Eating at Applebees

02/08/17 256.4 lbs

Resturaunts do a lot to keep their healthy eating customers happy. There's usually a low calorie menu, with quite a few options. And a more savy diner knows what to substitute to to bring down the calories from particularly carbed-out sources. Applebee's is no exception. You can eat very healthy at Applebee's if you try.

But no one expects a chicken salad to be the biggest culprit of processed sugars on the menu.  But people should know better with the Oriental Chicken Salad--when a salad is not on the calorie-friendly menu, you better figure out where it is packing calories.  

One tablespoon of the dressing is 175 calories! There is no reason for a dressing to carry that much sugar in it! And you get 5-6 tablespoons on the whole salad. A meal should be between 400-600 calories, ideally, but being a little over is fine. You wate the whole meal's worth on the dressing! That is insane.

But if you really must have the salad (it's on their 2-for- $20, but there is a lighter fare option on that same menu),  there are ways to bring that count down.

1. Do the dressing on the side. Either litghtly dip each bite in, or only use one tablespoon of the sauce.
2. Do the asian croutons on the side, only use what you must to keep the taste authentic.
3. Trade out the fried chicken for grilled.
4. Ask for the boneless chicken wings grilled, and sauce on the side. (Yes, this comes with another whole meal, calorie-wise, in the 2 for $20.)
5.And if you want a different dressing and could do without the croutons, just get a different salad, where you don't have to modify everything. (Frankly, it's what I should have done, me.)

You will still go over by a several hundred calories, with this meal, but my best eatimate after looking at all the removed calories, I logged my meal as 729 calories, and my apetizer as about 282 on Lose It!

The program I am on, aims for around 1200 calorie days, which is fine. Most days, it don't bother me. The Lose It! app allows me to go much higher: around 1750 to lose weight. So, I figure that on the rare times I fail to do 1200 because of a bad choice, if I can keep it under the other, then I likey haven't blown the whole week's work on one day.

But, when you have been avoiding processed sugars and simple carbs like the plague, and you already have unpleasent reactions to them. Sugar inflames the veins and joints, and causes quite a bit of pain. The veins under my tongue swole up like I was pregnant again--which left me nauaeous. And of course, the sugary jitters. And the aftermath today? Pain and exaustion. My own body was playing Conan the Barbarian on me.

For me, that's a meal I should not eat again. It's not worth underperforming the next day.