Okay, I wrote my title tongue-in-cheek because I love fast food as much as the next person and quite possibly more. And, it isn’t just fast food that is bad for us because sit-down restaurant food can be just as bad.
You can eat out, but you need to be careful and think about what you are putting in your mouth, which is something you should be doing at home as well. A friend of mine moaned about dieting because he couldn’t have fries. Well, you shouldn’t have fries, but you can, just don’t get the 1/2 pound supersized bucket of fries and don’t eat fries five times a week. If you get a Sonic burger without cheese (another devil though I love it so!) and a small fries with a diet something, you will find yourself around 770 calories. Make that a Jr. Burger and you can shave off almost 250 calories for a more reasonable 517. You will be amazed because you will be full. You may not be stuffed, but you will feel full.
Again, I am not advocating burgers and fries because they aren’t good for you, but asking someone to completely wean themselves off fast food is a tall order. Give yourself a free day – one day a week where you can have a burger and fries, but use good sense. Become friends with the fast food web pages. They all have nutritional information and seeing it in black and white might make you think before eating. Many sites allow you to add things to a cart then see what the total is as far as fat, carbs, calories, sodium, etc. Once you see that your usual Taco Bell meal is actually 1,200 calories for one meal, you might realize why you can’t lose weight and your cholesterol is high. I am not being facetious – I can easily down 1,200 calories in a meal at Taco Bell.
Ask the doctor what your daily calorie count should be. My personal number is 1,200. If I really, really want a burger and fries, I can do a small burger and fries, then eat sensibly at breakfast and dinner and still be within my calorie count. Keeping my weight down is helping to keep my diabetes at bay for now. Everyone is different, but if you are overweight, watching calories is never a bad thing. Don’t forget to watch the fat, carbs, and sodium too!
If at all possible, ask to see a Wellness Specialist or Nutritionist. Some doctors are starting to use the services of these professionals as a means of helping patients adopt a healthier lifestyle before they start having problems. In the long run, it can save the insurance companies money.
So while I am not totally anti-fast food, I have slowed down a bit on my intake. In fact, I have almost cut one of my favorites (Taco Bell) completely out of my diet because everything is just too high in calories and carbs. And don’t be fooled by something like the Taco Salad there. That is 820 calories with 43 grams of fat and 81 carbs.
(The image of a Sonic menu is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.)
