Today's challenge was attending a monthly board-gaming afternoon where everybody brings a "nosh" - usually salted nuts, chocolate, or some form of chips. Bowls populate the table among the cards and tokens, and everyone crunches their way through the afternoon. This is not an event where healthy snacks are normally seen!

Getting ready, I realized I had two options - bring something along the usual lines and resist temptation all afternoon, or break with tradition and bring something I could feel good about eating. I chose door number two and stopped at the grocery store for a small veggie tray - but forgot to detour down the refrigerator aisle for a low-fat dip substitute. I also needed a protein to follow my pre-diabetic eating plan (no carbs without protein, and those veggies are all carb) so I chose three baked chicken wings to fill that need.

Well, I ate nearly all of the veggie tray myself, while the others crunched on pretzels, cheese curls, and crackers - but I was happy. Then I got home and tracked . Well, those three wings were higher in fat than I realized. And the "normal" dip was too, especially since I ate about two servings' worth with my five servings of veggies.

All in all, it turned out OK. My total calories are on target, but my fat percentage is much higher than I prefer. So far no reaction from my meds, I think the total fat was low and eaten slowly enough to keep me out of THAT trouble, but a couple of lessons learned and reinforced!

1. ALWAYS take the time to track first, when there's still an opportunity to correct. I could have chosen some fat-free deli turkey instead of the wings, I had room in my sodium intake!

2. If I forget the lowfat dip, eat the veggies naked. They're still yummy (well, the raw broccoli really was improved by the dip, but the others would have been great plain)


Now I REALLY need to get moving on fitting in activity.