Flush! Flush! Flush!
Talk about beating a theme into the ground. This has nothing to do with toilets and everything to do with the fact that I need to flush my entire bloodstream and all the cells in my salty body with as much water as possible in the next few hours. I just had Olive Garden for lunch (thanks Beth!!) and even though I tried to eat as “good” as possible, it’s not good enough. Or possible.
First off, I would just like to say: WTF?? Why is there a twenty minute wait on a Tuesday at lunchtime?? The food is not that great. Every time I have ever gone I have had to wait. Seriously people, there are better places to eat! It’s one of the reasons, actually the main reason, why I never go there anymore.
Second, the menu. Out of curiosity I checked their web site to look for nutrition info. Most places, no matter how bad, pretty much list it somewhere these days, even if you have to search 7 pages and 15 links to find it. And usually the word “nutrition” is in the smallest possible print, at the very bottom of the corporate mission statement page. But no, Olive Garden had it listed right across the top of their site. One click, pick your item and read the chart. I guess they figure you already know what you’re getting into so here’s the ugly truth without a lot of fanfare and hoop jumping. Anyway, I was fine on the calories. I figured it would be medium to large damage to the daily intake. And I am pretty good at guess-timating the calorie counts these days. However, I completely and totally, utterly underestimated the sodium content of every single thing. Now I don’t believe for even one minute that Olive Garden has a team of Tuscan chefs in the kitchen cooking us up authentic Italian cuisine from the old country. But I didn’t realize how much preservative must be in those bags of entree’s to keep them fresh and microwave ready. Here’s the break down:
Garden salad (one serving) with the dressing: 290 calories. Ok. Not the worst. Sodium: 1530 mg. What??? One thousand, five hundred, thirty mg’s!!?? Seriously?? For lettuce?? That dressing packs a hell of a punch.
One breadstick: 150 calories. Cool, I estimated 200, plus 200 for the sodiums. Ha. Try 400 mg’s. Thank goodness I only ate one. We had marinara dipping sauce too. That was 70 calories and another 400 sodiums. I literally touched the bread to the sauce without scooping so I think I am fairly safe there. I maybe only ate, like, 200 mg’s.
Chicken Scampi, lunch portion (luckily): 740 calories and another whopping 1350 on the sodiums. Must be those peppers bringing the totals down. Thankfully, again, I didn’t eat all of it, but Jimminy Cricket, that’s about enough for today and tomorrow.
I also ate the Andes Mint they give you at check time. Not counting it at all. And at this point today, it doesn’t really matter.I know the internet always talks about dining out and the hidden dangers to your nutritional sound diet, but I never thought it would be relevant to me. Poop. (Ha. Did NOT even plan that.)
Alright that’s enough about that. I bet you didn’t think you’d be reading 500 words of my daily food journal. If you are still reading that is. Again, thanks for sticking to the end. Maybe you learned something. Or maybe you are shaking your head, muttering, “Dumbass. No wonder you have high blood pressure idiot. Why do I waste my time with this site??” Well, shake it off. It’s over now. Lesson learned. The food was still good. The company was even better! Good friends ya know?? I can risk a sodium stroke for one afternoon to hang out with one of my peeps. Next time we’ll try something else. And I’ll be sure to write it all here for you.
I need to go and fill up my water bottle. Got a 600 ml container that I need to drink about 2 more of. Maybe even three. I’m taking my son for some knee pads. He made the volleyball team!! So proud. So happy. And they are working his butt off with the practices. He will be a string bean by summer! A long tall drink of water like he’s always wanted to be. I’ll post pics if he lets me. Then I’m heading to Jewel for that good bread. (Hope I can snag at least one little loaf) Then home. Now this is turning into a laundry list, also something I need to finish. I think my descriptive phrases have been aging me lately. The bee’s knees. The cat’s pajamas. OPP. Click the letters if you want to read that little gem. I sound like an old lady. That reality truck hits too hard. I may post again later, but I may not. Tomorrow is an actual leave-the-house-and-join-the-world day. More good news to come. It’s still 55 degrees but getting grey and ready to rain. Have a great evening! Later.
SuperFastUpdateForTheSeventeenPeopleStill
Following This Mess…Even though there is NOTHING new to read. I mean, I like my writing style, and I think that I am pretty interesting, and there is alot of stuff in past posts that you should totally check out…but I am straying off my original path here….
Since I had a comment (thanks Jesse!) I thought I’d throw down a few words and let the last of November fade out with a quick update.
This is week 15 out of 16 in the nursing program. Two more weeks and a Final. I am hanging in there to say the very least. My grades are fine, but the stress is going to give ME a disorder. I have dreams every night about what I read (tomorrow is ostomy care so…maybe I should just stay up…)
Nutrition has been the focus for the last few weeks…it is interesting and VAST. I cannot dream about vitamins and beriberi and rickets one more night! I used to laugh at my ex-father-in-law and his beriberi comments as excuse to call in sick, but not anymore. I thought he was making it up! It’s not as funny when you have to actually know what it is!! And then identify it in an application question about thiamine or niacin or B6 with staggering walk and mental confusion….see?? Remember in Down and Out in Beverly Hills when Nick Nolte grabs the grapefruit off the tree and says, “Don’t want to get scurvy!” He’s not kidding. Same thing. I see this learning-stuff everywhere! It’s terrible!
However, it has made me more aware of my diet and my family’s diet, and guess what?? It sucks. We are flabby and unhealthy. We eat poorly and we don’t exercise enough. So, I am inviting you, along with me and the kids and BF, to jump on my bandwagon. Check out this site:
Go to the My Pyramid Tracker portion of it and start calculating that food and energy. Let’s really do something next year for our health. I mean, if it really blows that bad you can always just quit and eat chips and junk again!
It’s a cool site, really. Very helpful. All about the food pyramid and guides for healthy choices. It takes some time and effort to make it work for you, but believe me, I had to use it for a graded assignment and I spent lots of time, back and forth, tweaking the thing. My family can testify to the choice words I may have uttered (shouted screamed yelled) but in the end…Pass. Satisfactory.
Also in honor of better health, I started running again. I stopped after the 5 Mile. Ran every few days to weeks, but nothing in the last month, until Saturday. Do I pace myself? Take it slow? Easy? 30 minutes, maybe a few miles? Oh No! I go full out five mile run for 65 minutes. (Not a great time, but let’s see how long any of you would do after a month break) And then to top it off I go do some sit-ups and arm exercises. You know, gain all that fitness back in one giant shot. HA. FAIL.
I can barely walk 2 days later. Stairs are excruciating, especially down. Why is that? I should probably know huh? Oh well, we ain’t on muscle disease and disorders yet…I blame my sister Amanda. We were supposed to be running together but she got all preggers with another kid and now we can’t do that. Thanks alot babymaker. Heehee.
Anyhoo, that’s all for now. I have to go back to studying. The ball keeps rolling and I like to stay ahead of it. Check out that site. Check out my stuff and stay tuned! I have some really awesome playlists to catch us all up on. Perfect for getting back into shape with and just rocking out. (Rocking out…what a nerd!) I also found more money! Nothing spectacular like twenty bucks, but change and stuff. Also we have sushi pics (I know there is at least one person out there who likes to look and tell me what I’m eating! Thanks to you-know-who-you-are!) And what else…I think I have Challenger pics and some other stuff on my phone that I can’t think of right now. You know me. I’ll get all the useless info out there for ya. I’m a giver. I also have some serious stuff too…for real. I wish I had enough time to do it justice. I will in about three weeks. For now, let me just say:
Good luck Scotta! You are the bravest woman I know! Keep fighting the good fight and do not lose that sense of humor. You rock! We are sending out all the love and strength in the world to you!
Alright. I have to attach some kind of pictures because these are just too many words. Talk to you all on the other side.
You have to ask yourself, "What could this be?? And why did she post it??" Best guess gets a shout out...and an explanation to follow later.
just shy of pretty 