Eating out...101.

Saturday, April 10, 2010


“I’m having the pork fried rice and a couple of egg rolls,” I said to Holly’s mom. We were eating at PF Chang’s and the place was slammed. Good for them.

“But you don’t have any meat there. Here…have some of my chicken,” she said as she dropped a couple of pieces of the deep-fried delicacies into my rice. You couldn’t see the pork in my rice and I think she thought I wasn’t really eating if I didn’t have any meat.

“Thanks…but there’s pork in here…somewhere.”

It’s hard to watch the calories at a restaurant…not that I work it too hard. I don’t go out that often, so I figure to eat what I want. I didn’t take any appetizers, and I’ve never seen bread in a Chinese restaurant, so no worries there. I turned to speak to Holly and when I looked back at my rice, there was another hunk of chicken in it. At this rate, I’d be eating all of mom’s dinner. Cool. I liked hers better than mine.

I managed to eat every spec of rice…I don’t mess with the chop sticks since that only slows me down and makes me drop food heading for my mouth. I did give Holly the last bite of my egg roll, though. Very out of character, but it probably saved me 50 calories. The waitress came by with a tray full of desserts to see if she could entice us. I was thinking about it until she started putting her hands all over the different selections as she described them.

Everyone at the table was ordering, but when she got to me, I had to decline.

“Even if you used hand sanitizer, I’m not eating stuff you’ve had your hands all over,” I said.

“It’s plastic,” she replied.

“Well for sure I’m not eating it, then.” Holly looked at me. She thinks I’m weird.

I mean even if it was real – it was a rip-off. They were serving this one dessert that she said was apple pie in this little shot glass. They gave you a baby spoon to eat it, but come on – I’d have still finished it in two bites! And it was $2. That’s a dollar a bite…fuhget about it. I’m thinking they made an apple pie in the kitchen, lined up about 50 of these shot glasses, and shoved a smidge into each one. That’s printing money - $100 for one apple pie.

So…no…no dessert, either.

I’d gone to the Metropark that morning to drop Jack off for track practice – a run in the park. Dakota came along and the two of us went for a hike while Jack was running. We managed to get in about 70 minutes of hiking off-trail and I managed to work up a decent sweat. I still had plans for a long bike, so this was just bonus time.

Except the bike never happened. Once I returned home, Holly and I snuggled up to our taxes and that was that until I had to pick up Heidi from downtown Cleveland and then on to PF Chang’s. This actually was just what I needed…a day of rest from a really hard workout. It had been a couple of weeks since my complete day off and although I’d hiked, my body needed a day when I wasn’t pushing.

Oh…and Chinese food doesn’t stick with me. By the time I got home from the restaurant, I was hungry. I grabbed the left over piece of pizza Jack and Heidi had eaten for dinner and ate the remains of the Breyer’s vanilla with Natural Bean Specks smothered in chocolate sauce. If I don’t eat it – Jack will – and he’s in training. I’m only doing my parental part…what a dad.

Hike duration: 70 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 70

Calories burned during workout: 450