Biffster’s WeightJournal.com

I have been baffled lately at the restaurant industry’s strong objections to being required to give nutritional information for their meals in the post-Supersize Me world. I do realize that, for the most part, the restaurant industry places much more value in profits than in providing healthy meals. But certainly restaurants would want to follow McDonalds lead and provide easy access to nutritional information as a way to get some easy positive PR.

That doesn’t seem to be the case, as most restaurants either don’t make their nutritional information easy to find, or don’t make it available at all. For example, try getting nutritional information directly from Outback Steakhouse. Don’t even bother trying from Claim Jumper. They won’t provide info for most of their menu. One need not imagine how unhealthy their food must be for these restaurants to actively refuse to provide nutritional information.

On the other hand, there are some restaurants that go out of their way to provide their customers with excellent nutritional information. McDonalds has to be the hands-down best at this in the generic fast-food market. I have not seen any other chain that actually prints nutritional info on the packaging of each individual item. I still refuse to eat at McDonalds any longer, especially after seeing Supersize Me. But I have to applaud their efforts in this area.

Taking a step up to premiere fast-food places, Tokyo Joes does a great job of providing a list of nutritional information for all menu items on their website. That is fantastic; I love Tokyo Joes. And their food is low enough in calories/Points that I can eat their frequently. QDoba, however, goes one step above and beyond. QDoba has a nutritional calculator on their website. It’s fun to use, as a person can customize their order exactly to their liking, and then see just how good/bad their choice was. Unfortunately, pretty much everything I like at QDoba is quite Points expensive (anywhere from 12 Points for a burrito to 27 Points for steak nachos), so I tend only to eat there once or twice a month.

For family restaurants, anyone on Weight Watchers knows that Applebees is amazing nice to us. Applebees has a WeightWatchers section on their menu, with quite a few dishes and a couple of appetizers that are both semi-low in Points, and (more importantly) have the Points and nutritional information listed. Red Robin shows them up, however, by having an ultra-cool Customizer on their website. The Customizer allows you to interactively and visually customize your meal, and then view nutritional information. It’s basically an information-packed toy! And it is how I found out that a Grilled Salmon Burger without sauce and a side of grilled veggies is only 10 points!

My personal philosophy: When I am going to eat out, I’ll choose restaurants that make their nutritional information available and easy to find. I simply will not do business anymore with a restaurant chain that feels that they have to hide their info from their customers.

Current weight: 316.5
Difference from last entry: -3
Difference from 2007 starting weight (335.5): -19

What a fun week! It’s been kind of exciting, because I knew that I was doing well. I knew that I was sticking to my plan, so I knew that I would be losing weight. And I knew that this was because of my conscious effort to change my behaviors. I’ve gotta tell you, after all these years of re-gaining weight, losing again – and losing by working at it – feels great. It feels like a major accomplishment! And while this may sound a little vain, I’ll say it anyway: I’ve done a great job so far!

I am almost down 20 pounds from the start of the year. And every time I pick up a 10-lb bag of flour to test our scale, I realize just how much weight that is! I am still obese, but I weigh a hell of a lot less now than I did in January. I am making progress, and I am doing it the right way: slowly, carefully, and by changing my habits, not by going on some fad diet that I’d never be able to stick to.

I’ve done a few things this week that I need to make a permanent part of my life. First of all, I’ve been getting in a little more exercise. Twice this week, when I got home from work, C and I changed into comfy clothes and went for a walk to a local park. C loves to get out and play; he doesn’t even realize that we are exercising. My body notices it, though, and relishes it. I’ve been too sedentary for far too long. My body is letting me know that I need to get up and get moving.

I have also greatly reduced my trips to fast-food restaurants. This has always been one of my major challenges, especially in the morning. I love to have breakfast out, to eat it at my desk. The bad thing is: there are very few fast-food places that make healthy breakfasts. Any that do serve things like yogurt and granola, or oatmeal, or fruit plates. This is all stuff I can easily make/bring from home. And so I do! It’s been a while since I’ve stopped for breakfast in the morning. And I am getting used to it quite rapidly.

One thing that has helped amazingly is our new espresso machine. I think I mentioned that I splurged on bought us a Breville Cafe Roma. It’s been fantastic. I can make damned good lattes in the morning, now, so there’s no need for me to stop at one of the local coffee shops. And when I don’t stop there, the temptation to either grab a super-sweet, calorie packed snack or to stop at a fast-food restaurant is greatly reduced.

Now this isn’t to say that I’ll never eat out for breakfast. Every now and then I will, to indulge a craving, or just to add some variety. But my key goal is to not do so regularly. and definitely nowhere near as often as I was. I can see the difference that makes in both my waistline and my wallet. Those’re both good reasons to stop, or at least cut down rapidly.

All in all, this has been a great week. I’m looking forward to more to come!

Current weight: 323
Difference from last entry: +2
Difference from 2007 starting weight (335.5): -12.5

Hehehe… just call me Mr. Yo-Yo! The last couple of weeks have been interesting. Though I do have a very good excuse for the weight gain this week: travelling. I was out of town on business. And, unfortunately, the hotel that I was staying out was far enough off the beaten path that my only method of getting meals was having them delivered. And we all know just how healthy delivery meals are. There weren’t a lot of healthy choices, either.

For the most part, I had a decent breakfast and a healthy lunch. I am trying to expand my diet into foods that I don’t normally eat – for example a lot of veggies, fish, etc. I managed to do that for lunches while traveling. But dinners consisted largely of cheesey breadsticks, pizza or buffalo wings. That is not the way to lose weight!

On the plus side, it was only two pounds. And I am already seeing my weight go down. Part of it is what I am re-learning at Weight Watchers. Part of it is being able to choose healthier meals. And part of it is simply being more active at home and at work than I was while travelling.

I full expect that this week’s gain is a fluke, and won’t be repeated.

Great news for those of us who cannot resist the siren call of KFC, even though we know it is not good for us: KFC is switching away from trans fats! (via baltimoresun.com):

KFC announced plans yesterday to eliminate most artery-clogging trans fat from its food by April 2007, swapping for a healthier oil that executives say doesn’t compromise the finger lickin’ quality.

As much as I know I shouldn’t, I eat at KFC a lot. It’s so easy, and it tastes so good. I love the fact that the chicken I order will be a little less fattening, and a little kinder to my heart. I wonder if I can hold off having anymore ’til next April?

There’s very good news about Wendy’s from Boston.com: “Wendy’s International Inc., the third-largest US hamburger chain, switched its 6,000 US restaurants to a healthier cooking oil that doesn’t contain any of the trans fats that increase the risk of heart disease.”

This is huge! No one is pressuring Wendy’s to make the changes they are. No one is picketing their restaurants nor suing them for using trans fats. Wendy’s is responding to the current trend of customers wanting healthier foods. I applaud them for making this move!

So some dude over at DrGourmet.com came up with a list of “healthy” fast food selections:

I have created this list of selected items from common fast food restaurants for you to use when you must eat out. I have kept it pretty straightforward and the only information included is calories and fat. The items listed fall generally under 400 calories or so and under 15 grams of fat. If you are going to be stuck eating at such restaurants this is a fairly good guideline to use for any meal.

The guides are in the form of PDF documents, one per fast food chain. I think that this is a fantastic idea. It’s good to have these and not have to guess at how many calories a given entree has. Especially for chains that aren’t exactly friendly about giving out nutritional information. I recommend printing these out and keeping them handy.