Eating out & calorie counting

This week has been hectic and we've ate out often. Here though is a pasta dinner we made one night. Quick, vegan, organic, comforting. I love putting tons of things into my salads, nuts are such a great replacement for croutons.

We have been going to Genghis Grill , and having Vegan Fajita's at Mexican place (asking for whole beans is helpful)  this week. It's been extra hectic, we have a visiting speaker at our congregation all week, so we have extra activities, my husband is on a stay at home vacation, and my daughter started her driving classes which keep me on the road back and forth dropping her and picking her up. I've been going going going and hardly home. So cooking hasn't happened much. I've made one breakfast this week, had it twice. Skipped breakfast twice as well. Then end up having to eat out to survive. Which got me asking Genghis for their ingredient list on those sauces. What a shocker! I mean I figured they had some sugar, but one of them it was the first ingredient and in others it was in 3 different forms. OK this doesn't even take into consideration the calories! 100+ in some per pump! it takes 5-6 pumps to fill up your cup thingy. So there you go healthful meal ruined so quickly. At all costs avoid those pumped sauces! sheesh.

Which between this and having watched Ruby, my daughter loosing two dress sizes and me none. It has had me looking more at my calorie count even in my vegan choices. I need to watch for those hidden calories when I'm out. And I could lay off the coconut milk ice cream a little. I mean it's so expensive I can't afford to eat much, and one container has 4 servings 150 calories each. I get at least 6 servers out of the carton. So it's a little at a time just to keep me from cheating in a bad way.

Still I want to loose weight. Which I did get some help on that topic the other night. I was talking to a newer friend of mine. Who's lost weight and struggled. She told me she's lost 20-30 pounds and didn't go down a whole dress size. It got me to thinking about this... how much I do go up and down in my weight and not change my actual dress size. Hmmmmm, tied in with that denial thread when I was watching Ruby. I realize that I probably do go up and down 20+ pounds on a regular basis and just ignored it all this time.

Anyhow, I have lost weight (not brave enough to add a scale to this venture yet but I'm considering one). I can see it in several ways now, my pants and sleeves are longer. I know that sounds silly but when your round and you become less round things hang down farther that's all. My waist bands go up higher than before, and my skirts are longer now. 

Tuesday I put on a dress I quit wearing and it looked really nice on me again! :-) It made me feel so happy! I could really tell I'm loosing some bulk. yeah! Motivation!

On that same day we took a drive as a family to Lynchburg, TN to take the tour of where they make Jack Daniels. Something fun and vacation oriented my husband came up with. We've lived here 10 years and never gone. So it was high time. (it also was a break from all the stress of the recent bad weather)

Well finding a Vegan lunch in this tiny town based on tourist who want to buy whiskey was a bit of a challenge to say the least. 

We went to several places and read through their menu's trying to find a decent meal that would keep us going. 

Miranda pondering the choices?

So we settled on beans, a green salad with oil and vinegar, and fried okra. I'm pretty sure they used a ham hock to add flavor to those beans, but I didn't eat any meat in my bowl. The salad wasn't much, ice burg lettuce, tomato and cucumber. The fried okra was a treat. We enjoyed our meal and felt proud of ourselves, because you know how those hole in the wall back country diners hamburgers are so good! They brought them out to other tables over and over, they looked great.  

I wasn't as tempted as one might think, because well I know that makes me feel terrible! I would have been over full, weighed down, bloated, and too miserable for the tour. We kept each other on the path. Even though right there at our table was a reminder of how the food industry wants you to keep blinders on and consume what they want to sell:

Just look at that message! Need I say more?? I think not, I may not be fighting a moral battle here on my choice to be a vegan. Like I said in the beginning I'm just a person trying to save myself, my health. Yet you have to take a second to think on this one don't you. How does advertising shape your food choices?