Saturday

Saturdays really are probably the toughest day of the week, diet wise. I volunteer in my gym's day care every other Saturday; that way, I get free daycare for my kids the rest of the time. When I go in, if it's not too busy, I can work out for 30 minutes. Sometimes my partner isn't there, so that's not possible.

After daycare, I rush to a standing lunch date with my mom, grandma and sisters. We go to some local fast food place, which one varies from week to week. It's a fun time, but since I got MyFitnessPal, it's been slightly traumatic to discover just how many calories these Saturday lunches contain. I thought I was making fairly healthy choices, and I was. For fast food. I knew that fast food is much worse than regular food, but it had never quite clicked with me. MFP says I can have 1200 calories a day, and most value meals are more than that.

Sometimes, we'll go home afterwards and cook there. Sometimes we'll get together with friends, which means a restaurant meal. I'm a notoriously picky eater, and hate fish. It seems like the healthy choices on the menu are fish. Yuck! Now that I can see calorie/fat counts prior to ordering, it helps guide my choices, but eating out for two meals in a day pretty much sends me way overbudget on my calories for the day.

Yesterday, I was really, really good. Because we were helping my grandmother build a shed, there was no lunch out. We had sandwiches at grandma's house. We were supposed to go out to dinner with friends, but they flaked on us, so we got a rotisserie chicken, which is pretty healthy.

What I struggle with is lifestyle. I don't think I'm willing to give up my Saturday lunch with the girls. It's been a tradition ever since I remember, and I love getting together with family. It seems like too much of a burden to expect one person to cook, and going out for lunch once a week doesn't seem like it should be nixed. I'm all about balance in life- I need to LIVE. If I can't find joy and be happy with my lifestyle, I won't keep it up. This, like my occasional can of mountain dew, makes me happy. It's not worth the sacrifice to keep it up. So, how to make it work in a healthy lifestyle? I think I should continue to check fat/calories in each meal and make appropriate choices- find the healthier things on the menu. Drink water instead of a soda (usually really easy, as I don't care for most soda). Don't eat the entire portion. Go for a run in the evening to counteract some of those calories.