McDonald's Big Mac
It has been a while since I’ve written in my blog; the activities of this past week have been extreme as I up my fitness regiment and prepare for new launch activities in my fitness programs. However, like everything else, I have to make time for the commitment I made to this blog and getting information available that you’re looking for as you struggle through your personal fitness goals. As I reviewed the feedback and responses many of you made to my past blogs I ran across one that stood out as a major issue many face during the holiday shopping season. The fast food dilemma.
Sonja wrote:
Sticking with healthy eating would be easier if it were more convenient. Grabbing a bite at a drive-thru is easier than preparing a healthy snack / meal.
I understand and I hear you. It’s very difficult, when we’re very busy and under a lot of stress, to take the time to prepare a well-balanced meal and then sit down and eat it in a slow and healthy manner. In a perfect world our days would be filled with three balanced meals and two healthy snacks. I find myself challenged with meeting this expectation when I’m at a high level of activity and stress. Personally, my life is filled with meetings, fitness classes, production & development activities and somewhere in there family time. I spent the last couple of days trying to understand how much of my time is actually spent on the road or engaged with people. The number I came up with was somewhere between 60% and 80%, which can be about average for many of you. If I were my own life coach I would make recommendations such as; preparing my meals in advance and taking them with me, releasing some of my at activities that take me too far away from home and even preparing weekly meals to have in stock so that I can have them ready when I am home. Well that is exactly what I would advise myself to do and what my own personal trainers have advised me to do. However, like you, it’s not always possible to follow these directions with discipline. So what do we do? We often find ourselves rolling through the drive-through of a local fast food restaurant. I call this the fast food dilemma.
The fast food dilemma is the process we fall into when we desperately need to feed our systems and find ourselves facing the decision to eat at a fast food restaurant. Fast food is filled with all things that contribute to what ails us. The saturated fats, the calories and the sugars… All the things that add to our waistline, cholesterol and do little but satisfied our cravings and desires. The fast food industry is one of those which benefits the most during the holiday shopping season, when shoppers stop during their spending frenzies to take a breath and eat.
Calories are a big concern when eating fast food. While driving around over the weekend I found myself at a mall to pick up something simple. Between the food court and the restaurants surrounding the community I counted over 50 fast food restaurant choices for me to select from if I were so inclined. From doughnuts to tacos; hamburgers to ice cream, the choices seemed endless. Everything my heart desired was within walking distance of my location. I checked one location and found a product that easily had a calorie count close to 900. 900 calories! For the average person this is close to half the calorie count for the day, that’s insane!
Then there are saturated fats, something we have to be mindful of when we eat fast foods. The American Heart Association makes the following statement about the effects of saturated fats to our systems:
Eating foods that contain saturated fats raises the level of cholesterol in your blood. High levels of blood cholesterol increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. Be aware, too, that many foods high in saturated fats are also high in cholesterol – which raises your blood cholesterol even higher.
Saturated fats are found naturally in many of the foods we eat everyday but they also occur at a more high-frequency in fast foods. The American Heart Association goes on to recommend that less than 7% of our daily caloric intake be made up of saturated fats. This equals about 16 g of saturated fats for the average 2000 cal per day diet. Let’s take a look at this for a moment. The number one food chain historically in our nation is McDonald’s and their best-selling product is the big Mac. McDonald’s big Mac has 10 g of saturated fat. At 540 cal it represents 27% of the average daily caloric count and a whopping 63% of the daily saturated fat intake recommended by the American Heart Association. To this we add fries, soda and possibly a desert and we’re not even finished for the day. These are the things that are knocking us down as we focus on fitness. It’s important that you think about what that food is going to do to your overall condition before you make the decision to eat it. Consider this; think about your saturated fats and calories as being elements in nutritional menu that makes up your needs for the day. Each meal you eat should take little pieces from each department on that menu in a way that will allow you to get through the day without going too far over on one side or the other. Being conscious of all the elements will help you manage what you eat.
Now I don’t want you to hear that I’m preaching raw carrots and water all day long. Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed and food is an important part of that enjoyment. It’s my belief that it is not always necessary for someone to spend their lives living in a container of celery sticks and coconut water. There are some simple things that you can do to survive the holiday season and the fast food dilemma without giving up the pleasure you get from the company or your friends and the surroundings of the season. Let’s talk about some of those simple things.
Tips for surviving the fast food dilemma:
Tip one: Simple is best. When ordering off menus try to find selections that have less rather than more. What does this mean? If you have to order a hamburger you don’t need to order one that has bacon and cheese and chili and so forth. Make a selection that has a less additions that will have a high impact on the nutritional value of that food product.
Tip two: Take it on the side. If you get a salad or any items that come with the dressing or sauces get your sauces on the side. You will find that you use less of that sauce when you dip or spoon as needed rather than spreading or pouring it all over your dish. This tactic makes a huge difference in the impact of your meal.
Tip three: Check the special menu. Public and government pressures have influenced fast food restaurants to provide more healthy options for consumers. Many of them have a healthy menu; it just may not be as visible as their normal menu. Ask them for the special menu if you can’t find it, you may decide not to eat at that particular restaurant if they don’t have one. Many of the special menu selections can be just as tasty if not more flavorful than your normal choices. Give it a try.
Tip four: No salt please. Most fast foods have been made, preserved and cooked with plenty of salt. Don’t use extra salt on your food. Salt is something that can get in the way of our weight loss goals and can also have more serious health effects if we have too much of it in our daily diet.
Tip five: Bigger is not always better. Choose fast food that’s more health friendly. One of the major restaurants out there has a campaign that focuses primarily on the size of their products. We all know them. They’re hamburgers are so big you struggle to get them into your mouth-and this is a good thing? What you might not notice as you look at their menu is that there are other choices. They have the same configuration in a smaller more manageable size. The menu just has the smaller one way down at the bottom and off to the side where you can barely see it- it seems their mission is to get you to buy the larger more expensive one. Can you blame them? Well I can, feeling health is more important than the profit, but I do understand their desire to remain profitable. For you, shoot for the smaller helping. I think you’ll find it just as satisfying if you take your time and enjoy.
Tip six: Drink a lot of water with your meal. Don’t add the syrups and sugars that are in the Sodas and other beverages to your meal, water is all you need. I find that filling myself with water while I eat helps me eat less. And drink clear water; don’t put water flavorings or powders in to make it feel or taste better. There are few things better for you than clear, plain and pure water; your body needs it so enjoy it.
Tip seven: Keep those vegetables coming. Salads are fabulous. My husband has a saying when he eats his burger, he doesn’t want a salad on it. It’s a point of contention between us 
. When you have to order a burger don’t take all the vegetables off (unless you have a health issue with that vegetable), keep the vegetables on the burger. This will help fill you up and the vegetables deliver positive health benefits.
Tip eight: Be aware of the calorie count. As I mentioned earlier, most restaurants are complying with government regulations and making the nutritional factors clear on all their menu products. Check the calorie counts when you order food. You want to stay away from any meal that has a count anywhere near half or more of your caloric intake for that day. One meal should not make up your entire caloric intake. And by the way, did you know that some of our favorite beverages at Starbucks can have up to 400 or 500 cal in them? Can you imagine having one third of your daily caloric intake come from a Caramel Frappuccino? Everything you put in your mouth to eat has a caloric and fat count; we need to be conscious of that.
Tip nine: Take a life jacket with you. If you have a snack that you enjoy that is healthy and satisfying, you should take it with you everywhere you go. What are the types of snacks I’m talking about? A bag of roasted nuts or perhaps some dried fruit, these are some good examples of snacks that are healthy that will help stave off your munching and your cravings. Some of us carry fresh vegetables and fruits around but not all of us like to or are able to do this. There has to be something out there that you enjoy that will support your snacking needs that won’t interfere with your nutritional regiment. I recommend taking a walk down the aisles of Trader Joe’s and finding some of snack options they offer. They have a large variety of great trail mixes, nuts and dried fruit combinations that may work for you. Stock up on them and take them everywhere you go. Leave them in the car so that you can have them at any time. This way, when you are faced with a crisis munch moment you can stop and snack on something that will better support your fitness program.
Tip ten: Get your friends on board. So you decided to make healthy choices but your friends; not so much. It’s important that you walk with people who understand and support your vision when you’re on a path to fitness. If your best friend wants to hang out with you but all she wants to do is eat red velvet cake and drink milkshakes it could be very difficult for you to maintain any healthy program. Take your friend by the hand and asked that she join you and support each other so that your choices can be the right choices together. You can still enjoy the shopping season with a cup of coffee, some browsing and purchasing in the mall all followed by light and fun meal in the food court.
It’s not impossible to live a healthy life and enjoy a little fast food from time to time. The biggest dilemma is making sure that it is just from time to time and not all the time. Make the visits few and far between and not every day.
Good luck and keep the comments coming I love your feedback I now will see you at the gym!
