motd Thurs 4/15/2010

[Guest guest]

RESTAURANT WAKE-UP CALL

Thursday, 15 April 2010

Oh it's so wonderful to eat out. You just walk into the restaurant, order from the menu, wait for the waiter to bring your food, eat and...go home. No dishwashing or cleaning up the kitchen to worry about. It's all taken care of for you!

I remember the days I used to walk into a restaurant, look over the menu and just anything my heart or my stomach desired. Oh how I loved the appetizers. (I could make my whole meal out of them!) Bring me that platter of nachos, those coconut fried shrimp and that plate of buffalo wings...oh, yeah! Mmmm, I can taste them all now. And because they sound so good, I really wanted to order two or three entrees. Then of course, I had to save room for dessert. (I liked to get something sweet I may never have tried before.) I know I'm not the only one who feels this way about restaurants. Millions of people eat at fast food places or full-service restaurant chains on a daily basis in our country. How many restaurants do you think there must be in the United States, anyway? Oh, I'll bet there must be at least a couple of hundred thousand!

Well, have you heard? The government, in an effort to make us all more calorie-conscious of how much we're eating, is contemplating having all restaurants actually list the number of calories and fat grams in the dishes they serve. Oh, my! That means, in the near future, all restaurants may have to include the nutritional breakdown of their foods. That's right, you'll know the total number of calories and fat grams in whichever dish you order from the menu. And you know what else? When you see those numbers, you just may faint! Oh yeah, you wanted to order that cheeseburger but how're you gonna feel when you see that it contains over 900 calories and 40 grams of fat! And that serving of chocolate mousse? Well, it'll cost you 590 calories and 29 grams of fat. How does that sound? Start adding calories and fat grams from your appetizer, entree and dessert and, whoa! Looks like you've got enough calories in that meal to last you two or three days!Now I don't know when all this may start but I'm sure it's going to be a real shocker for a lot of Americans. (Especially for those who're trying to watch their weight!) But then there're those diners who won't even look at the numbers. They'll just keep on ordering the same foods they've always wanted to have.

And what do I think of this new idea? Well, I think we should know what we're eating when we dine out. I just don't think the numbers should be TOO BIG right next to the dishes. LOL.Now let me ask, do you know how many calories you eat daily? And do you know how many calories you should be eating daily? Well, you need to find out the answer to those questions. You need to know those numbers because that's the way you'll lose weight and be healthy.Everyone gains weight in the same way. They simply eat too much. (No surprise there, right?) My FoodMover booklet comes with a listing of the calorie contents of many of the restaurant foods we order everyday. (Seems we've been a step ahead of the government all along!) And I have to say, a lot of people end up shocked at the number of calories and fat grams many of those restaurant foods contain. You can quickly put away hundreds of calories and...many more than that when you eat out!So don't wait for that new law to take affect. Start today, figuring out for yourself just how many calories are in the foods you want before you eat...out!Love,