Healthy Fast Food part 1: Wendy’s
Like a lot of busy moms, I eat at fast food restaurants often. I pay close attention to the nutrition information because I’m trying to stave off those unwanted pounds that come with getting older, and I’m also training for a triathlon and want to be good to my body. But mostly it’s the not gaining weight part that motivates my research.
If you listen to a lot of sources out there about eating at fast food restaurants, they say order a garden salad without the dressing. Are you kidding me? That wouldn’t even register as an appetizer for me. Not only would I be starving an hour later, I’d be starving five minutes later. (Plus, I’m a bit of a food snob and those fast-food garden salads might as well be made of the styrofoam container they’re served in.) So here are some of my real-world solutions at some popular restaurants you might find yourself in on the way to the next swim meet.
Wendy’s
My favorite salads that satisfy like a meal and don’t have an outrageous amount of calories are from Wendy’s. You do have to make a few modifications, but you don’t miss them. I like to stop at Wendy’s because there are other good choices besides salads, like the baked potato and chili.
Southwest Taco Salad with Reduced Fat Sour Cream. 490 calories. Skip the tortilla chips (an extra 110 calories) if you can, and don’t go for any extra dressing. The reduced fat sour cream has only 45 calories and does the job just fine. This meal is filling because you get Wendy’s tasty chili on the salad and also cheese and salsa.
Mandarin Chicken Salad. If you eat this with everything it comes with, it has a reasonable 550 calories, and will fill you up with a generous helping of chicken, greens and mandarin oranges. But eat it like I do, and you can barely taste a difference and it comes in at only 380 calories. Use half of the almonds and half of the crispy noodles, or choose only one. All the crunch and taste, but a lot of calorie savings. Then, skip the oriental sesame dressing (almost 200 calories!) and go for the fat free French dressing (80 calories).
Chili and Sour Cream and Chives Potato. This combination always hits the spot for me when I don’t want a salad, but still want to be good. If you choose the reduced fat sour cream, everything together is 540 calories. I like to pour the chili on the potato and top it with the sour cream.
I almost always get a diet cola to go with my meal, but at Wendy’s you can also get Minute Maid lite or 1% chocolate milk.