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Yesterday was a big day for me—and no—not because of St. Patty’s Day (though I must say, I do love wearing green!)
March 17th was Addison’s and my three-year anniversary. WHOO! I was so excited. And he was so sweet. He offered to cook me a dinner that was on the Jump Start Diet meal plan. But after a lot of contemplating, I decided we should go out to eat like we originally had talked about.
Yes, I’m dedicated to this diet, but if I obsess about food and drive myself crazy until I’m miserable trying to live absolutely “perfectly”…what’s the point? This journey is about me regaining control of my life, not letting food or insecurities control me.
So, I was going to eat out and enjoy myself with the love of my life. No regrets. I looked at it this way: Three years of an incredible relationship. Losing 9.5 lbs so far. I’ve earned a day with some leeway.
You can be healthy and live the life you want. That’s my goal at least. So I decided that while I have some leeway, I wouldn’t go crazy even though we went to my favorite Italian restaurant.
Uh oh. You may say. Italian food? How can you make that healthy? Well along with eating a lighter lunch than
usual, I established for myself two sides to the spectrum of Italian cuisine to prepare myself for the night.
Bad side: Something breaded and fried, stuffed with cheese, topped with cheese, or made of Italian sausage or beef.
Good side: Take a lean chicken dish already cooked with onions, mushrooms, and peppers and either replace the pasta with whole wheat pasta or a side of steamed veggies.
I think if it was a normal day or date, I’d go for the complete good side. But since it was my anniversary, I decided to find a happy medium between the two sides. I avoided everything that was even remotely related to the bad side of my Italian food spectrum and found a dish that was new for me to try but not crazy bad.
Mm’mmm… mushroom stuffed ravioli with braised chicken and sautéed spinach and mushrooms.
I’m not usually a stuffed pasta person at all, but since they weren’t stuffed with copious amounts of artery clogging cheese, I figured I’d give it a try. AMAZING! It was such a great dinner. Addison and I enjoyed the evening so much. After dinner we talked about it and decided that since it was such a special occasion, we’d have a little dessert.
So we grabbed the dessert menu and…. Nothing looked good. You see, I figured if I was going to treat myself to 
dessert, it couldn’t be just ANY dessert. And we were sharing so it wouldn’t kill me. But, they didn’t have my favorite chocolate mousse. Addison searched far and wide and picked up a small cup of some chocolate mousse at a grocery story and later that night we ate it outside in our favorite gazebo which is “our spot.” It was awesome to have a couple of spoonfuls of my favorite dessert with my favorite man and not feel the least bit guilty.
Tomorrow would be a new day. I’ll just work extra hard at the gym. And you know what? A night of indulging a little without going overboard was well worth it. It made my anniversary still feel special even though I’m trying to make drastic life changes.
So don’t be afraid to let loose every once in awhile. Just don’t go crazy. If you do have a special occasion coming up and decide to treat yourself, just come up with your good and bad spectrum for the menu and try to stay as close to the good spectrum as you can. It will help you stay on track. At least it worked for me!
What do you do when you want to treat yourself without going crazy? Email me at NikkiRoberti@HerCampus.com or tweet me anytime @Nikki_Roberti.