Last Saturday night, husband and I were fortunate enough to have a night sans children. To be honest, it doesn’t happen very often. We finally decided around 6:00pm that we wanted to go somewhere to watch the Iowa-Penn State game (Go Hawks!) and it started at 7:00.
We debated where to go to dinner, and ended up decided to sacrifice a quality meal and went instead for the quick factor. I’m all about avoiding fast food restaurants now, so we decided to get Chinese food. I took an incredible amount of time to see what items would be the most Weight Watcher friendly, and had it all planned out. I would still be able to enjoy my Chinese food, especially knowing I had enough points to cover the meal.
When we first arrived at the strip mall Chinese food establishment, we were the only customers there. It was a nice quiet meal, and the conversation was new to us, because there were no kids to interrupt us.
About 15 minutes into our meal, a man walked in. This guy was big. HUGE. His pants were struggling to hard to stay up, he required the help of a belt AND suspenders. He was alone, and I could tell by the way he was talking to the employees there that he’d been there before.
He seemed like a nice man, and I felt bad for him that he was eating alone. He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, and he just was very quiet and kept to himself. It was so quiet in the restaurant that we couldn’t help but hear what he was ordering for dinner:
1 order of 6 crab rangoons
1 order of 6 egg rolls
1 order of General Tso’s Chicken
1 order of fried rice
Now I’m no expert, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out why he was as big as he was. Judging his meal from a Weight Watchers standpoint, it breaks down like this:
6 crab rangoons = 27 points
6 egg rolls = 25 points
General Tso’s chicken = 13 points
Fried Rice = 18 points
That’s EIGHTY-THREE POINTS on one meal. ONE meal. Over 3,800 calories and nearly 100 grams of fat. While I have never gone that overboard on a meal, I sat there and reflected on my own habits, and how ignorant I was about what I consumed on a daily basis. On the weekends, it is not unusual for us to eat out for lunch and dinner, simply because we are always on the go. And every time I begin Weight Watchers, I am appalled (even sickened) at how many points make up the foods I’d been eating. While I may not be destined to end up like this man we saw at the restaurant, I could clearly see what I have done in my past to get me (physically) to where I am today.
I can sit and watch “The Biggest Loser” and relate to the contestants. I can cry when they cry, laugh when they laugh, and be drawn towards some more than others. But this was a real life person we encountered, on a crash course to bad health and most likely, death. I felt sad for him and the condition he was in, but then sickened and disgusted knowing that he put himself in that position.
I need to start eating better.
I need to start taking better care of myself.
I need to change.
Sidenote: I had my first weigh-in today at my Weight Watchers meeting. I lost 1.6 pounds. Go ME!
