Sugar Detox: Day 17
Day 17: An empty fridge means I’m eating fast-food for dinner. So let’s draw up some rules, shall we?
It happens to the best of us.
You have a ridiculously long day at work. You come home, starving, and open the fridge.
Nothing.
Do I want to go to Wal-Mart and spend an hour and a half braving the ruthless crowds? Heck no, I’m hungry now.
I have two choices.
The first, I can spend the evening snacking on whatever foraged food I can find in my pantry (which I did yesterday, and no, peanut butter Ritz crackers and the last Special K bar do not constitute dinner).
The second, I can cave and eat fast-food.
For those of you who do not live in El Paso, let me fill you in on a little secret. This town, while amazing, is completely devoid of healthy fast-food.
No Cosi. No Jimmy Johns. No Pita-Pit.
Yes, we have Subways. But be honest with yourself, you can really only eat Subway twice a week before you start to get sick of it.
So, if I’m going to eat out, I going to have to eat smart so I don’t end up in stomach-cramps-ville like I did when I ate Wendy’s a week ago.
Based on healthy eating guidelines from about ten different health food sites, a healthy dinner consists of no more than 700 calories, no more than 22 grams of fat, no more than 8 grams of saturated fat, no more than 700 milligrams of sodium and no more than 90 milligrams of cholesterol.
Oh, and my personal rule of 15 grams of sugar or less as well.
I’m going to think of those numbers as a budget. Also, I’m going to try to make sure the things I’m eating are wholesome and not super-processed (so a quarter of a cinnamon roll doesn’t count as dinner even though it meets the guidelines).
First, I will decide what I am going to eat before I leave my apartment. Looking at the food-porno pictures in fast-food lines never ends in a good decision.
Second, yuck, the math. You will need a calculator, a piece of paper, and a basic understanding of college algebra.
Nah, just kidding. Use these tools provided by most fast-food places. You choose what you are going to eat, and it adds the meal up for you.
McDonalds Nutrition Calculator
Carl’s Jr. Nutrition Calculator
Whataburger Nutrition Calculator
30 minutes of adding and subtracting meal items at various restaurants later…
BINGO! I’ve got it. KFC is our winner tonight. I’m going to be having KFC original recipe chicken breast (no skin, no breading), Lipton Brisk green with peach tea, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a biscuit. The picture to your right is the result of the total meal calculated online using this KFC calculator.
The only thing I went over on in terms of dinner rules is the sodium. Could I cut out the gravy and biscuit? Sure. Do I want to? No.
Off to dinner I go.
