternatives that I really like in my coffee. A couple of things have been suggested. {Thanks for all the ideas!} Unfortunately, most of them I have already tried and rejected. I am super picky. Stevia and Truvia did not pass my taste bud test. Equal used to work for me but now it just leaves a bad, bitter aftertaste in my mouth. I absolutely can not stand Splenda. Icck! I tried the sugar free syrups and none of those really impressed me either. Not just any sweetener is suitable for my coffee.

I know. I know. I need to lighten up.

Agave is the one thing suggested that I haven't tried. It seems like I can get away with less calories from Agave, even though it is the same amount per tsp. as sugar, because it is 1.5 times sweeter. The question is--will it have some nasty weird taste? If it doesn't then I just wonder why everyone doesn't use it in everything. There has to be a catch. We will see. And if I'm still going to be consuming calories from a sweetener (that might not be quite the same), wouldn't I just rather drink less coffee and continue having it the way I like it?

In the long run, I am just wondering if this is going to be worth it. Coffee the way I like it has been a special treat for me. And having special treats, as we all know, helps us feel like we are not being deprived. I just LOVE coffee with real sugar in it. My goal is to stay under 200 empty calories per day and for the most part I have been able to do this easily while still enjoying a few cups of coffee (the way I like it). I think there was one day last week when I went over on ECs. And I blamed the coffee creamer. Poor coffee creamer! It doesn't have control over how much I use--only I do. This seems like a cruel and unusual punishment for me the coffee creamer. (What?)

For the most part, I have proven that I can have coffee the way I like it and still stay in control. That's the important thing, right?

I think what is happening here is that I'm trying to talk myself into picking a different habit to break for February. I don't know if I'm ready for this. I don't WANT to give up coffee the way I like it forever. I don't even want to do it for 30 days. For a few days? Maybe. But not really. I really don't even want to go through this day without having it. So does that mean that I should attempt to break this habit, all the more!?

Or just pick something else that would be a better habit to break? Like biting my fingernails.

I don't know.

I just think that if this is wrong...

Then I don't really want to be right.

I ♥ coffee, ya'll. The way I like it. Does that make me a bad person!?

Circle one: coffee the way I like it      or       biting nails

Photo via Deliciously Organic