I used to eat a lot of fast food during college but I haven't been a fast food crazed fanatic in yearssssssss. Oh, on occasion, I do grab a burger & fries or some chicken nuggets, etc. But seriously - I eat fast food maybe about 6x a year. Yes, that's right - PER YEAR.

But I've found that food can be just as calorie laden and nutritionally deficit at home. Mainly when you "don't cook" - like me. I'm all about the quick/easy microwave meals, or the "throw-it-in-a-crock-pot" meal. While there are many more positives in eating like that as opposed to eating a ton of fast food, I can say that SUGAR & SODIUM are demons that hides in so many things!!! For instance, I just did a sodium tally on a meal we made over the weekend that we're still eating left-overs from.

Brown rice (healthy, right?)
Ground turkey
Kidney beans
Black beans
Corn
Okra
Tomatoes
throw on four teaspoons of salsa & mix it all up
AND YUM!!!

But each of those ingredients came from a can (except the rice... it was from a box ...and the salsa from a jar... ) and the SODIUM CONTENT of one (small!!!) bowlful of our "healthy" meal was over 3000mg!!!!!!!!!!!! (choke, cough, sputter )

It would have been so much WAY healthier to have had FRESH ingredients. ~sigh~

I know sodium is crazy in foods. If you try the Progresso Soup diet you are going to go way way wayyy over you're sodium intake. If you have high blood pressure you are in trouble!

I love soup and if it wasn't so high in sodium I would eat it every day. I try to make my own soups, but bullion is so high in sodium itself! So...it makes it tough!

TV dinners and box dinners are crazy high in sodium too! I would probably eat some of them too with the low calories if they weren't a brick of salt...

UG limits!

mmm I love TV Dinners...Usually right before I get paid I run out of money to spend on much "Healthier" food, so I end up buying higher sodium boxed foods which in the end ultimatly doesn't affect my weightloss as you would think as long as I keep my water intake high. (besides the calorie count tends to be a lot lower too because of it...)

That's true too, I am just more weary because my brother and my father both have high blood pressure.

I laughed when I read this because I lived in Egypt for a while and the local grocery store (I lived in Suez) was a huge barn where lorries just drove in and dumped vegetables in huge conical piles.

You could see rats running all over the show and creepy crawlies .... well, creepy-crawling through the piles and half the produce was rotting in the middle of the stacks.

Anyway, if I wanted anything edible I would climb the stack. This was a dodgy thing because it can dislodge but that was the only way. If it was cabbages, onions, or melons or pumpkins, it was not so bad but if it was tomatoes, lettuces or other soft produce there were little kids that climbed for you for a couple of coins.

There was a powder sold by the local medical clinic that you put into the water in which you washed/soaked your vegetables.

I won't even go into what I occasionally found in my food in Egyptian cafes. Suffice to say the adage "What doesn't kill, strenghtens", is very true.

PS I read a white paper on chickens, that was leaked to a crowd sort of like wikileaks but pre-internet. I still eat chicken but I totally suppress what I learned!

I once had a blood sugar episode when I ordered grilled chicken at a restaurant. I thought I was making a relatively "safe" choice but then it turned out the sauce was loaded. Ugh. Now I just check before going and if I cannot check, I don't want to eat there.

Yup. That's about it.

A.

Yeah some foods are so misleading! It all depends on the resturant. For example some burgers can have 350 calories, and the next has 800...

That goes for fries, and other things you "think" are the same, but are made with who knows what.

Pizza Unos is crazy, Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza


2,310 calories
162 g fat 123 g carbs
4,470 mg sodium

"Downing this "personal" pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino's Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza." Mens Heath

Wow what a day...so dieting becomes much more challenging when you are out to eat with others.

So for work we all went to Dion's pizza for lunch. I tried going online to look up calories for their menu..nothing. I even asked them at the front and NOTHING!

So I didn't eat. My coworkers (all men) kept asking me if I was going to eat...then one of them got a big *** pizza and kept offering me a piece...literally it was sitting right in front of me!

BAH it sucked. I have only eaten 270 calories so far today. Although amazingly I am not that hungry...I think I have gotten used to the restricted calories. Still sucks, cause my mouth craves it more than my stomach hurts. BUT I am proud....proud and hungry haha.

OMG, this is what my husband calls (pardon my French) Fat Fu-- Food.

I keep a reserve list of calories in Potbelly sandwiches in my desk for the days I am just too lazy to pack a lunch, and have a few that are in the 400 - 500 range that I will do and not feel too badly about. And of course my fallback Subways and the veggie-based soups from Au Bon Pain. I know the sodium is sky high with those, but I compensate by drinking more water those days. And a couple of salads at Cosi are alright, just skip the bread (even if it is very tasty . . .).

LOL. Yeah resturants just are not calorie friendly. It makes it hard to diet and looking up all the foods online is a pain too!

I try to NOT eat out...I read an article that said the calories listed on the menu were vastly incorrect...sometimes by as much as 800 calories. Because the individual restaurants may use more/less oil/dressings etc.

Now if we go out, I ask for NO mayo/sauce on my burgers ketchup/mustard is ok. Dressing on the side, and I eat less than half the meal, take the rest home for lunch for the next 2 days.

Thanks for the calorie website...I'll have to check it out. I live on the west coast, and found that most of the restaurants here are NOT in their guide. So frustrating when I have to guess and leave a big deficit for 'mis-calculations'!

EXACTLY this!!! I avoid chain joints for this very reason! There are a few local places here that we LOVE. One of them is on an organic farm. Their food is to DIE for! It's good to support your local businesses and at the same time eat a lot healthier! You have to look, but these establishments exist!

I hate to be super nit picky on calories, but I think I am obsessed now......

I had a sushi roll last night, and I have NO clue what to even guess on it! It was cut into 8 little 2x1 parts...crab, shrimp, cream cheese, seaweed, avocado, and of course rice. It is not a big chain, so no nutrition facts on the web.

Does anybody know anything about sushi calories? What's good...how many calories a ballpark guess within 100 cals?

It was pretty damn good though!

Making your own stock is really easy and cost efficient, but if you don't want to, both Pacific Organic and Trader Joe's make low sodium broth that are 70mg sodium per cup. That is immensely lower than other "low-sodium" brands.

I eat homemade soup everyday, and if I'm not using homemade stock, it's one of these two brands.

I'd guess that roll is about 400-450 calories. The Philadelphia roll is about 350-400 ish (as the web states) and sometimes has avocado, but the rest of the ingredients are about right.

I love to get sashimi with crab, salmon, and avocado. It's worth it every time, but I do shy away from tempura, cream cheese, etc in my rolls.