Good decisions at restaurants (and a couple bad choices)

Last night for Valentine's Day, we went to Takoda's. My go to food at restaurants is always a cheeseburger. I always get the fries too instead of a healthy side option. Last night, I decided that I was going to swap out the fries and swap the beef for chicken. I got a chicken breast sandwich on a multi grain roll. I skipped the mayo and some of the veggies, but kept the cheese. I can't remember what cheese it was, but I think it was provolone or something like that. I tried to get just cucumbers for the side, but they didn't have any. I then tried to get just grapes for the side, but they couldn't do that either. I ended up with a side salad. It had croutons and dried cranberries on it. I skipped the sunflower seeds. The salad was made out of some very colorful mixed greens. I should have taken a picture, but forgot to. I'm quite proud of my choices. My husband got mozzarella sticks for an appetizer. I love mozzarella sticks! I ate four of them! That was not a good idea though. I wish I had been stronger, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I still saved a ton of calories!

This morning, we went out for breakfast. This was hubby's idea. After eating the mozzarella sticks last night, I would have been content to just have some scrambled eggs or my mini fritattas. We went to IHOP. My standard breakfast there is to get the big sampler plate that has 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 sausage (but I swap for bacon), 2 bacon, 2 pieces of ham and hashbrowns (but I swap those for the red potatoes). That meal is well over 1,000 calories, so there was no way I was going to get that! I opted for one of the low calorie breakfasts. It came with scrambled egg substitute, fruit, turkey bacon and whole wheat toast. I don't like mixed fruit though so I swapped that and got a little more turkey bacon. I was dying for their seasoned red potatoes, so I swapped out my toast for that. Now, that second swap was a bad idea as far as nutrition goes. I got rid of toast which would probably have been around 150 calories and got 390 calorie seasoned red potatoes, but when you look at this and compare it to what I would have gotten, I was probably about half of my normal calories for breakfast. I also skipped the sugar filled juice and just stuck with water. Overall, this was a win even though I probably should have skipped the seasoned red potatoes. It was our last trip there for a long long time though, so I just couldn't skip the potatoes. I've been craving those potatoes for so so long now!

I forgot to take pics of dinner and breakfast, so instead, I'm posting some flower pics in honor of Valentine's Day.