For those unfamiliar with Hibachi, it is a Japanese meal that is cooked up at the table in front of you. The chefs put on a show as they prepare fresh zucchini, onions, and mushrooms, fried rice, steak and shrimp (my usual choice ;) and many other ingredients to your liking.
As the chefs cook your meal, they begin adding food to your plate. Normally a ravenous me starts scarfing down the food as soon as it touches my plate. Last night I decided to wait until all the food was finished and on my plate before I really started eating (of course I nitpicked a little, I'm not THAT disciplined as a person).
The result ended in me taking a huge box home, more than usual. :) With my online fitness planner, I am able to track my food calories and the number of calories I burn exercising. Now, when most people exercise and burn calories they think 'look how good I was!' Me, I exercise and burn calories and think 'sweet! Look how bad I can be!'
As I entered in the dinner calories to my food journal along with my 45 minute swim, I had a good number of calories left over for the day. So far this week, I have been waaaaaaaay under my daily goal thanks to going to the gym and eating a lot of rabbit food. Dave had a sweet tooth and wanted to continue our celebration by making a Goodberry's run. Now, Dave is supportive. If I didn't want to go, we wouldn't go. However... once he mentioned Goodberry's, I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I looked up Goodberry's on the food planner and low and behold it was there!
SIDENOTE: For those of you who don't know what Goodberry's is, it is a frozen custard stand popular here in Raleigh. I fondly refer to them as Goobers, and have enjoyed many of their amazing custard concretes (similar to a D.Q. blizzard).
Photo taken from www.goodberrys.com
My standard Goobers order: A chocolate concrete with peanut butter fudge sauce and oreos. Mmmmmmmmmm...SO GOOD... and probably a thousand calories. Yeah... that one wonderfully amazing dessert would have pissed away an entire week.
Determined to find away to satisfy my Goober's craving without going over on daily allotted calories, I saw that a scoop of LIGHT goobers was only 150 calories. Playing around a little bit more, I could add strawberries and one peanut butter cup and still be able to stay under my daily calorie count... IF we took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood. Looking at Dave I made him promise to walk with me and off we went. Mmmmmmm... it wasn't what I would normally get, but for about 700 calories LESS than my amazing chocolate masterpiece, low fat goobers is definitely something I can see myself enjoying.
As we walked around the neighborhood, still ridiculously warm at 11pm, Dave mentioned that half the battle of losing weight is just being aware. Granted, if all these online tools weren't available, there is no way I would be able to add up and subtract calories eaten and calories burned. I worry slightly that I may be a little too obsessed with the numbers game, but when I see the goal and see that I'm under, I can't help but be happy. With over 2000 extra calories to play with going into the weekend, I know I wont feel as bad if we decided to stop somewhere, grab a beer, and just enjoy the nice day here in sunny North Carolina.
Good for you! Sounds like you are really making it more of a game, which is key to success! Isn't it amazing how you can find foods that are just as satisfying with a whole lot less calories! One thing to be careful of, I would say, is saying "2000 extra going into the weekend". Calories in and out is a daily thing. you need to be down 3500 calories to lose a pound so it is easy to be good all week and then completely blow it over the weekend. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with a good cold beer (especially if you order a low cal one) but just don't add on the chicken wings to the order! Keep up the good work!
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