my bonus tip: when you eat out, order water instead of soda. 0 bucks, 0 calories.If being an anonymous blip on a giant corporation’s assembly line makes you feel like a character in some bleak sci-fi movie, we’ve got good news. There are plenty of ways to fight back—to enjoy all the convenience of modern restaurants and all the foods you still like to eat without paying extra money every 6 months for a new pair of pants.
You see, all major restaurant chains—from the fast-food purveyors to the sandwich shops and coffee bars to the sit-down dinner joints with their vaguely Italian/Mexican/Chinese/whatever themes—operate with the same set of secrets, secrets they don’t want their customers to know. And if you know these secrets, well, guess what? The power to eat what you want and still stay slim is in your hands. Lucky you!
This list of sneaky secrets, straight from the book Eat This, Not That! Restaurant Survival Guide will help you start taking back control! And, even better, we’ve created an Eat This, Not That! iPhone app—it’s like having your own personal nutritionist at your fingertips!
Secret #1: Don’t get “supersized”
Sure, it feels like you’re getting a bargain because you’re getting proportionately more food for proportionately less money. But a “value meal” is only a value for two sets of people: the corporations that make the food and the corporations that make liposuction machines and heart stents. Because food is so inexpensive for manufacturers to produce on a large scale, your average fast-food emporium makes a hefty profit whenever you supersize your meal—even though you’re getting an average of 73 percent more calories for only 17 percent more money. But you’re not actually buying more food. You’re buying more calories. And that’s not something you want more of.
Secret #2: Remember, the waiter is a salesperson
A 2005 study published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services found that you’re more likely to order a side dish when the server verbally prompts you. (“Do you want fries with that?”) Restaurants know this, and now you know it, too. When the waiter makes a suggestion, remember his job is not to make you happy. His job is to extract money from your wallet and insert fat in its place.
Secret #3: Don’t get too excited
You eat out all the time. A 2008 study in the International Food Research Journal found that people are less likely to make healthy restaurant choices when they feel that they’re dining out for a “special occasion.” And as we said, dining out used to be special. But before you head out to your next meal, really take stock of how many times you’ve eaten out this week. If you’re eating every meal at home and dining out truly is a once-a-week splurge, then don’t worry about it so much. But if you’re like most of us, eating out is probably more like a once-a-day splurge. And if that’s the case, remember, there’s nothing special here. Eat smart today because you’ll have to do it again tomorrow.
Secret #4: Start small
Here’s the good news: No one is going to stop you from ordering seconds. So be like any good businessperson, and start small. Here’s exactly how expensive it really is whenever you go for the “bargain”:
7-Eleven: Gulp to Double Gulp Coca-Cola Classic: 37 cents extra buys 450 more calories.
Cinnabon: Minibon to Classic Cinnabon: 48 more cents buys 370 more calories.
Movie theater: Small to medium unbuttered popcorn: 71 additional cents buys you 500 more calories.
Convenience store: Regular to “The Big One” Snickers: 33 more cents packs on 230 more calories.
McDonald’s: Quarter Pounder with Cheese to Medium Quarter Pounder with Cheese Extra Value Meal: An additional $1.41 gets you 660 more calories.
Subway: 6-inch to 12-inch Tuna Sub: $1.53 more buys 420 more calories.
Wendy’s: Classic Double with Cheese to Classic Double with Cheese Old Fashioned Combo Meal: $1.57 extra buys you 600 more calories.
Baskin Robbins: Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Kids’ Scoop, to Double Scoop: For another $1.62, you’ve added 390 calories.
The bottom line on all this? For just a hair more than 8 bucks, you’ve bought yourself an additional 3,620 calories. If you ate each of these once a week, and you were to switch to the smaller size each time—again, still all your favorite foods, just in a more reasonable size—you’d save about $417 a year.
It’s not going to buy you a new car, but it could put you on a plane to the Bahamas. But far more important than that is what it will mean to your waistline, because in saving that $417, you’ll also save 188,240 calories in a year—enough to shave a whopping 54 pounds of flab off your body! (Hey, take the 400 bucks and buy some new pants!)
If you eat out say +/-5 times a week and order a $2 drink = +/-$10 a week; +/-$40 a month; +/-$480 a year.
12 oz of Coke: 150 calories 5 times a week = 750 (more than 1/3 of one day's total based on a 2000 calorie daily diet); 3000 calories a month; 36000 calories a year.
- Don't ever order fish on a Monday
- Don't ever order anything that's usually expensive but is now a dirt cheap "special", because it's crap that's usually dressed up bigtime with sauces to cover up the fact that it's hours from being thrown out.
- Don't ever piss off your waiter
You're buying both.But you’re not actually buying more food. You’re buying more calories.Sometimes I do want more food and calories.And that’s not something you want more of.
-Never marry Robin Givens
Is Ice Tea ok?
at $1.85 a pop 5 x a week = $5.25
$5.25 @ week x 52 = $273.00 a year
no, just drink water!
I don't know about most people but when I go to most restaurants I get my moneys worth on drinks! I usually order 4-5 refills of my iced tea. So that 1.85 stretches out quite a bit.
not the greatest piece of writing I've ever seen either, but he has a few decent points.
$1.85 x 5 = $9.25
$9.25 x 52 = $481.00
Can't believe no one fixed the math yet.
Also, restaurant secrets? The article only mentions fast food joints. Anyone who is eating there often enough to need these tips, or who is oblivious enough to need an article to point them out, has much bigger problems than spending an extra couple hundred dollars every year on french fries.
Thanks girl/boy.........I was doing it in my head!
an article stating fast food is bad
did someone write this for their english 101 class?
Naw, I thought it was related math -99!!!
Might as well pig-out and get your dollar's worth. Eating out isn't good for you or your wallet, whether or not you cut out an extra 40 french fries or add a water. Might as well go all the way and cut out all dining out. Save a few thousand bucks a year and not end up with clogged arteries and diabetes from all the glucose in your blood.
Or hey bring your own food when eating out! Great ideas!
+1Actually sundays can alrready be dicey for fish (specially if you don't know the place).
- Never order your steak "well done". They keep a special stock of low quality steak and/or cutoffs, because once it's burned you can't tell the difference.
Read this: http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confid...4868354&sr=8-1
This is very true. When I worked food service in my younger days, we would order our steaks in cryo-vac packages. When they might start to get a little "funky, we'd marinate them, and sell them as teriyaki sirloins.
You're so badThanks girl/boy.........I was doing it in my head!
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