Ten members dined tonight at the Atlantic Sea Grill in Acton. The food offers a good range of seafood choices and preparations, largely successful and moderately priced. Most all members made good choices and ended up with a colorful meal, such as salad, trout or bluefish or swordfish or a lobster presentation with a side dish of interesting green beans and onions. We ordered some steamed clams and simple steamed mussels as appetizers for the table, the former quite good, the latter needing a better light sauce. Everyone agreed after about two hours that they had eaten well and were pleasantly full without having consumed large quantities or highly caloric foods, and without dessert.
Two quick triumphs. One member tried olive oil with a baked potato and declared it to be an excellent substitute for his normal butter infusion (and dramatically less saturated fat and fewer calories). Another chose a Caesar salad rather than green salad, but specifically picked out the croutons contained therein without any prompting from me. I weighed the croutons afterward (the waitstaff distorted the evidence, so the exact weight is not certain) and believe they were not less than 1 oz nor more than 1.5 oz, which would be about 100-150 cal for bread crusts lightly soaked in oil. Overall, an excellent compromise for that member.
We had vigorous discussion around the table about food choices, exercise, and the continued usefulness of the group to support better behavior. Since I will be on vacation the first half of February and the next week was school vacation, we agreed that we would reconvene with an office meeting four weeks from tonight, on Tuesday, February 24. We also agreed to try to start at 7 p.m. going forward, rather than 7:30 p.m., to help several members’ family schedules. If members who did not attend tonight find that awkward, please comment below; I’ll get the message.
Finally, while most group members are now making better food choices most of the time, and usually limiting serious errors in eating, the most puzzling behavior remains those who know not only what to do, and why they should eat better, but also how to eat better with no loss in flavor or interest, but nevertheless consciously choose to make bad choices and sabotage themselves. Those who do so don’t have real insight as to why they do that, even when directly asked. Any thoughts are welcome. Please comment below.
See you all in four weeks in the office.
Before we left the meeting, I mentioned a website that is helping me with nutrition, called Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone. The link is http://www.dwlz.com. Dottie is a woman who lost wieight with Weight Watchers and has created this website to help others. I think it could be helpful to the group.
Also, there is another website http://www.hungry-girl.com with daily tips and tricks to help with weight loss. I am not as familar with this website, but I have heard that is very good.
Have a wonderful vacation and see you on the 24th. Amy 🙂