Playing at the park and trying salad for the 1st time

[genepha 47]

I took the kiddos (2 y.o. and 4 y.o.) to the park as DH has been sicky-sick in bed with the stomach flu. It was nice to play with them as it was the first time I've taken them to the park alone since my surgery. I played soccer for a bit with my son but am still limited as my dr. doesn't want me to pick up anything more than 10-15 lbs. and my daughter weighs around 30. I wanted to walk the track but the kiddos had other ideas about swings and building sand castles so, no track for me.

After about an hour or so the kiddos started asking for McDonalds. They only get McDs once in awhile and it's always after the park. We have one of those fancy McDs that has an indoor playground and it was a bit warm today so we went there. I don't eat much red meat and haven't eaten a hamburger in like 20 years so I wasn't going to order one of those. I decided to order a grilled chicken caesar salad. I know it has about 400 calories with chicken,croutons and dressing so it's a pretty safe bet. I halved the salad and cut up all the chicken that I was going to eat - about 3 slices. I did use some of the caesar dressing and had about 4 croutons. Pre-surgery I could easily eat the entire salad plus a couple of left over chicken nuggets, a few of my kid's fries and apples, at least 1 large drink and probably a sundae. Today I ate the 3 slices of chicken along with a few leaves of the dark green lettuce. I chewed and chewed and actually counted my chews as I'm not really *supposed* to eat lettuce yet. It was so freakin' awesome!! I was full, I was actually a bit overfull - I think I took 1 bite too many. I walked around a bit and had a couple of sips of my Propel and I felt better. The experience was great because I was able to go to a fast food place with my kids and enjoy a bit of food, and a bit of play time. I wasn't obsessed with eating all the food in sight. I took the salad home and ate more of it for a snack and then finished the chicken for dinner. I probably left about 80% of the lettuce, all the tomatoes (can't have those for a while yet) and ate the chicken, the cheese and most of the dressing.

Next time I order the salad I'm going to switch the dressing for their Balsamic Vinaigrette because it has 40 calories compared to the caesar dressing which has 190!!

[oliviam 3]

I can't wait to eat salad either! Isn't it so weird how we crave salad now?