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Today I am breathing a huge sigh of relief
By admin | July 8, 2009
Today I am breathing a huge sigh of relief. A law went into effect at the beginning of this month that is actually going to do some good! I know, I know, impossible you say, but it is true, a law that we were in desperate need of, actually went through. On July 1st it became mandatory that restaurants post the calorie content of their foods in an easily accessible manner for their customers. (You know instead of having to hold a gun to the person behind the counter in order for them to get you their nutritional information and then have them stand over you like you’re some kind of raving lunatic while you look at it.) Now the nutritional data is sitting right there on your table or in some instances inside the menu itself. Very easy to find and they haven’t figured out a way yet to make it so confusing that you can’t understand it, so for now, it’s quite eye opening.
Thank you God, I know you think I’m being facetious, but I’m not (just this one time) I really am truly thankful for this. I can already see the fat falling off of people. I seriously felt it was my responsibility to stand on the roof tops and scream, at you, trying to warn you how bad restaurants had become. I was panic stricken because I knew that there was no way to get it across to you because it was even hard for me to believe. The fact is that restaurant food has become so bad that it is becoming almost impossible to eat out and maintain a healthy weight.
I knew that just warning you about a couple items on a menu, like “sliders” or tuna melts or chili cheese fries, Caesar salads , just wasn’t getting it across to you because you still had a hundred other items on the menu that you could easily justify eating. Well now, you can’t! That little menu is sitting right there on your table haunting you! You have no excuse for not picking it up and informing yourself. You have no excuse for eating that Turkey Burger, you thought was safe, only to find out that its 1200 calories and has un-godly amounts of sodium. Ha ha, you’re cursed with the knowledge I have swimming in my head now and I love it!
Please take a moment now and picture me doing a happy dance, I’m holding the menu over my head, I throw it to the ground as if having just scored a touchdown and then I take my foot and stomp on it as if putting out a cigarette and then I kick it! Take that you bad, bad, CEO’s of chain restaurants, you only cared about one thing, money in your pocket.
This will hurt business, I guarantee it and you will see, that all of a sudden, these restaurants will come up with healthier alternatives. Why? Not because they care, about your health, but because their bottom line will finally start to feel a pinch.
Prior to this law there was no way for you to know how bad the food was. Now it’s there staring you right in the face, now you truly have no excuse. Inform yourself and realize that the food industry is not the only one that has left you this in the dark. We have to stop living un-consciously.
Right now the law only requires restaurants with at least 20 stores in California (chain restaurants) to provide nutritional brochures easily accessible to customers. Both sit down and drive thru restaurants must comply. A second phase, effective Jan 2011, will require restaurants to list calorie counts directly on the menus or menu boards. Yay!
Look, if you know me at all you know that I absolutely love to eat out, it’s fun, entertaining, there are no dishes to clean up when you’re done and I’m not a very good cook. I am the last person in the world that wants restaurants to shut down, that’s why I was so disheartened when I started seeing the fat content, sodium content and calories, shoot through the roof on even seemingly safe bets. I know that if they gave even the slightest attention to health they could clean up their acts by at least 50%. Sometimes it boggles my mind to even figure out what they’ve done, to an item, to make it so high in calories, but every choice chain/ franchise restaurant’s have made up to this point comes down to getting you back in their door and making the most off of you, that they can. So they feed you huge portions of low quality food, loaded with sodium, fat and sugar, because those are inexpensive things that you’re taste buds are addicted to.
Now I warn you, your gut reaction when you see the calorie content on these menus is going to be just to stay home. So mark my words you’re going to see all sorts of new “healthy” items appear on their menus. Watch out for the sodium in these “lower calorie” items There are 3 main things they work with fat, sugar and salt, when they take away one of these items you can almost guarantee that you will see the other items sky-rocket to make up for the missing flavor.
Before you give up on eating out altogether here are some simple tips and how to “fix” a lot of restaurant craziness.
#1 Become a “picky orderer”. Yes become that person that everybody rolls their eyes at, At least you’ll be skinny and healthy.
#2 Always, always, order your sandwich “Dry” this is even better then saying “no mayo” because so many items come with fancy spreads, that just add sodium, fat and sugar. In many instances, skipping the spread can take off anywhere between 60-100 calories.
#3 In fact anytime there is dressing involved in any way, order it on the side, even if you know you love it.
By ordering a Caesar salad w/ salmon and taking off the croutons, dressing and skipping the side of bread. You are still left with a good piece of fish, a large bed of lettuce and parmesan cheese, if you squeeze a little lemon on that you won’t even need the dressing and you went from a salad that started at 1010 calories, to a healthy 300 calories, That’s 700 calories because you made a conscious decision to take control back and didn’t just blindly eat what was handed to you. (This example comes from Red Robin . They have a great website because they allow you to play with your meal and take off even tiny things like croutons and after you customize your order the website shows you what effect that had on your meal, it’s a great way to see how little choices can make or break your diet.)
#4 Don’t be afraid to ask for kid’s portions, especially when it comes to dessert, When I do go to Cold Stone Creamery which is about once every two years, I always ask for a kids size.
#5 Pick one fat – In other words if you just can’t stand a dry turkey sandwich order it with avocado, or if you really feel like cheese that day, order it with cheese but skip the avocado, if you have one source of fat on it don’t double up. Or if you’re dying for mayo then skip both the cheese and the avocado, get it? The same goes for protein… Choose 1 protein, you don’t need the Italian grinder with salami and 3 other meats, pick one, load up on the pepperoncini and you won’t even know the difference.
#6 Learn these words and you will save yourself countless calories per year… No Bacon . They sneak it on everything and it is absolutely unnecessary. Skip it, your heart will thank you. I just say it all the time now, No Bacon, No bacon, no bacon, just anytime I order even it it’s a chocolate sundae, you never know they might be sneaking it in there.
#7 Do not drink those stupid fruity lemonade, Arnold palmer , syrup laden crap drinks! Just stop it!!!!!!
Learn these words, un-sweet ice tea please or water with lime.
#8 You know my policy on Juice places, if you are going into a juice bar, ask which drinks they have that offer whole fruit and get a small or a child’s size, if you must.
#9 Learn to leave at least half of your food behind. If you look at the calorie content of many of the items on the menu, if you just cut the staggering number in half say from 1200 down to 600 it’s still a salvageable day. Then Fill up on side salad.
#10 Start every dinner with a side salad (order it no cheese, no croutons, No BACON, and dressing on the side) It will help you fill up on fiber.
#11 When your meal does arrive eat a bit of protein first, from the plate, protein satiates you quicker than carbs.
#12 Have an apple 20 minutes before you head out to eat. Get in the habit of carrying apples in the car with you they’re a great way to add some fiber, which will start to fill you up, and the small amount of sugar will help stabilize your blood sugar levels so you don’t bite off the waitress’s head before your food arrives.
#13 Don’t drink alone- No I don’t mean as in by yourself (shoot then I’d never get to drink, Tony doesn’t drink) No I mean don’t drink on an empty stomach. You’ll end up drinking your dinner. Instead sip on a glass of wine until your salad arrives and make sure you don’t order another drink until dinner is sitting in front of you. Alcohol gives you the misconception that you’re no longer hungry and that you’d rather just have another drink because the sugar in the alcohol is so much easier for your body to digest, but it’s a bad, bad, choice as you find out the next day.
#14 Your mother taught you to share, so do it. If you must have dessert, share one, not two or four so everybody can taste everything, but one. Everyone take one or two bites and that’s it. After the first couple bites you’re really just consuming the food anyway and no longer experiencing the flavor at the same level.
#15 It sounds ridiculous but slow down and chew your food consciously. I once dated a guy that was a crab fishermen, yeah like the insane show that’s on TV. Anyway I have never seen a human being consume food faster than that guy, now he had an excuse, can you imagine how fast they have to consume calories on those boats? Slow down…….We’re all in such a rush, to get where? Fatter?
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