Calorie Counting & A New Yorkie!

As I am salivating for McDonald's right now and have gained more than I have lost in the past 15 weeks (pregnancy, holla!) I decided to talk about one of my favorite subjects...WEIGHT WATCHERS! This is something I am SUPER excited about! You may not be able to tell because I was bountifully blessed with child bearing hips, but I really do care about knowing what I am putting in my mouth. AND, even though at this point in my life I hate running with a passion, I know it keeps me healthy! So, with all that being said...I just heard on the radio this morning on K-Love that with the new law that was passed about health care reform, there is a part of that law (I think...I don't know all the terminology...I think it was part of the law or bill) that says that more than 200,000 restaurants will have to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards, and drive-throughs.


Let me clarify...this blog post is not about the new law that was passed...I don't care to discuss that, partly because I am not up to date on all that is involved with it...but, I am excited about this!


Here's the article I found that explains it a bit: Calorie Count Disclosure And The Health Care Bill: Will This Lead to a Food Revolution? It's very interesting. The gist that I got from it is that if a restaurant has 20 or more locations then they have to post the calorie count. Exciting in my book!


Here's why I am so excited about it. I love Weight Watchers (can you tell I just learned how to "link" things on my blog! Ha!) because you don't really realize HOW bad you are eating until you have to know what the point value is. And, I am not a big fan of counting calories, partly because I don't know how, but, I think it's easier for me, personally, to subtract from 23 points then it is to subtract from 1200 calories...that's just me though. But, when I started WW I realized how bad things were that I thought were healthy for me. For example...I automatically think that chicken is healthy for me because...well, it's chicken! Wrong! One of my favorite things to have at Chili's is the cajun chicken pasta. It has chicken so it must be healthy and it has pasta which is good for you, right?! WRONG! Total, the Chili's cajun chicken pasta is 34.5 points! I almost had a heart attack when I first saw that! If you don't know the WW system, you get a certain amount of points for your weight and I get from 21-23 points depending on where I start when I am getting back on WW. So, if I got the cajun chicken pasta it would be OVER a day's worth of points! And, it's not THAT good! Trust me! Or, how about at Chick-fil-A...before WW (or when I splurge), I usually would get a Chick-Fil-A sandwich with a medium waffle fry....total points for that-17 points! So, if I have that for lunch, I would only have about 6 points left for dinner and that's hoping I didn't have any breakfast! CRAZY!


All that to quickly say-with WW you actually CAN have that lunch you really want, you will just have to adjust what you eat the rest of the day...it's just a matter of how much that Chick-Fil-A or Chili's is worth to you! I do splurge on the cajun chicken pasta, but now I will cut it in half with Grant or cut it into a third and have something else light on the side. You can make it work! That's why I like it because it's not that I CAN'T eat the things I like, it's just that I have to make sacrifices... now, off the WW commercial. That was all free, by the way (Yes, I stole that saying from Grant...it's an advantage of being his wife!)


So, anyways, with restaurants being required to post the calorie count, it may make us all more AWARE of what we are eating. By the way, I am familiar with the fact that 890 calories is a bad meal. Even if it's not displayed in WW points, I know what's bad and good.


Now, will it start a "Food Revolution"...I don't know, really. I am not sure if it will affect much how people eat KNOWING the calories because I wonder how many people truly care. It will be WONDERFUL for the people who are trying to watch what they eat, but I just wonder if the people who don't care will change their diets or not... interesting, really. Thoughts?


Before moving on, here is a GREAT website to figure out point values: Dotti's Weight Loss Zone!


On to more heart warming topics! Like I have said before...Grant and I are definitely animal people and lucky for us, so are our families! Between The Nixon's and the Morella's we have 12 dogs and cats! Well, as of last night the number increased to 13 (the 12th and 13th dogs were added within the past 2 weeks)! My Mom has been wanting a small puppy for a while now! I wanted a small puppy too when I bought Reilly...but, he's 45 pounds.


OOOH, funny story! So we went back to Puppy Corral to look at the types of dogs Mom wanted and we saw the girl that sold us Reilly, our puggle (half beagle, half pug), and I told her how she told me the dog would be max 14/15 pound and she said "Oh, well, sometimes they get up to 20" and I told her he was 45 and she was shocked! I guess Reilly was just the ONLY exception...doubt it!

Back to what I was saying...So, Mom has been wanting a small, tiny dog and my Dad and sisters wanted to get her one for her birthday. We have been looking at websites and I thought I finally found one and I showed my Mom the picture and played it off as it being someone else's dog-it was a mix between a Chihuahua and a Pomeranian (Chi-Pom) and boy am I glad I asked her because she DID NOT want it! So, all that to say, after putting our lack-of-finding-a-dog problem on Facebook, several people told us to try Furballs of Memphis and whalaa! We found a puppy for Mom! It's a Yorkie and it's a girl! Mom has yet to name her. The owner (I guess she was the owner) was wonderful and her prices were very reasonable!  Here's a cute picture of her (she's a ball of movement so it was hard to get a still shot):

I love when I have two random topics that I throw together to make a blog post...Until next time!