205.0

Another 5.2lbs lost over the previous week. I fully expect it to continue to slow down to roughly 3lbs per week or less so this is steady with that. I’ve had a lot of great milestones this week. I went to Applebee’s last night and drank coffee while a large group of friends chowed down on chicken tenders and mozzarella sticks. I drank Diet Pepsi during league night when I would normally grab at least 2 beers and burger/fries combo. As rediculous as it sounds, I went to volunteer at a food pantry on Saturday morning and it ended up being quite a workout. 4 hours on my feet bagging pasta, sorting hotdogs, and doing some heavy lifting and moving. I’m quite pleased with how far I’ve come in this short time but I know I’ve got a ways to go still.

Sometimes it amazes me just how deceptive restaurants can be in their presentation of food. To be fair, many restaurants have a “Lighter Fare” section of the menu and Ruby Tuesday is no exception (I’ll cover some of the healthier options in a minute) but when I think of going crazy and consuming a lot of calories a typical meal at Ruby Tuesday is not high on the list. Most of the food their is “American” cuisine, burgers, chicken, steak, and pasta. When you’re not watching what you’re eating and counting calories it’s easy to assume that foods like this, in moderation, might not be bad for you. However the nutrition information posted on their site is astonishing.

All appetizers at first appearance seem to be decent in caloric content (100-400 calories) until you realize that they have split them up into 4 servings. That guacamole dip you’re sharing with your partner is now a 600 calorie, 36 grams of fat “starter” to your actual meal. Even when split 4 ways, larger appetizers like the Samplers will run you almost 400 calories and 20 grams of fat.

But certainly salads must be healthy for you right? Wrong. The Carolina Chicken Salad comes in at 1,000 calories and almost 70 grams of fat. A house salad might sound better but in actuality the house salad at Ruby Tuesday is 855 calories and 78 grams of fat. Keep in mind that this nutrition information doesn’t even include the dressing which will run you another 10-30 grams of fat for a 1oz serving. Your best bet in cases like this is to get the Garden Bar where you can be selective about your choice of ingredients. Skip the bacon and cheese and pile on the veggies while choosing a light dressing.

By far some of the worst offenders on this menu are the pastas (ignoring the “Colossal Burger” with two full size hamburger patties between 3 buns that requires a knife in it to stand upright). The parmesan chicken pasta weighs in at over 1,300 calories and 70 grams of fat (and that does not include the garlic bread). The chicken and broccoli pasta isn’t much better at 1,151 calories and 54 grams of fat.

So what’s the good news? You don’t have to necessarily rule Ruby Tuesday out as a dinner option, but you do have to be careful. My advice is to skip the appetizer and get the Garden Bar with your meal. The petite sirloin is a great entree option at just 300 calories and 18 grams of fat. The creole catch is also relatively lean. For sides skip the bread and rice and go for green beans and steamed broccoli. Don’t be fooled by the Turkey Burger entree or it’s smaller “Turkey Minis”. The full size burger is over 800 calories and the “minis” come out to over 1,000 and don’t end up being much healthier than their beef equivalents.

For more information see the Smart Choices section of the Ruby Tuesday menu and download their full nutrition sheet.

The results of my hard work:

210.2

This represents a 9.2lb weight loss this week. Of course my first week was bound to be the largest (always is) and this will taper off (don’t worry people, I’m not starving myself!). I still feel extremely excited about the momentum I have going. It’s too earlier to see much in the way of physical payoff like clothes feeling looser but that will come with time. So yeah, I’m happy. Week 1 down, rest of my life to go.