Planning Ahead

Last week in the Made to Crave Bible study I am teaching Lysa TerKeurst talked about counting the costs...literally.

Lysa explained that if anything tempts us that before giving in and eating it we should do the math. Taking time to count how calories or pointsplus+ that milkshake will cost us. Then calculating how many minutes or hours it would take to work off that milkshake.

When we see it laid out in front of us like that, suddenly that milkshake is no long appealing, because we know we would have to workout for 4 hours to burn the entire thing off!

Last Friday's Hungry Girl email about "Restaurant & Supermarket Shockers!" was a perfect example and just too good, not to share with you!!

At the end of March, my co-workers and I went to the Olive Garden for lunch. Before our lunch I went to the Olive Garden website to create a plan of what I was going to eat. I calculated the pointsplus+ on my favorite dishes, trying to decide what was going to fill me up, taste good, and be low in pointsplus+.

When all was said and done, I decided on this...

Grilled Chicken Spiedini (lunch portion) - 5 pointsplus+
Zuppa Toscana for - 3 pointsplus+
Total Meal - 8 pointsplus+

I am so thankful that I went to the Olive Garden with a plan!

The day of our lunch came and many of my co-workers choose the Olive Garden Herb Cheese Soffatelli with Sautéed Chicken. Sure it looked good, but I knew it would ruin my pointsplus+ plan for the day. I stuck with what I had planned and was happy that I had not given into temptation!

Do you want to know what dish was on the Hungry Girl Springtime Restaurant Shockers list?

That's right the Olive Garden Herb Cheese Soffatelli with Sautéed Chicken! Take a look at that stats listed below and what Hungry Girl has to say about this dish.

Olive Garden Herb Cheese Soffatelli with Sautéed Chicken

PER SERVING (1 order): 1,530 calories, 107g fat, 1,940mg sodium, 76g carbs, 7g fiber, sugars n.a., protein n.a. -- PointsPlus™ value of at least 35*

The first thing you might think when you see this dish? "Did someone drop a couple of cheese Danishes on my chicken?" And here's the kicker -- this chicken version of the meal is even heavier than the beef option! Uhhhh... WOW. Skip it and order the Herb-Grilled Salmon (510 calories, 26g fat); at least the fat from the fish is the good-for-you kind. Click here for more need-to-know info about Olive Garden!

It is a good thing that I stuck to my plan, because 35 pointsplus+ for one dish is NOT worth it to me! From now on, I will continue to plan ahead like this!

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