My Weight Watcher's meeting was over lunch, and am happy to report I lost 3.4 pounds! Woo hoo! We have two meetings at work, and this time, I went to the later one. There were just two members there plus two from Weight Watchers, so it became a very relaxed meeting where we could just talk. My downfall in the past has been eating out, so I asked the others about their favorite places to go and feel like they can successfully stay on track. I'm a very social person, and I have lunch out nearly every day plus frequently go out for dinner. I've really thought about this a lot this past week, and I came to the conclusion that if I deny myself going out with friends, that isn't going to work, either. I need to find strategies to make it OK to eat out with my friends. I know the ideas about taking half your food home, asking for your dressing on the side, all those things. One of the biggest things we talked about was planning ahead. I got online before every meal to look at nutrition information for chain restaurants and to read general information about what to eat at the other cuisines I tried this week. For instance, before going to Qdoba, I made a plan to get a Craft 2 meal with two crispy tacos and a taco salad, all with pork, lettuce, mango salsa, verde sauce, no cheese, but I opted for some sour cream because it was lower in calories than I expected. I was surprised that the crisp tacos were 30 calories less than the flour tortillas. I had remembered from dieting before that pork was the leanest meat there. It still surprised me that the shredded beef was lower in calories than the chicken--only the ground beef was higher than the chicken. As I ate the meal, I was pleasantly surprised that I really didn't miss the cheese as much as I thought I would. I mean, really surprised. Cheese is a staple like chocolate, right? But seriously. Try some tacos without the cheese. As weird as it sounds, it works! Another strategy I used was to read up on what to eat before going to the new Thai restaurant near Bradley. Did you know that in Thailand, pad thai is eaten in very small portions? The article I read recommended getting the som tum (papaya spicy salad), and I am going to get that next time. But, I wanted something other than salad my first time there. I settled on the pad nam prik pau (sauteed with a sweet Thai chili paste, onions, carrots, peapods, and bamboo shoots...and I chose pork for the meat.) Talk about tasty!!! I chose it because many of the dishes were stir fried or pan fried or had fried rice--notice a trend? I have no idea what the points or calories were for my meal, but it was very, very good and while it probably would have been healthier if it were steamed instead of sauteed, I thought sauteed was better than anything with the word "fried" in it. Last night, I went to Super Gyros where we had a buy one gyro, get one free coupon so I didn't venture over to the gyro salad or other options. I asked for that incredible cucumber sauce on the side and didn't use even half of it, so I know I saved a boatload of calories there. Some strategies from the Weight Watchers meeting include getting chili and baked potato at Wendy's (I also saw that their grilled chicken wrap and their half Asian chicken salad seem to be good choices), choosing the kid-sized potato at McAlister's, and getting an unwich (lettuce wrap) or Tom Turkey from Jimmy John's...oh, and the black bean soup or chicken noodle soup at Panera. In the past, I have often ordered kid-sized portions whenever the kid's menu has choices I am interested in. It's sad that salads are often laden with surprise calories. I have to say, though, I have discovered a wonderful salad right in my back yard, so to speak. The Student Center offers a custom salad where they include whatever you ask them to. They have wonderful choices with tomatoes and cucumbers diced up really small like I like, artichokes, broccoli chopped really fine, strawberries, blueberries, meats, cheeses (not me!) and other great options. Both last week and this week, I got one after attending the Weight Watcher's meeting and I can see this becoming my Thursday choice for lunch. Their cilantro lime dressing is out of this world. They were out of it this week so I went with a vinaigrette and asked them to put on just one spoonful instead of two. They toss the salad there and it was a-MAZ-ing! It makes me want to go try a salad from Subway. What are some of your favorite places to go and still feel good about staying on track?