Diet Screw Up

I’m not really on a “diet,” in the old sense — I don’t go hungry — but I am attentive to what I eat nowadays. I always have “good” meals and snacks near at hand, and I eat something every couple of hours. My metabolism is in high gear with all this exercising I’m doing. I’m constantly fueling my system.

My desk drawer and one corner of a shelf in the break room fridge is full of fruits, pretzels, protein bars, and non-fat yogurt. Whenever I have even a tinge of hunger, I can grab any of this stuff and I’m never tempted to visit the candy machine or run over to a fast food restaurant.

I’ve also checked various local restaurant menus online for their nutritional information, so when I do occasionally go out to eat lunch, I know how what the least bad stuff is on the menues. If I’m ever caught hungry while away from home or work, I have a good idea of where and what I can eat out.

I even keep a journal of what I eat and the calories, fat, carbs, and protein I take in with each meal and snack. I don’t have to do this, but it does help me keep tabs on my intake. It’s just a little confirmation each day that I’ve done well.

Yesterday I got hungry after leaving work, (late), and before getting home. I didn’t have a snack with me, so I started looking and thinking around for some place I could get something “not bad.” There’s a Bruegger’s bagel/deli shop nearby, and I knew from their online nutritional info that I could get something “not bad” there.

A Bruegger’s turkey bagel sandwich, (with honey mustard and lettuce), has:

• 440 calories
• 8g fat
• 64g carbs
• 26g protein

Not bad. I try to keep my daily numbers at around 2000 calories and 40 grams of fat. I’ve actually managed to keep my daily fat grams below 30 for a few weeks. That ain’t easy, so I’m fairly proud of this.

Anyway, yesterday: I was standing in the Bruegger’s order line, waiting my turn, and looking at the menu board. I saw the turkey chipotle club sandwich — turkey, bacon, lettuce, chipotle mayonaise. Bacon? My mind put that in the “protein” category. Unfortunately, because I was originally thinking of honey mustard on my sandwich, the “mayonaise” in the list of ingredients didn’t register with me. I read it as “chipotle mustard,” I guess.

I ordered the turkey chipotle club sandwich. It’s a bit bigger than the bagel sandwich, but I was hungry and just shrugged my shoulders. I ate the sandwich in my car and my hunger and taste was satisfied.

Later, when I went to write it in my diet journal, I had to look up this new sandwich on Brueggers.com.

• 800 calories
• 51g fat
• 57g carbs
• 31g protein

Holy shit! 51 grams of fat!? The 800 calories for a turkey sandwich is itself enough of a shock, but the 51 grams of fat is freakin’ astonishing. Fifty-one grams of fat!

It breaks my heart. It really does. I’ve been so good for so long, and been proud of myself for managing my diet so well, and then I do this. I stared at the nutritional info for a minute, just thinking, It was a turkey sandwich. It was just a turkey sandwich.

This is what happens when I go off my known menu. This is what happens when I let myself get hungry: I get mentally sloppy with what I choose to eat.

51 grams of fat in one freakin’ sandwich. A turkey sandwich. Hell, I could have just eaten a big burger or a slice of meat-lover’s pizza. What the hell kind of concentrated fat crap is in that chipotle mayonaise? It was good, but it wasn’t super good. It wasn’t almost-two-days-worth-of-fat-intake good.

Bullgrit