9 weeks ago, I would go to any fast food restaurant of choice, and order what looked good at the time. No worry about what was in it, how bad it was etc. It's what is pushed, marketed etc. that we generally choose to eat. A lot of this is common sense, but there are those of us out there that've just never given it much thought.
My intent here is not to give any restaurants mentioned a bad name, but rather point out that they each have ways that a descent meal can be had, but that they don't necessarily make it a point to let you know that. The healthier choices in fast food joints aren't typically what sells. It's the big juicy burger with cheese/bacon, the nice golden fried pieces of chicken, those beer battered onion rings..that's what sells, that's what you see on TV!
We'll start with a mid-west favorite: Culver's (just watch what pops up right in front of you when you launch their site) Made famous largely by their "Butter Burgers", Culver's is a great place to eat with very good food.
Let's look at a typical meal for me @ Culver's before I got healthy and starting making more wise choices when eating out:
The Culver's Bacon Deluxe Double - Serving Size/weight: 288grams
- 752 Calories
- 47 grams of fat (22 of which are saturated)
- 1351 mg Sodium
Dairyland Cheese Curds - Serving Size/weight: 191grams
- 670 Calories
- 38 grams of fat (15 saturated)
- 1740 mg Sodium
I'd typically have a Dr. Pepper with this meal, bringing the meal to a whopping 1702 calories, 85grams of fat and 3100 grams of sodium. That's almost an entire days worth of food in one sitting, and is far above the amount of fat to be consumed in one day. Let's look at how one could eat a descent, still satisfying meal at Culvers:
Butter Burger Single
- 346 Calories
- 12 grams of fat
- 700mg Sodium
Side Salad - With Reduced Fat Ranch
- 100 calories
- 2 grams of fat
- 102mg Sodium
This meal with a diet pepsi contains only 446 calories, 14 grams of fat and 802mg of sodium, and yet still provides enough food to get full on!
NOW, if you begin to change the choices you would regularly make, I am a firm believer that you can once in a while indulge in the not so good choices and have a burger with some cheese and maybe bacon ,or have that non diet soda once in a while. It's all about Choices!
