For years so many people have told me to blog but I guess I have just been gun shy because I am afraid I will run out of things about which to write! That's like saying I would ever run out of things to say, impossible! So I am giving it a shot. Now that I am out east with the kiddos for summer vacation, I am not sure how often I will blog, but I will try it out and see how it goes. So the first thing that came to mind to get me blogging was during our dinner out last night. I kept thinking during the evening that I should really blog about this and about how there are so many challenges to trying to be healthy, not just while going to restaurants, but with life in general. So if, over the time of my blogs, I am able to offer some suggestions to help someone else overcome a hurdle to their healthy lifestyle, well then it is all worth it. So here it goes!
I am trying hard to eat healthy on my summer vacation with five kids (my four plus one extra for the summer) and I am ready to give up! Last night we were sitting at a local favorite restaurant and scanning the menu, which is rather large, looking for something that isn't in a flour wrap, or on a white bun, or that isn't deep fried! The only option I had was a salad. I was craving broiled fish or grilled chicken, but that wasn't even a remote possibility. Even most of the salads on the menu had well over 1,000 calories each with all of the cheese, hard-boiled eggs, or bacon or other endless high-fat foods that people think they can eat just because they are placed on a bed of lettuce. So remember, just because the word salad is in the heading doesn't make it healthy! The place was very busy, especially for a Monday night, so I know I was about to become one of "those" people that makes lots of weird requests to try and get something healthy. The waitress was clearly swamped and just wanted our order and to move on. So I ordered a large garden salad, no eggs, no bacon, no cheese, no croutons. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Then what DO you want on it?" I said, "VEGETABLES... it it is supposed to be a GARDEN salad and cheese, bacon, eggs and croutons don't grow in a garden." She let her guard down and chuckled and said that I have a good point. I said vegetables please, and grilled chicken. Now we approached the dressing part. Of course no healthy options whatsoever, so I said a side of buffalo sauce extra spicy would be great. I know it isn't the best choice either, but it beats the Ranch or Blue Cheese that I wanted and most buffalo sauce doesn't have any fat or sugar, so I gave it a shot. The salad arrived to the table and guess what was on it? Cheese, FRIED chicken, eggs, bacon and croutons. Another server dumped it down and I said it was wrong, she said she would send the server. The five kids got their meals and were happy, I sat there waiting. It took about 20 minutes to get it corrected and in the mean time I was so hungry and surrounded by sides of french fries that I was trying so hard not to eat. I failed. I think I had about 12 fries, not too bad, but I figured it would have been worse. I got my salad, and it still had cheese on it but I ate some of it anyway. I am human and I want to go out to dinner and lead a normal life, but I want to be able to make healthy choices and eat the things that I know are good for me. It is so hard when society all around us makes it seem weird when you try to make healthy choices. It is like the look the waitress first gave me, the look of "You have got to be kidding me!" And I am the one paying the bill! So my goal over the rest of this vacation is to continue to try hard to eat healthy, not give in to temptations just because it is so much easier to eat junk food, and strive to make it easy to eat healthy and not only not BE weird, but I don't have to eat weird things to be healthy either. That we will explore more in future blogs.
