Casa del Gorda

There's been chatting today on a friend's FB status about Burger King's new breakfast menu. Turns out the new "Ultimate Platter" breakfast, consisting of pancakes, hash browns, and bacon, is a whopping (whopper?) 1300 calories. All told, I calculated it to 28 WW points. If you need a frame of reference...I get 25 points per day. By contrast, and surprisingly, the KFC double down, consisting of breaded chicken breasts in place of a bun with bacon and cheese in between is "only" 540 calories. That's shockingly low for what I expected, but I still don't plan on indulging anytime soon.

Later on in the day, this article about restaurant options was posted on my news feed. That chicken burrito from Chipotle? Yeah. I used to eat one of those per week (with chips).

This got me reflecting on another major change I had to learn to make, and which I alluded to a few days ago: I used to be a total restaurant junkie. Partly (mostly) because I was lazy. Partly because I liked the taste of the food better than what I made at home. I think it's no exaggeration to say I ate out five or six times per week, and I rarely made decent decisions when doing so...and of course, good decisions are virtually impossible.

One of my first decisions after joining WW was to stop this madness. I couldn't afford it, either monetarily or nutritionally. I poked around the Internet to see how bad my favorites were, and it made me blanch. I was eating a day's worth of calories/pts for every stinking meal I ate in a restaurant. I decided it was a major hurdle that I could take on immediately and feel good about. It also helped me because it made being in WW more affordable if I didn't spend the equivalent in a couple weeks' meals out.

I actually found it surprisingly easy, after the first week or so. When the weight started falling off, I made the connection that restaurant food was probably a major factor in my weight gain. The last major gain started my last semester of grad school when I was on fellowship. I used eating out as an excuse to leave my house since I didn't have class or teaching to get me out. Now, when I stopped that increasingly bad habit, the weight started to shed. It was an obvious link.

By the time New Year's rolled around, about six weeks into my new life, I noticed that A) I didn't miss it, B) when I ate out, I was more likely to feel sick to my stomach and hence C) I started wanting not to go out. That was a crazy realization. It's to the point now where I have to brace myself to go out. I only do it when I'm invited out, and then I work it out to minimize the damage (as I've written about before).

Going along with that, one of my little triggers for losing weight beyond "the photo" was that I was having frequent problems with indigestion and heart burn. To the point where I went to the doctor, with some concern. She offered me pills or a diet change. I chose pills. It helped, but I was extremely annoyed at the prospect of paying for the pills (esp. to the pharmaceutical companies). Once I started WW and quit eating out? You guessed it. I put those pills away. I only need them now when I eat stupidly, and even then I make myself suffer as a reminder of why eating stupidly should be a rare occurrence!

We live in a culture of luxury--one that allows us to frequently let someone else make and serve our food. But that luxury comes cheap only in the financial sense. It's also--literally--a heavy price to pay for our health. I don't regret ending my restaurant habit. If you eat out too much, you might consider cutting back a bit, too! Those pounds will come off as your bank account gets fatter.