Denver Airport is filled with different restaurants to choose from! However, once I made it past all the fast food, pastry and gourmet coffee shops, this was pretty much all I walked away with for lunch. And I brought the jar of nuts, seeds and raisins from home!
Eating clean while eating out at a fast food restaurant really isn’t possible in most cases.
At least not in the High Desert. There are no health food restaurants here.
You’ll have more luck if you live by the beach. There are so many great health food places to frequent there!
Wherever you live, you may occasionally find yourself in a situation where you will need to eat out at a fast food joint. And it’s for just such occasions that I have come up with four things you can do to pre-plan for those times, so you can make the best choices possible.
1) Eliminate the restaurants you will not eat at, and determine to NEVER go there.
I have personally crossed off all but a few fast food restaurants from the list of places I will eat at. Knowing that McDonalds, Burger King, Carl’s Jr, Del Taco, etc. are not even an option really helps me narrow down my choices, which in turn, helps me make better choices. It also ensures I won’t eat out at a fast food restaurant very often. 😉
2) Choose which places you will allow yourself to eat at occasionally
Limit your choices to the fast food restaurants with “better” ingredients and flexibility in ordering. My allowed fast food eateries are Chipotle, Flame Broiler, Baja Taco and In & Out for the most part. I can order just the ingredients I want at each of these places, and those ingredients are fairly good clean eating choices.
Occasionally if I feel like I want a splurge (about once or twice a month) I will go to Baker’s or my absolute favorite, Freddy’s. When I splurge, I pretty much get what I want…not the worst things on the menu, but not the best, either. I figure once or twice a month, if I am doing well the rest of the time, my body can deal with ridding itself of the toxins. I always get water to drink. Never soda. Soda is totally disgusting to me anymore.
As you can see, I do splurge. Occasionally.
3) Familiarize yourself with the menu and know what you CAN eat and what you will order BEFORE you get there
This is easy to do with fast food restaurants these days. It is very easy to look up most of them online and get their menu, as well as all the nutrition facts on their food. That will enable you to make a good, informed decision before you ever get to the restaurant, where the smells and sights might cause you to make some bad choices based on unhealthy cravings. It’s also very helpful that there is relatively little you can order and still keep it clean. If you limit the number of places you will go, and you limit the allowable items on the menu, then there are really only a few different menus to remember.
4) Limit how often you will eat out at a fast food restaurant
This will vary from person to person and depend on your schedule/lifestyle. I am able to be at home for most of my meals because I have a very flexible schedule that I can control, for the most part. I make sure my shopping trips and other appointments do not happen over a meal time as much as I possibly can. I eat out at a fast food restaurant about once a week, on average. On the other hand, my husband eats lunch out every day at work. He has chosen a few places to go that are “better options” and he tries to stick to those as much as possible.
Pre-planning makes all the difference. If you know where you are going, and what you will order when you get there, you will be less likely to go rogue and totally mess up your clean eating diet. You’re working hard to get your body in good working order.
Don’t mess it up for the sake of convenience!!!
When fast food is your only option…
Always go the restaurants website and check out the menu and nutrition info. Most have it, although some make it a little difficult to find! This will always help you to make a wise, informed decision on the best choice for you at this particular restaurant.
Note: NEVER EVER get drinks at a restaurant. Steer clear of the sodas and fruit drinks.
Flame Broiler: Their online nutrition chart is clear and easy to read. Brown rice is always better than white rice, and I order ½ the amount of rice they normally put in, and replace it with veggies. Notice, their broccoli and carrots do contain a little sodium. I also order all white meat (less fat and sodium). If you check out their nutrition panels for their sauces, you can see why you should totally skip them and bring your own! Lots of sugar and sodium and ingredients I can’t pronounce. It’s best just to bring some coconut aminos of your own! Their website announces right up front: No Added MSG | No Dairy | No Trans Fat | No Skin | No Frying | No HFCS (high fructose corn syrup)
Panda Express: This was their statement concerning MSG: “Panda Express does not add MSG to any of our entrees or sides and we do not purchase products from suppliers who add MSG. However, glutamate is found naturally in some ingredients.” They do not have gluten free foods, and they cannot promise allergy free foods, as they may have cross contamination during cooking. They do offer a great Nutritional Information download and a nutritional calculator to customized to the meal you create.
The best options for your sides would be brown steamed rice (not fried rice!) and steamed veggies. The chow mein is a really poor choice, as it has 490 calories, 22 grams of fat, 980 mg sodium, 9 grams of sugar, and contains processed wheat. In fact, all of their food is very high in sodium and sugars. I would skip any of their entrées that include sauces or coatings. The string bean chicken breast and beef and broccoli seem to be the best choices here. (I don’t go here unless I HAVE to)
The mainstay with any Chinese restaurant is brown rice and steamed veggies sprinkled with some light soy sauce (or better yet, bring a little bit of your coconut aminos instead of the soy sauce). Check to see if the restaurant is MSG free.
In & Out: The best choice here is a hamburger, protein style. I don’t find it terribly filling, however. 😉 The french fries are fresh potatoes cooked in trans-fat free, cholesterol free vegetable oil, which tells me it most likely contains GMO’s. It would be best to skip the fries, but if you must have some, get an order to split with someone, so you don’t wind up eating the whole thing!
Wendy’s: Their nutritional info. was a bit harder to navigate and you can’t see it all at one glance, but the info. is there for each individual item. I liked that you can order half salads as an option. They don’t seem too bad, if you forgo their dressings, although they are still high in sodium and sometimes sugar, depending on what you choose. You could fork on some mandarin orange segments to sweeten it up a bit, which are sold as a dessert. Or, you could order a dry baked potato with chives and broccoli (no cheese), plus a side salad (bring your own dressing). The Chili is often touted as a more healthful alternative, but check it out…it actually has about 40 different ingredients!
McDonald’s: Their Nutritional Information was 22 pages long, so make sure you set aside extra time when checking this one out! About the only things that might come semi-close to trying to eat clean are the side salad (no dressing; bring your own), Apple Dippers (without the dip, and realizing the apples have been treated to keep from turning brown; best to just bring an apple on the road with you!) and orange juice (surely not clean). Even their “healthy” option, the grilled chicken breast filet has about 26 different ingredients, and the liquid margarine in which it’s prepared has about a dozen more. Yuck! Now you see why I crossed McDonalds off my list of places to go!
Chipotle: I love Chipotle’s Ingredient Statement page! It lists every ingredient in every item in a clear and concise way. It also lists next to the ingredient if it is locally grown, responsibly raised, organic, and if it is pasture raised dairy. It continues to be responsible by listing ingredients that contain/may contain GMO’s, hydrogenated oils, and preservatives. AND it explains exactly what they mean by each term. LOVE it! It also has a special diet information page to address gluten and allergies. They also have a Nutrition Calculator, so you can customize the ingredients you get in your bowl, burrito, etc. to tell you the nutrient counts for the meal you created. I am totally impressed with Chipotle’s honesty and integrity in their ingredients.
Baja Taco: Baja Taco has no nutritional information on their website, but their menu is there, so you can check it out before you go. They may have nutritional information sheets there at the restaurant for you to look over. It would be best to skip the rice and just go with the tacos and beans.
Subway: Subway foods are incredibly high in sodium and cholesterol, as well as sugar. The best option here is to go with their chopped salad and bring your own dressing.
Bakers: Bakers is definitely not clean eating, but they do have a side salad. Bring your own dressing. Resist getting your food in a meal. Skip the soda and fries. 😉
Freddy’s: Freddy’s had no nutritional information online, but they should have it at the restaurant. They did have their menu online, so you could check it out before you go.
Pizzerias: It’s generally cleaner to eat at a local pizzeria than a chain. Most offer salads (bring your own dressing) and if you can top it with veggies, all the better! If you must eat pizza, see if they offer a whole wheat crust, and order the thin crust instead of deep dish. Pack on the veggies! I personally would forgo any meat in a pizza place, as most of it is greasy to me anyway. If you like meat on your pizza, try to stick with chicken or ground turkey when possible (realizing it is not going to be organic or hormone/antibiotic free), and totally avoid things like pepperoni and sausage. Then practice portion control!
When we stop thinking about our food, and what we are ordering, we are led by our cravings. Pure and simple. We can see where that has gotten us!
Even if we are not overweight because we happen to have a super metabolism or are still young, we are not nourishing our bodies with healthy food.
We will pay a price at some point in time, in some way.
All it takes is a little pre-planning, research and willpower to make smart choices.
Take the time.
Do your research.
Make wise choices.
Fit & Fearless after Fifty 