Chapter 3: Maintaining Healthy Eating for Life 55
Fitting In Fast Food
Like most people, you likely lead a very busy life. Between errands, work,
and carting kids around, it’s probably inevitable that most of us will find
ourselves at the mercy of fast food at some point.Don’t panic!Healthy eating is all about making good choices, watching portion sizes,
and knowing what’s in the food you’re eating (watch out for sugar and fried
foods!). Fortunately, more and more fast food establishments are making it
easier to eat more healthfully.Many fast-food restaurants are making nutritional information available in
brochures or on their Web sites. (And as for the ones that don’t make this
information available, what are they hiding? It’s up to you to patronize
restaurants that will support your weight loss goals with healthy foods
choices.) In the meantime, you can go to your local bookstore or take to
the Internet to find calorie, carbohydrate, protein, and fat contents of
commonly consumed foods. Many of these books (such as The Calorie
Counter For Dummies [Wiley]) list chain restaurants by name and are small
enough to keep in your purse or car so you have the information at hand.Most surgeons have a card they can give you identifying you as someone who
has had weight loss surgery. By showing the card to restaurant employees,
you can order off the kid’s menu or receive smaller portions of entrées.General tips for surviving the fast-food menu board
the fast-food menu board
Now, what happens if you find yourself standing in line at a fast-food restaurant
without nutrition information available? Here are some guidelines you should
consider when making good fast-food choices:✓ Pay attention to the descriptions of foods. Avoid foods that have the
words deep fried, creamy, breaded, crispy, and similar words in their
descriptions.
✓ The plainer you can eat your food, the better off you will be. Don’t be
afraid to ask to have something prepared the way you want it.
- Have them leave off the “special sauce,” full-fat cheese, and mayo.
- Get your salad dressing on the side and dip your lettuce or fork
into the dressing.