The Week Ahead

I've got some challenges, food-wise in the week ahead.  It's that time of year for Christmas parties, Christmas lunches and just general tastiness.  Next week that will all coalesce for me into a lot of good food and a lot of extra calories to dodge.

I have the campus staff drop-in on Tuesday afternoon.  This annual event is famous in my mind for one thing: Peppermint Hot Chocolate.  That's just hot chocolate with actual ground up peppermint sticks spooned into it, but man, it is good.  I've been known to put away several cupfuls of it, but I know now that they are several hundred calories a piece.

Wednesday I have a goodbye luncheon for a coworker who is retiring. We're ordering in food from a local Vietnamese restaurant.  I'm not very familiar with the restaurant or Vietnamese food in general.  Perhaps I can order something healthy, but I just don't know much about it right now.

My office will be lunching at the Cheesecake Factory in celebration of Christmas on Thursday.  This place has both good food and, of course, amazing cheesecake. I will not say no to cheesecake this Thursday.

So, after a very successful week this past week, I'm nervous about the upcoming events.  I've been mulling it over and I've come up with a plan of sorts.
1) I will eat only fruit at the Tuesday drop-in.  They should definitely have fruit.  While a cup or two of hot chocolate would not be a horrible thing another time, this week I think I need to forgo it because of the calorie splurge I will be having later in the week.
2) I'm not sure what to do about the lunch on Wednesday. Their menu is online, but they're nutrition info is not.  I will just have to make an educated guess as to what is healthy.
3) Thursday I will be over my calorie count, but I'm okay with that.  I am going to eat cheesecake, but I will either split the slice with someone or take at least half of it home (true, this does mean I will still be eating it, but I'm thinking its better to space the calories out over a couple of days if possible).  In anticipation of the cheesecake, I think I'll try and save half of my meal as well. There is nutrition info online for Cheesecake Factory, so I should be able to make a wise choice.

The other meals of the week will be home made, and I should still be able to get all of my workouts completed.  It's Red, Green and Bling week in group exercise, which means that class participants are encouraged to dress in the colors of the season for our last week of workouts before the holidays.  Should be lots of fun!

Here's to hoping all my good work this week is not undone!