McNugget Road-Bumps

Hello friends, happy Tuesday!

Well, my day started with a dentist appointment, followed up with an endocrinologist appointment, and in between I went to work, and back to work afterwards. So, I had kind a hectic day. Unfortunately, I was not able to pack a lunch, and I was not a good example for what to do in that situation...BUT, I was a great example for what NOT to do! I ended up eating McDonald's for lunch amidst my trips to the doc. I had a 10 piece chicken nuggets and a medium order of fries (diet coke). It was not worth it....it was very much a lunch on the go. I ate in the car from work to the second appointment.

Want to know the up-side? I'm not letting it ruin my day (food wise). Typically when I get off track, even for one meal during the day, I will blow the rest of the day because I feel like it's already ruined. Well NOT today!

When I got home, I went straight to the gym for a 30 minute workout on the elliptical machine at a 2/4, then a 3/5 halfway through. According to my FABULOUS heart monitor watch, I burned 359 calories during my workout! Awesome!

When I got home from my workout, I logged onto www.myfitnesspal.com and tracked all of my food for the day in my food diary, and discovered that with my workout, I could actually eat dinner and not go over my calories for the day! Woo hoo! Now, I had to eat a VERY light dinner. But that's ok. I am really going to try to make it stick and not snack on anything else tongiht. Here's what I had:

1 nectarine
1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese (2% milk)
6 almonds

The protein in the cheese and almonds will hopefully keep me full for the evening. :)

So you want to know how bad my McDonald's was? Here's the breakdown:

10 piece chicken nuggets - 460 calories, 27 carbs, 29 g of fat, 24 g protein*
Medium order of fries - 380 calories, 48 carbs, 19 g of fat, 4 g of protein*

Here's the kicker, and I would have never guessed this:
HONEY (counted as 4 tbsp.) - 255 calories, 69 carbs, 0 fat, 0 protein*

So my lunch, while NOT very satisfying was a whopping 1095 calories, 144 carbs, 48 g of fat, 28 g of protein. WOW! So, here's what I would do next time. If I am on the go, and really need to eat fast food, I will get a child's portion. If I had only eaten 4 nuggets instead of 10 it would have cut my calories drastically. I would probably cut the fries altogether. And bypass the honey.

So, lesson for today - you CAN have a BAD lunch and still stay within your calories for the day if you work out, and have a light dinner. It's all about balancing.

Ok friends, I am going to relax a little now. As always, happy eating and thanks for reading!

-Sommer

*All nutritional values were obtained from My Fitness Pal. Check it out at www.myfitnesspal.com.