The Big Deception.

In the past, I was duped into believing that just eating a healthier version of "this" rather than "that" when going out to eat was good enough to maintain or lose weight.  I tried to avoid food establishments that were obviously not serving healthy meals, but I realized that my healthier choices were not that much healthier, if at all.  For years, I allowed myself to believe that if I ordered a sandwich instead of a burger, a pizza without pepperoni, a diet soda rather than a regular one or if I ordered a meal without fries that I was making a "healthy" choice. Although my choices may have been a relatively better option, maintaining this philosophy still kept me from attaining my health and weight loss goals for years.

I used to limit my fast food experience mostly to sandwich shops like Jimmy Johns and Subway. They don't fry anything so all is good right.....well, not so fast. One day, I went on JJ's website and looked at the nutritional information of my two favorite sandwiches: 

#14 Bootlegger: Calories 684, Fat 24g, Cholesterol 77 mg and Sodium 1668mg

#6   Vegetarian: Calories 578, Fat 30g, Cholesterol 49mg and Sodium 873mg. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? 

When I first saw those numbers, I felt confused and frustrated. I had no idea a sandwich could be so unhealthy.  Little did I know that the sandwich I thought was a pretty good choice from JJ's was not healthy in the least. I went to the Burger King website to see how a Whopper compared to these sandwiches (similar numbers except the Whopper has 40g of fat). I thought about how many times I ordered two sandwiches at JJ (because one just wasn't filling enough) with a soda and mentally calculated those totals. I quickly realized that one sandwich equalled about 40 minutes on the elliptical machine to burn those calories, so that one entire meal would mean hours of working out. It made sense to me why companies are reluctant to disclose their nutritional information.  One look at these numbers and I decided I was no longer going to eat that junk. No wonder I wasn't losing any weight.

I had been deceived.  I realized my healthy ordering logic was no longer going to work for the new me.  I realized that no matter how healthy food may appear or if someone else is making or cooking it, I cannot assume that it is truly healthy for my body. The only way I would know for sure is if I purchased the ingredients and made the meal myself. I drew the line in the sand and vowed to no longer eat drive thru food and to avoid/limit my consumption of food eaten at restaurants, even if it appeared or was advertised as healthy. 

I can make a veggie burger at home with 1/5th the fat, 1/5th the sodium and 1/5th the calories than the Jimmy Johns Vegetarian sandwich.  Oh, and for 1/5th of the cost.

One of the keys to me losing the weight that I no longer eat fast food, even if it appears to be healthy.  I am no longer tempted to eat the junk I used to because I was deceived once and I will not allow it to happen twice. 

If you are interested (and you should be), here are some links for the nutritional information of popular eating places:

Click HERE to view Burger King's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view McDonald's nutritional information.
Click HERE to view Subway's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view Taco Bell's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view Jimmy John's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view Arby's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view Chick-fil-A's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view Sonic's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view Chipotle's nutritional information.

Click HERE to view Applebee's nutritional information.