Noticing a Change....

....in my shopping and eating out habits.  Last night Chris and I went grocery shopping and while we were out went and got something to eat.  I can't say enough about My Fitness Pal and the effect it's had on my choices.  We went to Applebee's and I started looking up food as soon as we got there.  Surprisingly the sirloin steak was the lowest calorie item I looked up.  I got that, some mixed veggies and a plain potato that I planned on eating with ketchup instead of butter/sour cream.  Rusty taught me that trick once.  You put ketchup on fries, fries are a potato in a different form, so save yourself the calories and try it.  Another way I like to eat it is with salsa.  We got the 2 for $24 deal and it came with an appetizer.  I knew I wasn't going to eat the appetizer, but Chris had me look up the calorie content for the pre-selected ones that he could choose from. Spinach and Artichoke dip - 1500 calories!!!!!!  Again surprisingly the cheese sticks were the best thing for the selection and that's what he ordered.  They came and he was nice enough to move them over to his side so I didn't have to see them.  You'll notice on my journal that I did cave and I ate one, but I made sure to count it.  I ended up not eating my potato, I was pretty full after the veggies and steak so I saved it for lunch today.

We went grocery shopping after that.  I used My Fitness Pal again to help me look some of the stuff up and figure out what made most sense to buy.  My biggest revelation - PICKLES ARE 0 CALORIES!!!!!!!!!  Now if you know me, you know I love pickles.  When my grandma would send me care packages while in college, they would have a jar of pickles.  I always seem to have a jar of pickles in my refrigerator.  I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that from a calorie standpoint they weren't that bad, but I don't remember them being 0 calories.  Yes Chris, I know they're loaded with sodium, but I love them and if it helps solve a hunger pain, I'm good with that :) You can bet that a jar made it's way into our cart!

Tonight we're going out to dinner with our friend Kelly (the one who introduced us!)  I'm already looking online to decide what I'm going to have so that I know how many calories to save for dinner!