Shannon Costello

Today wasn’t pretty.

I had some sort of orange creme drink at Starbucks (300 calories) and a milkshake at Johnny Rocket’s (1000 calories- compare to 400 in a Frosty… this site provides details) Ouch.

I went to an 11 AM movie today, which interfered with lunch. Meal-time changes problematic in that they often lead to extra eating. So I planned on a morning snack (a smoothie) and a late lunch (hot dog?). I also attempted to manage the problem by skipping the orange juice at breakfast and ordering tuna on wheat at JR’s. No fries. I thought I had managed the problem when in reality I blew my discretionary calories for days.

Even with partial management I failed miserably. Why?

1) Unexpected change of plan. This can hit hard. (”Cracker Barrel had a 45 minute wait so we went to Country Buffet instead and I had 3 platefuls of ___ instead of the salad…”) When one intends to eat out, one should always be aware that plans can change. (And gluttons should never, ever eat at buffets unless they have iron self control and don’t mind being bored while everyone else is eating.) The orange creme (with whipped cream) and a sit-down restaurant were unplanned.

2) Lack of knowledge. I had no idea that milkshake had so many calories! It wasn’t even that much better than a Frosty. Rule: restaurant desserts have tons of calories. Double or triple your highest estimate.

It isn’t fair just to stop at lack of knowledge about Johnny Rocket’s milkshakes. For someone who eats multiple times a day, I know very, very little about healthy eating. I ended up with a headache as a result of eating lunch so late. I could have avoided the headache with a granola bar or beef jerky.

3) Lack of self-control. I do not exhibit sufficient self control to permanently hinder weight gain.

I’ll wind it up with the following recommendations: I should read a book on good nutrition. I ought to expand my plan on how to eat out. For example, today I considered having fries but no milkshake. The fries were 500 calories…together with the sandwich they exceeded half of my daily intake…

Finally, all this guilt oozing out of this post is no good if I don’t put it to good use.