Choices

It's been hard convincing a certain someone in my house that you can do a program like the 5&1 (or any healthy eating plan really) and still go out for dinner with friends (and have a good time). Whilst one of the benefits of the 5&1 is that you save a lot of money by NOT going out to restaurants, I think it's important to still feel like you can live your life. Getting healthy is supposed to be empowering not depressing!

So, with one birthday just passed and several invitations for nights out with friends... we've had to re-evaluate our attitude and find a way to stare that carb-loving, figure-destroying, cardiac-arrest-inducing menu right in the face and say "I'll have the salad, please".

Actually, what I have really discovered is that it is all about choices. It's fairly simple to look up the items on a menu beforehand and to make some nutritional inquiries that will assure you make a good decision come meal time. With a few simple changes to certain items and by making the "healthier" choice, you can still enjoy your meal, enjoy your company and eat at a restaurant with ease.

Red Robin is our birthday restaurant of choice. I don't know how it happened. It started with my birthday when I received a birthday coupon and the thought of a "free meal" was just too much to resist. Red Robin makes delicious burgers. They also make delicious chicken burgers/sandwiches. And now we have discovered that they have the most incredible web tool for calculating the nutritional value of their meals. Seriously. This little program is so fun we spent almost an hour designing and adjusting all their menu items just to see what happened. Go HERE and click on the button at the bottom of the page "build your meal + calculate your nutrition" to have a play for yourself.

Just to give you an idea how much your choices affect what you eat, I want to show you something. Pay particular attention to CALORIES, FAT, CARBS.

This is the nutritional information for a normal, no frills added burger:

Cals: 569  Fat: 24g   Carbs: 51g














But this is America. Most people don't eat that burger. It's too boring. They need to add. Watch this:

A bacon-cheeseburger. You've practically doubled your calories and almost tripled your fat.














But what's a burger without fries? Let's add some:

Wowsah! You're practically off the charts now. For an average daily allowance of 2,000cals/day, you have just eaten 75% of your daily intake in ONE meal. (and that's if you resist the refill on the RR bottomless fries!)












Now let's try a leaner meat, say, chicken:

I love this sandwich. It's delicious.

Beware: Just because it's "chicken" does not automatically make it healthier! In it's orginal form it's already 107cals MORE than the natural burger, 5g more fat and 1g more carbs.

Instead of adding things to this sandwich, let's see what happens when we eliminate a few items:

No bun. No cheese. But we'll keep the delicious aioli...

BOOM! This is more like it!

Cals: 292  Fat: 16g  Carbs: 6g










And if we do the same to the burger?:

 No bun. No cheese. But no sauce either...

It's more than the chicken. Now, after our alterations, the chicken is healthier. However, this is not bad for a burger!

Cals: 319  Fat: 20g   4g











I promise you, you won't miss things like cheese and bread nearly as much as you think you will. It is far more difficult for me to say "no cheese" than it is for me to actually eat something without cheese. When my meal comes, I don't miss it.

I would love to hear what choices you have difficulty making and if you have managed to find ways of staying strong, staying healthy, while eating out in social situations. If you have found a fun way of making a healthier choice, please feel free to leave a comment and share it!