And the Results are In!

Three weeks later, or 46,105.28 calories and $357.99 later to be exact, the end of the first phase of this experiment is over.  That comes out to less than a penny per calorie, by the way!  So, how did I do?

Weight change was insubstantial. I weighed in approximately every three days, and there was a cumulative change of -0.91%. Interval changes ranged from -1.99% to +2.81%.  So, I guess that goes to show that you can eat exclusively at restaurants and not see a huge change in your weight! (You may see a huge change in your bank account though!) 

So, over the course of three weeks, we visited 41 different restaurants.  It comes as no surprise that the most calories were consumed from Starbuck's - a grand total of 6,579. Number two on the list was Ryan's - I had estimated the calories consumed at that buffet to be about 2,500, so it could be higher or lower than that...but probably not higher than Starbuck's!  Number three is Einstein Bros Bagels, four is Scotty's Brewhouse, and five is good ol' Mickey D's. 

Calorie intake by day ranged from 1,363 calories on day 3 (wow, that's low!) to 3,037 on day 20.  The high day is nearly entirely attributable to the Loaded Fries we shared as an appetizer at Scotty's Brewhouse. 2,836 calories in a full order!

So, where did the $357.99 go? Probably the places we ate the most calories at, right? Well, Starbucks is number one on this list - $91.62.  The rest are all a far cry from that... Next is Einstein Bagel ($17.70), La Scala ($16.75), The Cheesecake Factory ($15.00), and McDonald's rounds out the top five again ($14.93).  Keep in mind that these prices were apportioned out to represent only my spending. Francisco was participating in this experiment as well. We use https://www.mint.com/ to track our spending and budgets. If I run a query on our Mint records to look at our restaurant spending over the course of this experiment, the total that comes back is $613.55, and this only includes credit card transactions up to September 26th.  So, exclusively eating in restaurants...very, very pricey!! Definitely caused us to go over our monthly food budget. 

My most expensive day was Day 2, which included a pricey visit to La Scala - total for the day was $26.54.  Cheapest day was Day 7 at $6.10 - everything but breakfast was leftovers. 

Meijer produce section - a sight to behold!

We had breakfast for dinner last night at Bob Evan's - our last meal to wrap up the experiment. Then we stopped at Meijer to re-stock on some groceries. I will miss my morning Starbuck's Skinny Caramel Macchiato, and yeah, I will miss the convenience of having someone else prepare all our food for us. But I am looking forward to trying some new recipes and having lazy weekend mornings again!  And just in time, too...a co-worker brought in homemade apple crisp that I wouldn't have been able to eat just a day before...and Friday is Goodie Day at work....sooo bring on the homemade food!   

21 Days Later

21 days later...am I any wiser?  I mean, what was the point of this thing anyway, right? Well, I did learn a few things, but I really only attempted it as a personal challenge so I consider it a goal accomplished. I will weigh in with the final statistics later but for now, what are the take-away lessons?





Scotty's Brewhouse Loaded Fries:
Not a healthy appetizer ;-)


1. Restaurant portions are OUTRAGEOUS. Even something as simple as, say, a Homewrecker Burrito from Moe's has 870 CALORIES. And of course that always comes with a side of chips and people help themselves to the salsa bar, easily tacking on another 350 calories.  That's 1,200 calories in one meal!  We went to Moe's twice during this experiment - both times on a Monday when they have their $5.99 special - you get any burrito, chips, and a drink.  Both times we either shared the burrito or ate half and saved our other half for lunch the next day, bringing our total calorie intake to a much more tolerable 435. Again, that's just for the burrito.  So, I do highly advocate sharing a meal if you're going out to eat or at least planning on bringing leftovers home to have for a meal later on. 
2. Who needs drinks? Besides my morning coffee, you will not find a lot of beverages in my food journal for this experiment. There were a couple of glasses of wine and a smoothie or two, but those kinds of recordings were much more the exception than the norm. It is far too easy for people to overlook the calories in the drinks that come with their meals. It is a rare occasion that I go out to eat and have a beverage with my meal that isn't water. Heck, I know I'm going to be eating enough food as it is - I don't need any sneaky little calories in my beverage of choice. :-P 
3.  No miscellaneous snacking! One of the consequences of eating exclusively at restaurants is it eliminates the prospect of mindless snacking. It is no longer as simple as reaching into your junk food drawer when you're hungry or grabbing a couple of cookies from the kitchen. If you want food, you have to go out and get it - and sometimes that inconvenience factor is enough of a deterrent.  This was especially a big factor for Francisco as he realized just how much mindless snacking he was doing just out of boredom.
4. Planning is everything. There were days that I couldn't go out for lunch, so it was essential to plan the day ahead to make sure whatever I ordered left enough to eat the next day. Normally, I would always keep a "back-up lunch" in the freezer at work and I have my junk food drawer stocked if I need an additional snack. Without those options, planning become essential to make sure I had something to eat when I needed it. Of course, that's an essential lesson for every day life: Reese's does not make a healthy snack. ;-) 

I'm sure there are other things I realized - or ideas that were further cemented - over the course of this experiment, but this is a quick summary. There is just one final meal tonight, and the experiment will be over!  Time to re-stock the fridge!

A Weekend of Good Eats

Maza: Baked Goat Cheese
and Sambousek

Tomorrow wraps up the experiment. With the impending end, we made sure to have a weekend filled with good eats! Actually, Thursday deserves a mention in that regard as well. We stopped at Maza after work...one of the more unique restaurants in town. Its name draws from "mezze" in Lebanon/Turkey, "tapas" in spain, and "antipasti" in Italy, so its specialty is small dishes served as appetizers.  We ordered the Baked Goat Cheese, which we had tried before and enjoyed, and the Sambousek, a Lebanese dish.  Everything was very enjoyable, and we managed to squeeze in dessert, a delectable bread pudding.  My review for Maza is here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/maza-west-lafayette#hrid:CtTabJ_rvBtut0zIX14t8w/src:self.

Maza: Bread Pudding



Friday dinners nearly always end up being pizza in some variation. This Friday was a little different; we ended up stopping at a pizza place we had ordered from once before. The pizza we had had there was pretty unremarkable, but we decided to dine in and give them another shot. We shared a California sub, which came with spinach and feta and an order of cheese sticks. It was fairly cheap - around $11 for the both of us - and the food was really good.



Greyhouse Blueberry Ricotta Crepe

 



Jarocho's

Our plans got rained out Saturday, so we found ourselves at Greyhouse Coffee to start our day where we shared a Blueberry Ricotta crepe and I had a Creme Brulee latte. Usually their coffee is a little too bitter for me, but this time I asked for an extra shot of caramel, and it made a world of difference. This meal left us surprisingly full for most of the day, until we headed over to Jarocho's mid-afternoon for lunch. This was a fairly new Mexican restaurant in town - they had a rather small menu, but Francisco was a big fan of them. He pretty much dislikes every single other Mexican restaurant in town, so that's a plus.  

Taj Mahal lunch buffet plate

Taj Mahal dessert buffet plate

Sunday, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbuck's before heading over to the movie theater to catch an early showing of "Straw Dogs".  Afterwards, I finally relented to going to an Indian buffet with Francisco, and we headed over to Taj Mahal. Now, the nice thing about Indian buffets is I always feel like I eat less food than I would at a traditional buffet. But the not-so-nice thing is that I'm not terribly familiar with Indian food, so I couldn't even begin to gauge the calorie-count.  I made two trips each to the lunch table and dessert table. The main staple of the buffet is a white rice, and there are several different curry options to layer over the rice. All but two of them were vegetarian - definitely one of my favorite things about Indian food. There were only two options at the dessert buffet table. Francisco and I were really looking forward to the Gulab Jamun, which are deep-fried milk balls in a sugar syrup.  They are possibly the best dessert ever. We were dismayed to find that they didn't have those on the buffet. Instead we had rice pudding and some other kind of dessert that tasted similar to Gulab Jamun, but we're not quite sure what it is. I must say, Indian food is not the most aesthetically pleasing but it is certainly anything but bland. Our meal was very flavorful and yummy. While the lunch offerings can be a bit spicy, the dessert is usually milk-based, so it helps to soothe the palate.

Soon it's back to grocery lists and recipe planning and treks up and down supermarket aisles...I'm kind of looking forward to it. :-)

Day 16 - Copper Dog & Jane's Deli

Australia's Strange Fruit - Live Performance

Copper Dog Cafe Dinner

Yesterday, we stopped by the Union to see a performance of Australia's Strange Fruit. Very strange indeed.  As we waited for the performance to begin, we tossed around a few names of restaurants and ultimately decided on Copper Dog.  We ordered the Caraway Polenta with Braised Leeks for our entree, and the meal went well except for the shared plate charge we discovered at the end. Definitely one of my biggest restaurant pet peeves. You can read the full review here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/copper-dog-cafe-lafayette#hrid:AhEVZwvhqAvpE38yhJXpWg.

Zinfandel & Pinot Grigio

However, it was convenient that we happened to be there for W.O.W. - Wine on Wednesday, so we each got a complimentary glass of wine...which just cemented the fact that we're just not "wine people". We keep trying, but we still haven't found a wine that suits us.

Jane's Deli

For lunch today, we ended up at Jane's Deli, one of my favorite restaurants in town. I rarely end up eating there, however, because they are only open for lunch.We shared the egg salad sandwich platter with the fruit garnish and vegetarian potato salad.  Everything was yummy!! (Review is here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/janes-gourmet-deli-and-catering-lafayette#hrid:08sUTKoB5F-ZRCfzKiAnZg).

I was supposed to weigh in last night, but between Australia's Strange Fruit and dinner at Copper Dog, it got lost in the shuffle.  I weighed in this morning, and still no significant weight change (cumulative change = -1.22%). 

Time to head out and see what adventures await for dinner! 

Day 15 - One Week to Go



Boiler Market Lunch

 With only one week left of the experiment, I find myself wanting to be more adventurous in the restaurants we choose. Unfortunately, time doesn't allow for too much creativity. It is inevitably Starbuck's or some other fast food restaurant for breakfast since they are located right down the street. Lunch is usually a bit rushed since Francisco only has a small break between classes for us to squeeze in something. We usually walk somewhere on campus - today we walked over to the Boiler Market and shared the Garden Pasta and the Red Pepper and Gouda Soup. This order also came with two chocolate chip cookies, a piece of garlic bread, and a breadstick. Holy cow, that's a lot of food - even when you're sharing!  We would potentially have the most time for dinner, but on some nights, I don't get out of work until 6:00, and I have no desire to go sit at a restaurant for another two hours. We got a pizza Monday and finished that off for dinner yesterday, so we have yet to determine where we'll be eating tonight. 



Australia's Strange Fruit



We do plan to head over to see a presentation of "Australia's Strange Fruit" after work. It's actually our three and a half year anniversary - I know, that really doesn't count as an "official" anniversary, but I'll look for any excuse to celebrate - so maybe we'll see about heading somewhere a little nicer for dinner tonight.

However, the other issue that prevents us from being too creative is the fact that we live in West Lafayette, a college town not very well known for its restaurant variety. There is a decent enough selection, but having grown up right outside of Chicago, our restaurant options here leave something to be desired. 





Two Weeks Down!

Two weeks down and one more to go. 

This weekend I encountered the dreaded buffet on a family outing to celebrate my mom's birthday, which comes a day before my parents' wedding anniversary. They celebrate 27 years of being together this year. :) I spent the weekend in my hometown, which at least allowed for me to get a little more restaurant variety.  As far as the buffet went, I over-indulged like I was fairly certain I would. I had no intent to hold back. And this is why I try to just avoid buffets to the extent possible. However, with so many different palates in our family, it is often safer to go with an all-inclusive option like this. It usually causes the least amount of disagreement. I could have jotted down a list of every single item I wrote, and then painstakingly tallied up the calories after the fact, but I decided to just round out the calories for that meal to 2,500.  Considering my plate(s): macaroni and cheese, tacos, french fries, pizza, garlic bread, fudge, Oreo pudding, etc. - 2,500 might be somewhere in the ball park of what I actually consumed.

Two weeks in and there is a clear winner as far as most popular restaurant: Starbucks! In two weeks, I have consumed approximately 3,600 calories worth of Starbuck's fare, spending nearly $60 at the restaurant. That is a lot of money to be spending on breakfast, but they have fast service and a high-quality product, plus they're like a block away from my apartment, so they're a very convenient stop in the morning.   

I've averaged just over 2,000 calories a day, and I've spent about $16 a day. So, not a lot of difference from the week 1 checkpoint (http://21dayslater-tab.blogspot.com/2011/09/almost-through-week-one.html). No significant change in weight - in fact, my last weigh-in had me at exactly my pre-experiment weight.     

Food Myths

Monday's pitiful lunch

I was too weak from hunger to blog yesterday. ;-) It was a testament to how meaningful good planning can be. We had a busy weekend, so Monday morning snuck up on us too soon. I managed to get ready for work quickly enough so that I was able to accompany Francisco on his morning breakfast run. We stopped at Cafe Royale on campus and I grabbed a large caramel latte and an orange cranberry muffin. I needed to dump in about three extra sugars into my latte to make it more palatable. I intended to eat half the muffin for breakfast and half for a snack later in the day. Breakfast went fine. For lunch, Francisco had just sent me with the leftovers from Noodles & Co. from Friday. He had an exam that day and we weren't going to be able to dine together. It was a pitiful, pitiful lunch - I think Francisco had vastly overestimated just how much was left of my Whole Grain Tuscan Linguine. An hour later, I was positively starving, and I started picking at the other half of my muffin.

By the time work was over, it was all I could do not to shovel in the Mad Mushroom pizza we picked up. Usually, two slices of pizza is acceptable for me, and I'm good for the night. Yesterday, I polished off a couple of slices and then sent Francisco out to Burger King to pick up a strawberry-caramel sundae.

If I were dieting to lose weight, I obviously would have jeoparized my own intentions. Depriving yourself of calories can easily backfire and cause you to consume even more calories later in the day to make up for the deficit. In this case, I just hadn't planned out my meals properly, so I ended up gorging on pizza and ice cream later in the evening.

And we've all heard that eating at night causes weight gain, right? Wrong! A calorie is a calorie no matter when it's consumed.  The problem with eating at night is related to other factors. 

• If you save your largest meal for the end of the day, you may end up consuming larger portion sizes - this was my problem. I ate approximately the normal amount of pizza I would eat, but I didn't stop there. I then devoured an ice cream sundae, plus helped myself to a few generous spoonfuls of Francisco's brownie sundae.   
• The quality of food is important - most people who spend a long day at work or school are content to grab a burger and some fries rather than invest a little more time to whip up something more nutritional. Pizza and a sundae? Not the highest quality. 
• Mindless snacking is also a common issue that tends to crop up at night. Evenings spent watching TV can easily lead to the consumption of excess calories. Luckily, our restaurant experiment limits how much mindless snacking we can do. 

Another common food myth is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. There's a lot of logic to this - it seems evident that the meal we choose to break our fast would be of paramount importance. Waking up, we're coming off roughly eight - twelve hours of fasting, and a nutrient dense meal should be just the thing to jumpstart our day. True. But breakfast really is no more important than any other meal of the day. 

A satisfying, healthy breakfast can set you up to make smarter decisions throughout the day since you won't be starving by the time lunch rolls around.  Breakfast affects your mental and physical performance throughout the day, but you still need to be making healthy meal choices for lunch and dinner. It is more important that you listen to your body and eat when you are hungry - don't force yourself to down a bowl of Wheaties in the morning. Personally, I wake up around 6:00 AM on a normal workday, exercise for roughly a half-hour, then shower and get ready for work. I don't have my morning coffee until 8:00 AM and I don't eat my breakfast until about 10:00 AM. This system works for me, but everyone's body is different.  By the time I start drinking my morning coffee, I have been fasting for over 12 hours.   

Are there any other food myths out there that affect how you plan your meals??

Day 10 - Restaurants, Old and New

Noodles & Company Penne Rosa and Whole Grain Tuscan Linguine

Quizno's Broccoli & Cheese Soup and Veggie Sub



Shaukin Indian Fast Food - Chaat Platter

The experiment is still trucking along. We've had lots of familiar foods, like Quizno's and Noodles & Company, but we've also branched out and tried new places that we haven't been before. One place we recently stumbled upon was Shaukin Foods, a new restaurant featuring roadside Indian fast food. One of the dishes we had was a bit too spicy for me, but it was good over all.  Even if a food experience goes awry, I am usually content just to have tried something new. For instance, we had dinner at Taqueria el Maguey on Wednesday, which was housed in an old KFC building. We didn't let that deter us but the fact that they got our order wrong and overcharged us will likely discourage us from returning again. Not the best experience, but eh, I tried something new, so I'll let it go. 

I once prided myself on having visited every single restaurant in town.  After moving to West Lafayette, that was one of my goals in the first year.  300+ restaurants later, I could give myself a big pat on the back for wiping out that goal. Of course, that didn't last long. Restaurants are commonly known to have a high failure rate, with many sources quoting statistics like "nine out of ten restaurants fail in the first year." That statistic has never actually been verified, and it looks like the restaurant industry has closer to a 60% failure rate (http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2007/sb20070416_296932.htm). The fact of the matter is that an average consumer will witness a lot of restaurants opening and closing each year in their community.  The most practical reason is that there are low barriers to entry and exit. It's relatively easy to start a restaurant, and if you find yourself not performing as successfully as you had hoped, it's relatively easy to close up shop and walk away.  So, alas, I can no longer say that I've been to every restaurant in town since that was only true in 2008. At least twelve have since closed, and at least eighteen have since opened. 

This weekend I am going to my hometown to celebrate my mom's birthday and my parents' 27-year anniversary. Our most recent birthday tradition has been gathering the family to go stuff ourselves at a buffet, which is something I nearly always regret afterwards. Since we are thinking of going to the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City, we will likely end up gorging ourselves on food at Ryan's buffet.  Earlier this week, I had asked Francisco if he was going to bake mom a cake since he's become quite the accomplished baker. He responded that it would be pure torture to create a cake and watch everyone else eat it and not be able to have any. I had to laugh out loud because I had completely forgotten that we wouldn't be able to eat the birthday cake - unless it came from a restaurant! 



Junk Food Drawer

 After I got back to work from lunch at Penn Station, I pulled out my vitamins that I take daily. I store these in my junk food drawer at work. These are mostly just various snack items I have collected and stashed away for when I get hungry at work and need an extra snack.



Contents of my junk food drawer at work



Actually, most of these items have been collected from various sensory tests that I've participated in for the Food Sciences department on campus. Purdue runs a sensory lab where they test out new food products or conduct comparison tests.  Some of the tests I've participated in in the past few months include: Mrs. Fields Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies, Greek Yogurt, Cake, Pizza, and Flavored Water. Basically, you arrive at the sensory lab, plop yourself in front of an empty computer, then push the button that prompts them to slide up a little trapdoor in the wall and provide you with whatever food you are sampling for the day. You evaluate the product based on appearance, consistency, taste, texture, and other relevant factors and fill out the accompanying survey. Once you've submitted the survey, you get to collect a treat from the table as your reward. As evidenced by my junk food drawer, treats include Reese's, Oreo's, Combos, gum, and other snacks. 

So, in addition to my normal daily meals, I'll occasionally - for the good of science, mind you - end up eating a couple pieces of cake or donuts, plus picking up another unhealthy treat to save for later. 

Now, Francisco and I debated whether sensory tests could be part of our three week plan. They are providing us ready-to-eat food after all, but they are by no means a restaurant. My vote was nay, and that's a decision we've stuck with.

Decisions like that are what has led to the realization of possibly the largest benefit of this experiment: no more mindless snacking. For most people, that is where the calories tend to pile on anyway. Snacks have to be pre-planned since I can't just pop open my junk drawer and grab a Reese's. This morning, I had half of a Starbuck's iced lemon pound cake for breakfast and saved the other half for an afternoon snack. I was still kind of hungry after eating my snack. On a normal day, I might have grabbed something else out of my drawer. Fortunately, the constraints of this experiment forbid me from doing that, and I realized I didn't need anything more after all.   

I'm sure many of us have heard that you should slow down and savor your food if you are trying to control your weight. Why is that? It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to realize your stomach is full. If you eat more slowly, you start to recognize the signs that your body is full before you reach that unpleasant "stuffed" state. 

Almost Through Week One

12,641 calories and $114 later, I'm almost through the first week. I'm midway through Tuesday, so I still have calories to consume, so I'm looking at closer to 13,414 by the time the day is over. There is also a charge for Burger King for yesterday's breakfast that I haven't seen hit my credit card statement yet, so let's say $120.00.

That means I've spent about $17 per day on food, which would average $5.70 for each of the three main daily meals. I'm averaging about 1,900 calories per day, or 638 for each of the main daily meals.  My initial reaction to these statistics is not very positive.  However, I weighed in last night and it looks like I have a cumulative weight change of -2.58%. I literally got on and off the scale a half-dozen times easy because I didn't believe the number. I thought for sure that our indulgence at the Cheesecake Factory was going to lead to a weight gain of a pound or two. 

Looking at our regular monthly budget for restaurants and groceries, we allow ourselves approximately $17 per day to spend on food.  So, I have been spending about $17 a day for just my food; when you add in Francisco's food, we're spending probably close to twice our usual monthly allowance. There is a convenience cost when it comes to buying food at a restaurant vs. buying the ingredients at a grocery store and preparing the meal yourself. Our spending is more than I would like it to be, so I plan to take greater advantage of restaurant specials and coupon specials. 

There are many different calorie calculators with varying degrees of accurary.  The calculator available here, http://www.kriskris.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-a-day/, looks at the following variables:

1. Current weight
2. Age
3. Gender
4. Height
5. Activity level.

According to this calculator, my average daily calorie need is 1,810 calories. That puts me pretty close to being on target. At 1,900 average daily calories, I am consuming about 5% more than I need to be.  Bear in mind that this is the amount of calories I would need to consume to maintain my current weight. Fad diets aside, it all boils down to "calories in, calories out".

Perhaps a more helpful number to look at is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). It sounds complicated, but basically it is just the number of calories you burn by just being alive on a daily basis. As this briefly explains, http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/, you use energy even when you are sleeping, so BMR is just the amount of energy you need to consume to keep your body functioning normally. According to this calculator, I have a BMR of 1,399.1.  This website also offers an alternative way to calculate your total daily calorie needs using the Harris Benedict Equation. After you calculate your BMR, determine your appropriate activity factor. Personally, I exercise for 20-35 minutes every weekday morning, so I could consider myself to be moderately active. The formula for this would be, http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/:

1,399.1 x 1.55 = 2,168.61 

Why the difference between this calculation and my earlier calculation? Activity level. I picked Lightly strenuous exercise the first time around. When I went back and adjusted to Moderately strenuous, the results were much more similar. So, maybe I'm not that far off with total calories consumed after all... 

So Ends the First Weekend

So, the weekend had its plusses and minuses. We ordered a large thin crust mushroom pizza from Monical's on the way home from work Friday and ate that as we watched Battle: Los Angeles.  We contemplated having dessert but that would have obviously entailed another trip out so we decided it wasn't worth it. 

Plus: We didn't have dessert and saved ourselves from calories since it would have required an additional trip.



We had decided to go down to Indianapolis and have another shopping day on Saturday. As Francisco pointed out, this has been the third weekend in a row we've gone shopping, so he's being driven positively batty...But I had this fantastic coupon for Soma, my new favorite store, that I didn't want to see go to waste, so I wanted to make sure we made it there before it expired.

Delicious coffee drinks from Einstein!



Generally, on a weekend morning, we start a pot of coffee then put on a TV show or watch part of a movie while we drink our morning coffee.  After about 45 minutes or so, we peel ourselves off the couch and gradually get showered and ready to begin the day.  With no morning coffee to enjoy, sitting on the couch and watching TV had little appeal as I just wanted to go out and get my coffee! We got ready to go, went to Einstein Bros. Bagel for breakfast, then headed south to Indy.

Minus: No more sllooww weekend mornings.

Plus: No more slow weekend mornings - got up and got the day going!

Fried Macaroni & Cheese and Skinny Grilled Artichoke

Now as soon as Francisco had heard me mention going to Indy, the first thing that popped into his mind was "The Cheesecake Factory"!  I tried to persuade him to think about other restaurants that we don't normally go to - or at the very least to reduce the number of items we ordered - since this restaurant is rather pricey in terms of both money and calories - and we managed to reach some kind of compromise, sort of.  He agreed that we didn't each need to get a slice of cheesecake. :-P So, we headed over for a late lunch after leaving Keystone Crossing and before shopping at the Fashion Mall.  As always, we had our obligatory minimum 5-10 minute wait to be seated.  I already knew that I wanted the Fried Macaroni and Cheese Balls, my absolute favorite thing on their menu - possibly over any of the desserts as well!  We tried to pick something light to go with that appetizer, so we checked out their new "Skinny" menu and opted for the grilled artichoke. This was something I had never tried before, and it was pretty tasty - although just as difficult to eat as I had always suspected. Also, there are usually two small loaves of bread that come to your table to munch on while you wait for your food. I had a slice of each while we waited, so I was plenty full by the time we polished off all that food.



Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake = 1,000+ Calories



Saturday shopping spree!



I had pretty much convinced Francisco that we should just go and finish shopping and possibly stop back for a piece of cheesecake to go prior to driving home. Then the waitress appeared and plopped two menus down in front of us, "Are you ready for the best part?" We were helpless to resist. We ended up with a slice of Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake. It was very, very good - but very, very bad. Especially after I got home and checked out the calorie information. For just my portion of the meal alone, I probably had close to 2,000 CALORIES. That is unbelievable. As I checked up on my all-time favorite appetizer of fried mac and cheese, I found a site that said, "you're better off eating a stick of butter" - since that appetizer clocks in at 1,570 calories.  Our cheesecake totaled close to 1,200 calories on its own.  We generally share food when we go out to eat, especially at places like this, but even sharing we were looking at a grotesque amount of calories.  What about the people who go in and order separate entrees and separate pieces of cheesecake? Do they have to roll them out of the restaurant? I understand the value of a "special treat", indulging in gourmet food at a restaurant you don't normally visit, but this is definitely not something to make a habit of.  We finished our shopping, burning off some of those calories as we hiked through the mall - I ended up with a decent haul and even got some books from Borders for a $1 each at what was possibly the last store location of this soon-to-be-extinct bookstore in Indiana. 



Panera Bread: Cinnamon Crunch Bagel
with Honey Walnut Cream Cheese



Sunday morning began similarly to the previous morning. Got up and got ready to go. We headed over to Panera Bread for breakfast then over to the movie theater to see Contagion. Given our current experiment, our choice in viewing entertainment might have been given more careful consideration.  Contagion is about a 'super-bug' that spreads worldwide, infecting most people who come into contact with it.  Now, an infected person could easily pass on their germs by preparing food in a restaurant without taking proper precautions. Plus, just being in a restaurant around other people puts one at a greater exposure to germs and increases the risk that you might catch something. 

Silver Dipper: Banana Split

We grabbed lunch afterwards at McAlister's Deli where we shared a Four Cheese Griller and some potato salad then headed home so Francisco could work on some homework. For dinner we polished off our leftovers from earlier in the week: La Scala and Monical's. We decided the trip out for dessert was worth it so we grabbed a banana split at Silver Dipper. 

 

I weighed in Friday night to see if there had been any significant change and there was a slight decline in my weight of 0.61%.  That represents a loss of less than one pound so that is likely due to just normal weight fluctuations. Although after this weekend, I wouldn't be surprised to see a more significant change in my next weigh-in. ;-) The most calories in this experiment so far were consumed on Saturday, which included that fateful visit to the Cheesecake Factory. The entire day totaled over 2,600 calories, 20% more than the next highest day. 

Day 3 - Wrapping up the End of the Work Week

Lemoncello Tart

Francisco opted for La Scala for our evening meal, an Italian restaurant downtown that he's never been to (I've been there a handful of times for work). We actually had tried to stop there once at some point, but the wait was like an hour so we went elsewhere. The food was pretty yummy, but we ate way too much of it. We had some yummy Breaded Ravioli for an appetizer and the Tortellini a la Scala for the entree - which came with bread and olive oil and a side salad. Then we ordered the Lemoncello Tart for dessert.

We got into that restaurant mentality which can be hard to break. You know, the kind of mentality where you decide to go to a restaurant but you reason with yourself that you can't just order one thing because the waitstaff will think you're cheap. Plus, you're there for a little bit of indulgence, so you might as well get that dessert. And, hey, who knows when you might be back again anyway?  So, we basically consumed a full days' worth of calories in that one meal, plus that meal cost just about as much as we had spent in total the day before. 

Come to think of it, that was the first full-service restaurant we ventured into for this experiment. I guess that's something we'll have to watch out for and try to keep our spending - and calorie count - in control when we're at that type of venue. 

Starbucks again for breakfast today and we shared a quesadilla at the Fiesta Mexican Grill. Francisco will be choosing three restaurants tonight, and I'll make the final selection. So far I've heard the following tossed around: Olive Garden, Pizza Hut, Indian Buffet (he looooves Indian food but I rarely concede to go with him), Rice Cafe, Bruno's...we'll see what he's narrowed it down to. 

The weekend begins tomorrow, so we'll see if the extra freedom that provides makes this experiment easier, hmmm. 

Day 2



The perfect way to start the day...



Starbucks for breakfast this morning. I had a Skinny Caramel Macchiato, which was sooo yummy - and only 100 calories! I only got in a couple of sips while it was still hot though, unfortunately. My new account clerk started working today - yay, I've only been trying to get someone hired since like MAY - so I had to make sure she was settled in for the morning. I didn't get to finish my coffee until 9:30 and then I ate a Deluxe Fruit Blend cup. I realized I had gotten no fruit in my diet yesterday, so I was trying to make up for that. Unfortunately, there were some big hunks of cantaloupe and honeydew - I'm not a big melon person - but I choked 'em down anyway. 

Good as new!

I microwaved my leftover ziti from Fazoli's and scarfed that down for lunch, feeling significantly hungrier than I had the day before at this time. Well, that's what happens when your breakfast contains a quarter of the calories than you ate the day before. I was stuck at work for lunch anyway since my car was in the shop to get a new front bumper - that's been on my to-do list for a while. I hit a snowbank in December 2007 not two weeks after I purchased the car and put a pretty sizeable dent in the front end.  It was just cosmetic damage, so I dragged my feet on paying for the repairs.

Speaking of paying, I realized that yesterday I had posted that my total cash spent for the day on food was $15. This didn't seem bad - about $5 a meal, plus part of a meal that I planned to eat the next day. However, this didn't include the money that was spent for Francisco's food, which would bring the total up to $30. What if we ate like that all month? $30 a day x 30 days = $900 on food...that's a little more than I'd be comfortable spending...

At the moment, I am completely dragging. At this point in the afternoon, I would be considering walking to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of Diet Coke that I always try to remember to keep on hand. Well, that's not an option. I ate half of a pumpkin scone from Starbucks for my mid-afternoon snack, but I am soo looking forward to getting out of work and getting some food.  

Today, I decided to make a list and I'll give Francisco three options as to where he would like to eat: La Scala (Italian), La Bamba (Mexican), or Copper Dog (mostly vegetarian). Maybe it will be easier if we kind of narrow our options like this and pass responsibility.  Of course he'll inevitably pick pizza everyday. ;-)

Day 1

So, day 1 began with Francisco running out to McDonald's to pick up breakfast in an attempt to save time while I was getting ready for work. He brought home a small Caramel Latte for me and a Vanilla one for himself along with 2 hashbrowns and 2 Egg McMuffins.  That was probably a little more food than I needed to start the day.  All in all, my calorie count for breakfast was near 700. Generally, I consume about half as many calories in the morning. I'll usually have coffee with creamer - prepared at home and taken in to work in a travel mug - and some yogurt with fruit for breakfast around 10:00 AM.


For lunch, we walked over to Potbelly on campus in my deceptively comfortable-looking sandals. I had a blister forming by the time I got back to work. We shared a Skinny Mushroom Melt - in an attempt to make-up for that extravagant breakfast. ;-) We also grabbed a couple bags of chips to eat as snacks later. I usually take a break at work around 3:00 PM and munch on something then, but when 3:00 rolled around, I wasn't terribly hungry. I ate half of a bag of Baked! Lay's - bringing the afternoon calorie count up to 310, which is about average for me if not a little less. 

I am definitely one of those people who can spend too much time mulling over where I want to go to eat. So, the afternoon was punctuated with various text messages between me and Francisco.

Him: Fazoli's?
Me: Anywhere Mexican sound good?
Him: Don Pablo's? How good is Mexican leftovers?
Me: Depends on what it is...
Him: Well, pick one.
Me: Copper Dog?
Me: Sgt. Preston's?

He was in class by this point so I never got a response, but we ended up going with his original suggestion of Fazoli's once we left Purdue. I ordered the cheesy baked ziti and he ordered the fettucine alfredo. We both intended to just eat half so we could save the rest of our meal to have for lunch the next day. And I somehow managed to restrain myself and only eat two breadsticks.


That's a sign that's nice to see.



Total calories for the day were around 1,700, and I spent a total of about $15.00 on my meals (Francisco's not included). Not bad, eh?



The Rules

The rules are relatively simple: all food or drink consumed within the next three weeks must be procured from a restaurant. However, as we geared up for this experiment, we realized that there were still a couple of kinks to iron out. For instance, what is a restaurant?


Dictionary.com defines a restaurant as "an establishment where meals are served to customers", http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/restaurant. So, this will include fast-food restaurants, fast-casual restaurants, full- and limited-service restaurants, ice cream shops, coffee shops, and the like.


What won't be included? We mulled this one over for a while as we thought about some of the "almost-restaurants". For instance, Papa Murphy's, home of the take and bake pizza, http://www.papamurphys.com/WhatIsTakeNBake, is not included. For our purposes, a restaurant must prepare or provide food that is ready to eat when served. While I suppose you COULD take a bite out of their pizza once they pass it over the counter to you, I wouldn't recommend it.


Food does not have to prepared on the premises - a pre-packaged bag of Doritos or bottle of soda is fine. The key here is that it must be bought from an establishment that fits into the categories of approved restaurants.  Stopping at BP and buying a bag of chips is not allowed since the main purpose of BP is to be a gas station/convenience store NOT a restaurant. 


Eating leftovers - from a previously visited restaurant - is fine, and will likely be essential with our somewhat chaotic schedules. 


Adding condiments from home is not allowed.


What do you think? Are there any issues we're overlooking? Any rules that should also be included? 

UPDATE: I realized there was a key exception I overlooked. Water. Bottled water is the only planned exception.

Day 0

Last night we did a quick sweep of the refrigerator to see what food we needed to finish up - i.e. what food likely wouldn't be good three weeks from now. We had a nearly full carton of eggs, some sour cream, some ricotta cheese, two nearly empty bags of shredded cheese, half a tomato, and some milk - both regular and almond.We decided to create a "taco egg...surprise(?)" entree using all of the above mentioned ingredients plus some taco seasoning for flavor. (We had also had some hard taco shells we planned to use, but realized they were stale after we'd already come up with our dinner plan.) It didn't turn out half-bad. For dessert, we tried to finish up some tiramisu ice cream that will likely not taste very good three weeks from now. 

For breakfast that morning, I had braved some old instant coffee packets we had sitting around in a kitchen drawer and attempted to finish up the coffee creamer we still had in the refrigerator. We had run out of fresh coffee the week before and didn't want to buy and open a fresh package since it would just be sitting there and lose its freshness over the next few weeks.  Plus, I had finished up a container of yogurt mixed with some blueberries and homemade fruit syrup, so all of the "immediately perishable" items were cleared out of the house. 

Three Weeks: The Idea

There is little that I enjoy more than a good challenge. I love experiencing new things - and challenging yourself to alter your lifestyle can ultimately be very rewarding. You gain insight into your true level of commitment, dedication, and character.

What if you had to live on minimum wage for 30 days ? Or live in prison for four weeks? Oh, wait, Morgan Spurlock already did this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437696/. Can you survive such a drastic change to your accustomed lifestyle? Those are pretty extreme changes...

What about smaller life changes, a la A.J. Jacobs, http://www.ajjacobs.com/books/my_life_as_an_experiment.asp? A.J. puts a more light-hearted spin on the concept of trying new things, expanding your horizons, and ultimately becoming a human guinea pig by taking on a number of radical lifestyle experiments. He outsources his life, devotes himself to the Radical Honesty movement, and gives up multi-tasking, among other things.

So, my idea isn't entirely novel, but...spurred on by my desire to experience new things and an admiration of Morgan Spurlock and A.J., I've decided to try my own little lifestyle experiment. For three weeks, I will adopt a change in lifestyle. I will devise a set of rules at the beginning that are to be follwed; I will attempt to foresee any challenges that might interfere with the format of my plan. I will track any variables that are directly related to the lifestyle change and see how those are ultimately impacted.

After thinking long and hard about what change I can make to my lifestyle to launch this experiment, I've decided to start with restaurants. For 21 days, I will only eat food that is procured from a restaurant. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks in between must come from a restaurant. This is challenging but not overwhelmingly so. I work Monday-Friday, approximately 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, so squeezing in runs for breakfast and lunch could prove to be a challenge. It can even sound appealing (yes, I get to eat out all the time!), but what about those days you just want to go home from work and stick a pizza in the over? Or Sunday mornings when you have no desire to go out but you need to eat breakfast at some point?

Also, will I gain weight from eating out all the time? How much more money will I be spending? Ah, these are the variables I will need to track: weight change, calorie intake, money spent.

So, does anyone have any thoughts on my lifestyle experiment? I'm set to start Phase I tomorrow on Wednesday, September 7, 2011.