Friday, May 1, 2009

I went to P.F. Chang's!

Today was my first restaurant meal since my surgery.  I have been sticking more to mushy foods than the soft foods that I should be on. Since it was Friday, our traditional lunch out day, I decided it was time.  And I wanted it to be good.

So Jane and I schlepped in the rain to P.F. Chang's over on West End.

I also took my printed copy of their nutritional information.  I love Chang's and I also know all the good stuff is pretty bad for you.  Since my reset button was hit (surgery day), I know that if I want to go out, I need to make healthier choices.

The thing about restaurants these days is that the portion sizes are HUGE and unless you know what you're getting into, you might be quite surprised as to what you are putting down the old hatch.  The Band demands responsibility.  Otherwise it won't work.  So I printed out the information and brought it along.

Since the wait was nearly 40 minutes, Jane and I were lucky enough to find seats at the bar.  We sat with heads together poring over the data.  Maaaaan!  I was really wanting the crispy honey chicken.  If opted for the lunch bowl, the stats were a mere 1271/50/150/56 (calories/fat/carbs/protein).  OMG, that's like 3 days worth of carbs in a single meal!  I used to eat like this all the time?  If I opted for the dinner plate, it contains 236/10/46/13.  Oh, that's not too bad. Except that there are SIX servings in one dish!!!!  So if you ate the whole plate, which is easy to do, you'd consume 1416/60/276?!?/78.  Holy crap!

Well, I'd definitely meet my 70g protein/day goal . . . and my carb requirements for the WEEK.  Yeah.  As much as I love you Crispy Honey Chicken, I'll pass.

What I ended up getting was the cup of egg drop soup and the shrimp potstickers, steamed.  The soup was 61/2/10/1 and the potstickers were a reasonable 58/1/8/6 each.  I picked them all apart, but all in all ate about 3 of 4.  My grand total for lunch out was 235/5/34/19. Still a little high in carbs for me, but totally acceptable.  I am actually pleased with my choices!  

I didn't much care for the shrimp potstickers.  Next time I'd get the peking dumplings (93/5/7/6 each), but I like them better than the shrimp, so eating 2 of those and taking 2 home would be a good plan. Or get the salmon.  Jane had that (785/35/73/43, which includes a 2 gallon bucket of rice) and gave me a teeny sample.  It was quite good, actually. The salmon not in the rice bowl has two servings, each with 367/16/27/28.  No rice included and I'll probably pass on the rice anyway.  But I know that's delicious and as healthy as it gets at P.F. Chang's.

This experience just drove home the fact that now I need to think before I eat.  I may not get the tastiest thing in the world every time as I experiment, but as my tastes change from greasy to healthy, I think I will be very happy with my new perspective on dining out.


2 comments:

jhcuttinup said...

I am so happy for you and a little jelous too. Good luck

Mareydenis said...

Awwww, Jamie! I still have a week+ of the pure willpower phase. Trust me, I really would have loved to dive headfirst into Chang's Spicy Chicken or Crispy Honey Chicken. Sigh.

Ya know, I even ordered pan fried dumplings (only 10 calorie difference) and somehow ended up with steamed anyway. Damn. I guess someone's looking out for me. : )

Today I have to get off my butt and walk. I've skipped it for 3 days with the rain. But no more. Bleh.