Houston Restaurant Week

Hello friends, happy Saturday!

Well, my Saturday morning started off with a trip to the office. Boooo! I have so much work to do and just not enough time in the work week to do it. It's crazy. So I put in a few weekend hours this morning and got a lot done. Working on weekends is the pits, but I was up at the office all alone, had my music going, and got into the zone! Now that that's done, I can relax and enjoy my weekend.

So I've been good this week. Yesterday was great. I went with some friends to the Olive Garden for dinner. Yummmmm! I LOVE the Olive Garden. I love Italian food in general, but Olive Garden is one of my faves. And the great thing about it, is they have their nutritional information on their website! You would be surprised what is not, and IS bad! For instance, their salad, which I LOVE, is 9 points for one serving!! That's insane! When I read that, I thought, oh MAN....I can't eat their salad anymore! You can do some slight modifications to their salad, like asking for fat free dressing, no croutons, no cheese...etc etc. But I decided I would just sub my salad for minestrone soup, which is only 2 points per serving! YAY! Not bad at all. And the soup is really good. Now, when I eat Olive Garden I HAVE to have one of the bread sticks, which are 3 points each, so I limit myself to just one. For my entree, I usually choose the Linguini ala Marinara, and get whole wheat noodles instead of regular. For the entire portion, its 9 points! And their portions are so big I can only ever eat half! So here was my breakdown for yesterday:

Breakfast:
Thomas 100 Calorie English Muffin - 1 pt.

Lunch:
Hamburger w/o Cheese - 5 pts.
Pringles - 1 pt.

Snack:
WW Fruity Nutty Maddness Bar - 2 pts.

Dinner at Olive Garden:
Minestrone Soup (1 bowl) - 2 pts.
Breadstick - 3 pts.
1/2 portion of Linguini Ala Marinara w/ Whole wheat noodles - 4.5 pts.

Dessert:
Dreyers All Natural Fruit Bar (strawberry) - 1 pt.

Successful dining out experience, and I didn't even go over my points!! See, so you too can eat out and stick to your diet plan. It just takes some modification and research! For your favorite restaurants, go to their website and see if you can find the nutritional information, it's a huge help!!

So today after I got back from work I went and worked out at the gym. I did a 30 minute cardio workout - high intensity. I did the elyptical interval workout, on a 2/4 resistance and incline, rotating between a 2 and a 4 every two minutes. I really like this workout, I feel great afterwards. At the end I try and push up to a 6 resistance and incline, and that really gets my heart pumping and that fat burning! Read more about this workout in my previous blog "Elyptical Maddness."

Ok, so the title of this blog is Houston Restaurant Week*. This is something so cool that I just discovered this year! Every year, Houston's finest restaurants participate in Restaurant Week, where they offer a fixed price ($35 per person) for a great 3-course meal and for each meal they sell they donate $5 to the Houston Food Bank. Very cool! So tonight, I'm going with my best friend, and my mom and Charlie to Perry's Steakhouse. Yummmmm. I know it is going to be a splurge, so I'm planning to use my activity points and some of my extra 35 points for this dinner. It's all about planning folks!

So here's what I had today so far:

Breakfast on the run:
Weight Watchers Fruity Nutty Maddness Bar - 2 pts.

Lunch:
Hot Dog (Oscar Meyer 98% FF Turkey Dog, Natures Own Whole Wheat Sugar Free Bun) - 2 pts.
Light FF Pringles - 1 pt.
1 cup grapes - 1 pt

Snack:
Weight Watchers Multi Grain Crisps - 2 pts.

Activity:
30 minute Elyptical Interval Cardio Workout - High Intensity - 4 pts.

Point balance for the day (including activity points): 16 pts!! Not bad! And I'll get to enjoy myself and splurge a little on dinner, because you HAVE to do that every once in a while. I plan on making wise decisions though. No bread, I'd rather use my points on steak! Light dressing if any, etc etc. Wish me luck!

Well, I'm off to get ready to go to dinner. I'm very excited! Until next time, happy life, happy eating!

Sommer

*Check out Houston Restaurant Week's list of restaurants and menus at www.houstonrestaurantweek.com. It's a great way to try a new place, or revisit an old one and meanwhile it's benefiting the hungry!