Fast food — Obviously not what you probably came to teamRIPPED to read about. The fact of the matter is that fast food is everywhere. There is no doubt about its grip on our nation and the fast food lifestyle is one of our most unhealthy habits. There are absolutely horrible choices on every single fast food restaurant’s menu. The problems with many of the fast food options doesn’t stop here, but it is easy to see the draw to fast food with how the food is cheap, easy, and designed to be very addicting. Look at our nation’s waist lines and you know that fast food has a tight hold on many people. Check out the line at your local McDonald’s during the morning commute and better yet at lunch.
So what do you do when you “have” to stop at one of these fast food restaurants. Yes I said “have.” You could have planned ahead. You could have kept an extra scoop of whey and some almonds in your car. Or you could have even skipped that meal… but you stopped there, so I’m done beating you up (for now). Sometimes things happen totally out of the blue and there has to be a way to eat fast food without killing your fat or carb budget for the next three days. Here are some of the better options if you find yourself in a fast food “emergency.” Pay special attention to track ALL your food in an “emergency.” You will be amazed at how one meal at a fast food restaurant will sink your budgets. Even with a couple of these meals, you will probably be shuffling around your macros for the evening. Maybe even eating smaller portions at dinner to compensate for the “emergency.” I am not going to get into the quality of the food either. That is a choice you have to make. If this is truly an “emergency” you won’t be doing it often, so let’s not worry about that.
Fast Food Options
Subway – seems like a winner right? They have Jared and he lost a lot of weight :-). Sure, but you still want to be mindful of your goals. Even a 6″ sub carries A LOT of carbs. I would suggest you go with a salad without cheese.
If you order double chicken, you will bump your protein to 38g and only add another 76 or so calories. If you have to order a dressing, the Fat Free Italian is an ok option. Get it on the side (in a packet) and add it yourself. You still will be getting out of there almost to 270 calories. That is a pretty lean option loaded with protein.
Taco Bell – You won’t be reaching for a huge burrito if you want to reach your goals. Not if you don’t plan on cheating on your nutrition plan! Fortunately Taco Bell has some lighter options. You might think that I would steer you clear of anything with a tortilla and point you to a salad, but watch out as you’ll see.
So they make it look all healthy, which it probably is, but don’t confuse health with lower calorie or your goals. And don’t think because you might call it “clean” that it won’t cause you to cheat. As I described yesterday, cheating can happen with any food that doesn’t meet your nutrition plan. This Cantina bowl has over half your day’s fat at 22g if you are on 1900 Fat Shredder. Yes it’s from avocados, but if you don’t account for that, it doesn’t matter! It also has 64g of carbs, if you don’t have that many carbs left when you decide to order this, it’s not a good call.
Order a couple Fresco Chicken Soft Tacos and keep it light. The tacos will hold you over and only use 300 calories (this is updated – thanks Jai!). You’ll get 36g carbs, 22g protein, and 7g fat. Not the biggest meal but probably not a meal that will throw your day off. Oh and you should know this, order water.
McDonald’s – Yes, it’s salad time again. McDonald’s has some really rough options. One of the lighter choices is a salad. Again, this will just hold you over until you can get back to your plan, but it won’t ruin any of your budgets so badly that you will only be able eat protein from 3 pm until bed. (A dinner of only 10 oz of chicken is not that fun.)
I would drop the bacon bits and also would eat this without any dressing. You will at least be getting a good serving of protein and not too many carbs or fat. I hope you are understanding it is best to avoid fast food.
Chic-Fil-A – I’ve talked about these before, but I am going to pass on a salad here too. If you go with a Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich, you won’t do too much damage. 290 calories, 4g fat, 28g protein, and only 36g carbs. This will fill you up a little more too. And remember NO MAYO!
Fast Food “Emergency” Averted
I hope you can see that with most of these fast food options it will still take some tweaking and adjustments to make your entire day work. Most fast food options will be lower in protein than you are used to. Fat is not the only danger, but carbs too when you are eating out. There isn’t anything inherently bad about either fat or carbs, they are just “bad” if they don’t meet your goals. Don’t let these fast food “emergencies” happen to you. I hope you’ve heard the saying before and know that it is true, but “failing to plan is planning to fail.” Have a back up protein bar, scoop of whey, almonds, apples, or packet of Shakeology for the times when things don’t go as planned. In doing so, you really will always have a plan and not be tempted to break your commitment to yourself and your goals.
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
