Choices At Ruby Tuesday's That Won't Haunt Me The Rest Of The Week

I went to lunch with my friend yesterday at Ruby Tuesday’s because we’d never been there before. As is my custom before I ever go out to eat, I looked up the restaurant’s website on the internet to see if they listed the nutritional content of the food on their menu. I love to do this anytime I’m going out to eat. I love that I can get on and plan a meal, log it into my food journal and stay on target; it’s saved my ass from falling off the wagon many a times. When I know the nutritional information for food at a restaurant then I’ll make as healthy choice as possible and rearrange my eating for the rest of the day to keep myself on plan. If I don’t know how many calories are in something I’ll eat a meal that’s really bad for me, figure that I’ve probably screwed up and then start planning the closest route between the restaurant and my house that will take me by a Dairy queen. Because I know I have those kinds of tendencies, being able to know how many calories are in an entrée has become very important to me. So anyways, before I left work I looked up the menu for Ruby Tuesday’s and picked out one or two options off of their Smart Eating menu. But when we went to order the waitress told me that the restaurant no longer offered any of the options I had picked out and that the chain was phasing out some of the healthier choice meals. I was really surprised! Most restaurants are making the move towards offering more “lighter choice” meals and it’s something I’m sure that I’m not alone in appreciating. Actually, just the fact that places are willing to make the nutritional makeup of their foods available is great. There are some days where I want to eat a meal that is calorically crap and that’s fine; at least make that information available to me so I can make that choice. So I ordered a steak and a side dish that I knew the calorie content for (they were some of the few items listed on the Smart Eating menu that hadn’t been phased out.) But I didn’t realize that the meal came with garlic bread and a gigantic baked potato drowning in butter and sour cream. I ate the steak and I ate the side dish and felt satisfied. But because I still have issues with leaving food on my plate (I just feel guilty wasting food) I had to resist the urge to finish the rest. In the end I gave the garlic bread and baked potato to my friend, I didn’t really want or need it and I wasn’t going to eat it simply because it was there. I ate what I wanted and not just to clean my plate. That’s a big achievement for me.