Fighting for the Chicken Fat! ...You Win.

My darling co-worker who was (formerly known as lazy-girl) was planning a nice evening out with a few of her girls at a local Greek restaurant. She was so excited about her upcoming meal that she wanted to get into a deep conversation about it. So the first thing I ask her was "have you looked up the nutritional facts from the restaurant website?" And of course she said no "why should I?" and I said "because you have set some food boundary and you need to be aware of the nut-facts before you go." I explained knowing the facts keep you in control of what goes into your body. Now, she found the healthy living light only 3 weeks ago and she is doing wonderful. She is not allowing herself to eat the unhealthy foods and she is making an effort to workout twice a week.

Okay, back to the earlier question regarding the nut-facts. Oh boy! she talked about how good the grilled chicken w/rice and the Greek salad with yummy dressing was going to just make her day. Her mouth was just watering and it sound really delicious. So I ask her "are you going to remove the chicken skin from the yummy chicken breast?" She looked at me like I had two heads and said "are you joking? No! I am not going to remove the chicken fat because that is the best part of the meal." I ask her "what makes eating chicken fat so good?" she said it's the favor from the seasonings. I said "seasonings and fat from chicken are two different things." She really went all out to justify why it was okay to eat the chicken fat. I listened like a good friend but I always came back with a reason why she should pass on the chicken fat. So, after 20 minutes into this intense conversation....no no debate about chicken fat, I told her to look at me and listen because I had a question for her. I ask "why would you deliberately digest fat from a chicken when you have been working so hard to get your own fat off?" Okay, there was a 30 second pause and during that time I heard and saw birds singing, and bee buzzing around her head. That question really took her for a loop. She slowly raised her head to me and said "FINE, YOU WIN!" I will try it without the skin-on just this one time. In my head I knew what she really wanted to say and that was "I WAS RIGHT" but I will take "you win". I also told her to get the dressing on the side so she could have more control over it. I gave her a hug and wished her luck.

California passed a bill last October requiring chain restaurants with 20 or more locations to post nutritional facts by 2011. California is the first state to enact such a law in the battle against obesity. I love this law because it allows me to see and understand what is going into my body. There is no more guessing about how many calories or fats I am consuming in one setting. Now, whenever I walk into a restaurant I always ask for the nut-facts before I order. It's about taking control and never having to ask "why did I eat that?" Guilt free life is the way for me. Just for fun I like to go check out different restaurants nut-facts and it amazes me how many calories and fat grams are in some of the dishes. Checkout: Chili's, T.G.I. Fridays, Chick fil A, Pat & Oscars, Cheese Cake Factory (nut-facts only in restaurant), etc. Some restaurants make it really hard to find the nut-facts but they are there just keep fishing. Here is one order that will blow your diet right out the water: Chick fil A - Peach Milkshake 21oz comes in at - 850 calories, 21g fat, 1g fiber, 15g protein, 144g sugars (there are 34 teaspoons of sugar in this one drink) most people have no idea about this sugar fact: one teaspoon of granulated white sugar is equal to about 4.2 grams. Divide 144 by 4.2 grams to get the number of teaspoons. This one shake just blows my brain away. I have not even added the meal to this total. With this information, there is no reason to wonder why Americans are so fat. We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand about what goes into our bodies.

My target goal when going out to eat: Calories 300 and under, Fat 5 g and under, Carbs 50 g and under, Chol 5 g and under, Fiber high as possible, Fat sat & trans none, sodium 200 and under. Sodium is really hard but I ask for no added salt. Most of the time I order from the side menu because there is more of a control factor involve. This can be expensive but in the end it is better for my body. Overall I prefer to eat at home and I do 98% of the time but now that I have the nut-facts all the fears of eating out has gone away.