Eating Out

I feel like I'm constantly taking two steps forward and one step back with my clean eating. I do so well during the week when I'm at home in my regular routine but the moment I have to eat out or go away for a weekend I fail and I fail horribly.



This past week I had to go out of town overnight for work. The plan was to be in Edmonton Thursday evening for a team building event at a sports pub, followed by a full day meeting on Friday. I decided it was also a great opportunity to visit friends for the weekend which worked nicely into meeting up with my boyfriends family for a birthday dinner. I had planned to bring my own snacks to cut down on the unhealthy eating.

I packed my own dinner and evening snack to avoid the pub food Thursday night. I only cheated a tiny bit by having a small helping of cactus cut potatoes, but loaded up on veggies and salsa that were provided and finished up with two hard boiled eggs back at the hotel room.

Friday's breakfast was suppose to be continental in which I had good intentions of filling up on fruit and eating my own protein banana muffins (recipe to follow). However they were behind getting the breakfast set up and instead invited us to enjoy the breakfast buffet for free instead. I had many options to keep that meal clean but my eyes glazed over at the sight of bacon, sausages and pancakes. I need to work on not letting myself be tempted at the delicious foods in front of me and keep focused on the healthy stuff.

Given that I ate too much at brunch, I wasn't very hungry come break time but still ate my healthy snack of an apple with almonds. Lunch time was also not the best. They served us salads, steamed vegetables and two different kinds of pasta with three choices for sauces and a very amazing array of desserts. I filled up on salad (no dressing) and steamed veggies with a small spoonful of pasta with a combination of meat sauce and tomato sauce. Not to bad given the selection. The downfall was the dessert table. I should have stuck to the one white chocolate covered strawberry, but it was so delicious I had to try a couple other things. I was so full afterwards I wasn't able to eat my complete afternoon snack.

By this point I was absolutely stuffed. I meet up with my friend and we wander around Whyte Ave while I'm trying to muster up an appetite for my all time favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. It's around 7 by the time we get there so I'm ready to eat a bit again. Of course I load up on salad and breadsticks and am barely able to eat the Ravioli de Portebello that I've ordered. I should have made a healthier choice, but it's the Olive Garden, nothing you order will compare to my regular dinners. I could have stopped there but we just had to gaze at the dessert menu and ordered desserts to take home to enjoy as we watch movies in our pajamas. The White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake was heavenly but I felt guilty with every bite.

I woke up the next morning feeling really light headed. I'm thinking it was from too many carbs and sugar and not enough protein the night before. I ate a couple of my protein pancakes and an apple to try and alleviate that and hopefully fill me up a little so I don't go crazy at breakfast. Given that IHOP had recently opened in Edmonton we decided to check it out and save the super long wait at our favorite breakfast place, Cora's. This was a silly idea as we still ended up waiting a good half an hour to forty five minutes to be seated. Here also had the option of choosing something slightly healthier, but it was IHOP, I had to order pancakes. To be fair I ordered strawberry banana and a side of turkey bacon. Covered my protein and fruit but still over loaded on the carbs. I was stuffed by the time I was done and definitely wasn't ready to eat by the time I met up with my boyfriends family for Thai food later that evening.

I ended up coming home with most of the snacks I had packed, a bloated stomach, feeling sluggish and hugely guilty for the horrible choices I had made. I need to learn self control when dining out. I can't always rely on the comfort of my own food and routine to get me through a day completely clean.