Friday, August 18, 2006

There Really Is No Such Thing As a Free Lunch

Whoever said that there is no such thing as a free lunch was right. It might not cost you in dollars and cents, but you will pay the price somehow.

As you may have already figured out from reading my blog I am on a quest to loose weight and live a healthier life. I'm proud of myself. I've been doing pretty good at sticking to my goals of eating at home and eating healthier foods, but the past few days I haven't done so great.

I started my weight loss journey last week. I weighed myself on Friday to record my starting weight. On Tuesday morning I weighed myself again. I had lost 1 1/2 lbs. and was very proud of my achievement. However, Tuesday's and Wednesday's are Greg, my husband's, days off from work, so I already knew in my mind that on those days I would consider them my free days. I'd still try and watch my food choices, but not be so restrictive on myself. If he and I wanted to eat out for dinner, I would eat out and choose what sounded good to me. I would just try to watch what I ate the rest of the day.

Well, on Tuesday we decided to have Greg's parents over for a deli sandwich dinner. We knew we were going to Stockton for the day to check out a couple of wholesale paper supply companies to see what they have that we might be able to use once we get our business rolling, and we knew we would be near our favorite Italian deli, Genova Bakery. Whenever we are in Stockton near Genova we almost always stop in for a loaf of crusty sourdough bread and some of their delicious deli meats. Tuesday was no different. Instead of eating a healthy dinner, I ended up having a huge deli sandwich filled with provolone cheese, salami, ham, mortadella, and capicola. Plus I had chips and dip to boot. As you can imagine I was on fat & calorie overload.

On Wednesday, I was bad because I didn't eat much all day long until dinnertime. By then both Greg and I were hungry and we decided to go out for Mexican food. I ate my fair share of chips, salsa and guacamole, then proceeded to polish off a cheese enchilada, a taco, and rice & beans. By that night I was really noticing how bad eating wrong can make me feel. My stomach felt like I had swallowed a lead weight and I had no energy.

Thursday I knew I had to get back on the weight loss wagon, but I had one last free meal planned. We have a Red Robin restaurant opening in town next week and this week they are in training. Last week my mother-in-law called to tell me she had an invitation for 4 to go try out the new Red Robin and help them with their training. The meal was free so she asked if Greg and I would like to join her. I LOVE Red Robin's hamburgers, so of course I jumped on the offer. Plus, who can pass up a good free meal and the chance to brag to friends that you got an exclusive offer to have a free lunch. Not me!

Thursday at 11 a.m. I set out on my trek to get my free Red Robin lunch (combo breakfast/lunch since I hadn't ate yet) before I had to get back in touch with my healthy eating & weight loss goals. Lunch was great! We all really enjoyed our meals and we were all very impressed with the service even though they were still in training. I finished my meal and knew that I had to get back to eating right.

After my "free weekend" and my high calorie lunch I knew I had no room to spare so I ate a sensible Weight Watchers frozen dinner and a big healthy salad for dinner. It's a good thing I did too, because this brings me back to the whole point of this story. There really is no such think as a free lunch. Even though I didn't have to pay for my Red Robin lunch, it cost me, as did my "free" weekend of eating.

My bad food choices over the past three days cost me a precious pound that I had worked so hard the previous 4 days to loose. When I hopped on the scale today for my weekly weigh-in I was only down only 1/2 lbs. from where I was at last Friday instead of the 1 1/2 lbs. that I was down on Tuesday.

I'm not totally discouraged, as I knew in the back of my mind that I was giving myself too much freedom with my food choices. However, it was a good lesson learned for me. I now realize that even on my "free weekends" I still must make wise food choices, otherwise all of my hard work the rest of the week will be wasted and I'm the only one who has to pay the price for my bad choices!

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