Versatillity

Last night, I prepared my lunch for the following day like I normally do every night. I tossed a banana, an orange and a granola bar in the lunch bag, poured some pita chips in a ziplock and tossed them in, put some baby carrots in another ziplock and tossed them in, put a couple pickles in another ziplock and tossed them in (I go through a lot of ziplocks), spooned up a few Ts of hummus into a rubbermaid and tossed it in, assembled a turkey wrap (I love these): flatout, 6 slices of thin honey roasted turkey, a slice of low-fat provalone, a T of light miracle whip, a t of brown mustard, a handful of baby spinach leaves, 2 green onions snapped in half and laid across the length, then roll'er up and wrap'er in seran.

Then, I made the fatal mistake: I left it out. Normally, this bag of deliciocity would sit in my fridge, waiting to be transported to my lab where it'd sit in another fridge all day and supply my 3-4 little meals throughout the workday. Unfortunately, without the wrap, the bulk of my lunch was lost. Damn mayo; it woulda been fine otherwise, I'd wager. So I tossed the wrap and pondered struggling through the day with what I had.

I decided it wouldn't be sufficient to keep me satisfied and with the challenge of cart lingering in front of me, I wasn't willing to risk going into it hungry. When one of the researchers came into the office and asked us if we had plans for lunch, I said I'd tag along. This surprised all parties in the room since I've been invited at least 10 times now and turned them down every time thanks to my previously unfaltering lunch-packing skills. I went to Planet Sub without a chance to peruse the NI menu and plan ahead.

When we got there I started studying the menu. I saw a lot of alarming options and started picking my way through, trying to find a balance between healthy and tasty. I could have grabbed a salad, but that's the easy way out. Plus I just made one for dinner last night. Instead, I opted for one of their soups of the day, spicy black bean, and a chicken BBQ sandwich. I opted for the wrap instead of the roll since the menu actually recommended it if you're trying to "cut carbs," which, while I'm not particularly concerned about my carb intake, I knew also meant less calories and more fiber.

Between the multigrain wrap and the black beans? Key word fiber.

Seriously, though, they were both pretty tasty and while a little more than I'd normally eat at a single meal, I wound up finishing both anyhow and skipped my afternoon snack. When I got back to the lab, I looked up what I ate and calculated the meal at 12 points. Not bad considering how much food I got for those 12 points, and considering I was going to have an 11 point lunch and a 3 point afternoon snack, I came out ahead in the end.

And when cart came rollin up? I had one reese's mini peanut butter cup, a tootsie roll midget and grabbed another thing of orange tic tacs (it actually took me 3 weeks to eat all of my last thing) for a grand total of 1 point (all of which was the little teeny tiny peanut butter cup because the midget was 0... what a rip).

The workout was also good and I'm looking forward to putting in another light one tommorow. It's been a while since I worked out within 24 hour of a weigh-in, but I owe myself a few more drops of sweat.