Red Robin & Eating Clean

Before I started this Eat Clean Diet / healthy life style, we used to eat out all the time. We would frequently eat at McDonald's, Red Robin, Taco Bell etc. I didn't realize what was REALLY in that food. I mean I knew it was not good for you, but come on, is it really BAD for you? Well the answer is YES! YES its really bad for you! Not just "not good", I'm talking capital B.A.D.

For Sal's birthday we decided to go out to dinner. I suggested Hawgs Seafood Bar here in Campbell. We've been wanting to try it and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Plus I could order steamed fish and not completely fall off the wagon. Before we went I checked the reviews on Yelp. It got really mixed reviews. Some love it and some are repulsed by it. On the way there, I told Sal about the mixed reviews and he totally panicked. So at the last minute he decided on Red Robin which was just up the street. I don't really like eating at places like that, because its hard to find anything not greasy or covered in fat but it was his b-day celebration so I just went with it. I figured if I had to, I would eat a dry salad or something. Plus the kids can get fruit instead of fries with their burgers. (don't get me wrong I do allow my kids to have fries...but they are usually sweet potato fries and baked, NOT deep fried. I make them at home and they are quite tasty!)

California recently passed a menu labeling bill stating chain restaurants and fast food restaurants must list calorie counts on menus. The bill completely goes into effect in 2011 but for now the restaurants must provide a brochure or something available to customers with nutrition information on it.

After we ate I noticed the brochure on the table. I picked it up and was absolutely flabbergasted (yes I just said flabbergasted) and disturbed.

This is what we ate:
Me - Half Size Apple Harvest Salad & Water
Kids - Burger with Mandarin Oranges and a few Onion Rings & Lemonade
Sal - (appetizer) Onion Rings, Burnin' Love Burger, Fries & large Beer

Here's our Nutrition Info for the entire meal including drink:
Me - 294/cal
17g/fat
772mg/sodium
Turns out this was the healthiest thing on the menu and by half sizing it, I ate the correct portion, was full and still had room for cake :) Yae me.

Kids - 450/cal
12g/fat
436mg/sodium
I learned from the web site the Kids menu is totally customizable which they don't tell you. For example you can get a chicken burger or Garden burger etc. Why don't they tell you that?! Its a good thing!

Sal -
I felt the need to list these separate because the Onion Rings are totally outrageous.

Onion Rings
& Beer - 2159/cal
122g/fat
3843mg/sodium

Meal - 1422/cal
84g/fat
2485mg/sodium

Sal's total: 3581/cal
206g/fat
6328mg/sodium

Yes that is over most people's daily intake.....

The Red Robin website has a nifty little app where you can customize your meal and change things around and calculate the nutritional information based on what you want or don't want etc. The thing that was so shocking was who DOESN'T get a burger, fries and a beer at Red Robin. We all do usually. Would you if you knew what was in it?

I am not trying to be a food snob. Far from it. I believe in Eating Clean 95% of the time for myself and my kids (Sal, someday hopefully). Eating Clean is not a diet, its just a way of life. You don't even have to count calories.
Don't eat processed food (i.e. canned cheese, pre-packaged meals etc). Nothing deep fried. No Trans Fat or hardly any Saturated Fat. Lean meat like turkey, chicken etc. Its SO easy. When you are hungry don't eat a bag of Doritos, make a fruit salad. Who can't do that?
As for the other 5%, I still feel cake on birthdays is a MUST, frozen yogurt is delicious and M&M's during a crucial time of the month is a necessity.

I don't want to die young. I want to live a super long life and be that old hag lady that people say "Omg, is she still around?" I want to be here to see my grand kids and maybe great-grand kids. I want to not only be able to meet them but to play with them and run with them and tickle them till they cry!!!

The point of all this is to feel healthy on a daily basis which I do. I have tons of energy which I never had before. I love running. Me of all people. Miss Smoker McDonalds Pants loves to run....who in the world would have ever guessed a few years ago. Not me, that's for sure.