Today, I have decided, will be a "splurge" day.

My little brother is turning 18  and my family is going to be ordering out (of course) to celebrate.  The real problem will be on Sunday when all of our extended family will be coming over to celebrate.  My family is ordering Subway subs and possibly grilling.  Of course there will be cake and ice cream.   I'm already panicking at the thought of being around all of that food.  I'm worried that I will be weak and start eating everything that is there.  I don't believe that the Subway subs will be that much of a problem as I can always get rid of the top slice of bread and eat an open-faced sandwich.  I've been a vegetarian for the last six years, so one of those sandwiches for me will only be around 100-calories.  I can grab myself some Arctic Zero ice cream and have a half-cup of that which will be 45 calories... I'll have that instead of cake which will satisfy my sweet craving.  And if that isn't enough food, I will have a Smart Dog (a tofu dog with 45 calories) or a bowl of Shirataki.  Okay, so it may not be that bad.  But anyway, I digress.

I think that today will be a little bit of a splurge day.  My family is probably going to be ordering out Mexican food from a really good Mexican restaurant  near our house.  I haven't eaten there in years, but I remember that it is delicious.  I'm not going to be eating from there; absolutely not.  I can't imagine how many calories just one of their dishes has.  It actually makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it (by the way, I have been throwing up unintentionally and having very bad diarrhea for the last week.  Gross, I know, but does anyone else have that problem?).  Instead, as to not miss out on the Mexican food experience, I will stop at Chipotle on the way home.

Chipotle, I have found, can be one of the healthiest fast food restaurants if you know exactly what to get.  It helps that I am a vegetarian and I can skip out on a lot of the fattening things that one can get there.  I don't get the burrito, I get the bowl which skips on a lot of calories.  Here is what I do:  I ask for the bowl, get the delicious cilantro-lime rice which drives me wild.  No beans whatsoever, ask for extra veggies to fill me up.  Green tomatillo salsa and lots of extra lettuce.  If I want something that is extra spicy, I ask for the red salsa as well.  I love spicy food and it fills me up that much quicker.  For the entire bowl, it is something around 170 calories, and usually I only eat half because I am stuffed to the gills by the time I get to that point.  Wow!  85 calories of delicious Mexican food?  Yes please!  So I am fasting today so that I can splurge and eat the entire bowl so I can celebrate with my family.  I may even put some fat-free sour cream on it just for fun.  Wow, that may actually push it up to 190 calories.  Still under my 200-calorie limit for the day, and I probably won't even be able to finish the entire thing.  My stomach just isn't that big anymore.  Also, here is the nutrition calculator I used to figure out the calories in Chipotle, although they have the nutrition information posted on their website as well (finally!): http://chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=nutrition_calculator

So as long as I don't break my fast for today and cheat like a complete idiot, I don't think that I will be too upset with myself.  And I don't think that I will cheat today.  I'm at work until 2:30 and I don't like to eat at work because there are too many people there and I hate eating in front of large groups of people.  Then I have class from 3:00-4:15, and then back to work for a meeting from 5-5:30.  Then it's just the drive home and some little errands before dinner.  I love busy days because there are so many things to keep me busy and distract me from food.  It's the weekends that are killer.