Missing Link

America truly is a fast food nation. We’re a nation of fat asses and sloth-like behavior. We want food large, we want food greasy, and god help us we want it NOW!

We are a nation where obesity is an ever present and growing problem (no pun intended). And why shouldn’t we be? Fast food restaurants are everywhere, and often offer low cost (and low nutrition) meals that “taste great” and cost little money. But fast food isn’t the only problem, and certainly aren’t the worst offenders. Chain restaurants like Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s, Chili’s and more all are serving up disgusting amounts of calories per meal.

An article in Time describes some efforts by the government (federal) to force these restaurants to display calorie information beside items on their menu. The idea being that knowing that you’re eating 75% of your recommended daily caloric intake would make you think twice about it. It also throws out some interesting figures – such as the Tripple Whopper with Cheese from Burger King, which has 1,250 calories. That’s over HALF of your daily recommended intake. But, for those of you who would think to yourself “I’ll just go to a sit-down family restaurant, that’s gotta be healthier!” – try out the Quesadilla Burger from Applebee’s – a whopping 1,440 calories (nearly 75% of your daily recommended caloric intake), or the fried macaroni and cheese from the Cheesecake Factory, which comes in at an astounding 1,570 calories (along with a disgusting 69 grams of saturated fat – which Time helpfully points out is more than you should eat in a 3.5 day period). It honestly makes me seriously consider avoiding eating out as much as possible.

You see, I am not immune to this poison we call the restaurant industry today. Working at a technology company in Downtown Indianapolis I found myself going out to lunch pretty much every day. We’d go to places like Le Peeps, Weber Grill, PF Changs, etc. Nearly every single one of the things I would eat at those places were as bad, possibly worse, than those I list above. It’s no surprise that I gained weight ; a lot of weight. I found that eating out so much, my belt got tighter, my waist got bigger and my wallet got slimmer.

This was distressing to me, as a few years back – as those who read this blog semi-regularly may note – I gave up drinking soda, and through the course of doing that also stopped going to fast food restaurants as well. This worked amazingly well for me as I lost a lot of weight and felt much better about myself. Then I got a new job, and started going out to eat lunch on a regular basis. And so began the slowly expanding waist line.

What I’ve started doing (two weeks in and going strong) – is bring my lunch. A sandwich, some crackers of some sort, and a cup of low-fat (or sometimes even fat free) yogurt, accompanied by a 32 oz bottle of water (not bottled water, mind you, a water bottle I refill and carry around with me everywhere) provide me with a tasty lunch that is much healthier and a whole lot cheaper than going out constantly. But, taking my lunch at first made me miss out on the social aspect of going out to lunch. I also noticed that I was often not getting a break during the day as I worked through lunch. To combat that, I’ve taken to going out to lunch with my coworkers when they go (at least once or twice a week), but not ordering anything. I’m there for the company and the conversation. Then, when we get back from lunch I eat mine at my desk while I work on various things. I get the best of both worlds, and nobody has any objections.

The materials to make lunch for a week (or more) end up costing the same as just one or two lunches out…. and you can’t beat that.