Some follow ups…

Putting too much pressure on your meals…

So I was standing in Subway today getting my usual sandwich.  I probably never should have eaten a toasted Italian B.M.T. on wheat, but now that I have, I am hooked.  That could be the best sandwich on earth.  I get it with lettuce, tomato, onions and green peppers, a little bit of ranch dressing and salt and pepper.  I end up skipping the ‘make it a meal’ option because all they have to go with the sandwich is chips.  It would be awesome if they would add a small side salad as an option.  They tried to add an Activia yoghurt for awhile and I was loving that, but it turned out I was the only one ordering the yoghurt, so they stopped offering it.

So, I was standing in line, in a bit of a rush as I was late for a meeting when the guy behind me ordered a 12″ steak and cheese sandwich with extra cheese and a 6″ B.M.T. with extra meat.  I knew without even turning around that this guy was going to be large.  I am assuming he was only eating one of the sandwiches, but still here is a classic example of putting too much pressure on your meal.  I totally get where he is coming from.  He probably thought about it a dozen times before committing to the double meat and cheese.  In the end, he probably thought that he deserved to be very full and he knew it was hours until dinner, so he went for it and ordered the extra meat and cheese.    When I was paying for my sandwich the guy added ranch dressing and thousand island…  I looked over and he was at least 80 pounds overweight.  The fact is, us unfit people love our food.  We do.  If we continually choose bad meal choices we will continue to be overweight.  If we put too much pressure on our meals we will be unable to make good meal choices.  It is a terrible cycle.

Subway has a ton of good meal options.  The 6″ Italian B.M.T. isn’t a great choice.  It is 450 calories before the little bit of ranch dressing (which isn’t bad).  Mind you, if you cover it in vegetables it really does make a good meal (It would be wise to drop the salami and pepperoni and maybe add turkey instead by the way).

A note about the good things that Subway does…

I am not the worlds biggest fan of subway and their Jared story.  I don’t think Subway is the healthiest choice on earth, but that said, they are infinitely healthier than many other choices.  Here is there nutritional criteria for children’s meals.  I wonder if we could use these standards as the standards for all fast food kids meals:

SUBWAY® Nutrition Criteria For Children’s Meals

Subway® recognizes the importance of providing children with a well-balanced meal that includes a variety of food groups. Our goal is to provide a meal that can fit into a daily menu that is consistent with the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The SUBWAY KIDS’ Pak™ meal includes grains, vegetables, fruits, lean protein (with the exception of the Veggie Delite®) and dairy when milk is ordered.

All the kids’ meals also meet the specific nutrition criteria:

• Less than 500 calories
• Low Fat/ <30% calories from fat
• Low Saturated Fat <10% calories from saturated fat
• Low Cholesterol
• Trans Fat Free, meals contain absolutely no partially-hydrogenated oil
• Contain at least 1 serving of fruit
• Less than 5% calories from added sugar
• SUBWAY® Marketing Policy For Children

Any advertising on children’s programming features the SUBWAY FRESH Fit for Kids™ meals, which meets the above listed nutrition criteria. SUBWAY FRESH Fit for Kids™ meals compliment an active lifestyle and are shown in advertising with a mini low-fat sandwich, apple slices and low fat milk. The kid’s meal automatically comes with 100% juice or low fat milk (not soda).

The things you run into at a GNC….

I was searching GNC on Twitter and I discovered that Khloe and Kim Kardashian were at GNC in LA and Las Vegas this last week as part of the promotion for their Cleanse and Detox.  I took a little while to chuckle to myself, after all, it isn’t every day that I think of the Kardashians and Jillian Michaels as having shared fitness advice.  Although I think this is funny, if I was Jillian Michaels I would be mortified.  After all, Jillian Michaels has significant achievements to be proud of.  She is a talented, accredited personal trainer who has helped millions.  I don’t even know who Khloe Kardashian is, except according to a magazine at the checkout at 7-11 someone called her fat when she wasn’t (or something to that effect, I didn’t quite read the cover and still it seeped into my unconscious).  All I know about Kim Kardashian is she was in a home made sex tape and she has a surprisingly large yet firm bum.  I am not sure if either of these things counts as an achievement, but maybe they do, who am I to judge.

The thing is, I was wondering why I felt that something was wrong with the world when I heard that Jillian Michaels was selling cleanses, detoxes and diet pills (with of course the exclusive EXTREME line of products available only at GNC), yet when I heard about the Kardashians doing the same thing I was thinking that makes sense.  Am I right to feel this way?  What do you think, is it hypocritical of me to expect more from Jillian Michaels?

I guess when you are famous for nothing, it makes perfect sense to put your name on any product that will help get your name out there.  It is the rule of promotion in a world where you don’t have anything to offer to help you get your name out.  Get in front of the camera as much as you can.  It is even better if you can get paid to do it, but it doesn’t matter what you are in front of the camera for, sex tapes, diet pills, celebrity break ups, whatever.

The other thing that struck me about the 2 products is that the Quicktrim product suggests that the diet cleanse is for when you ‘absolutely, positively MUST fit into your favorite dress or jeans, QuickTrim® Fast Cleanse™ will help you make an impression!”.  If you are interested in losing a bunch of weight really quickly, you don’t care what you are doing to your body, and you don’t mind the fact that all of the weight will come right back because it isn’t fat you lost, you can’t beat a good cleanse with diuretics.  There is some truth to the claims of this product (although there is a lot of questionable information as well).  I can’t believe that I have become so inured to product lies that I am applauding a little bit of truth from a product.  BTW,  I wonder, is the * going to become synonymous with product claims that have not been evaluated by the FDA…

Jillian Michaels New Spinoff…

Speaking of Jillian Michaels,  apparently NBC has offered her a new TV show where she is going to go to people’s homes and getting them fit.  Sounds awesome.  I just hope she gets to bring her cleanses and diet pills with her.  If she really uses and believes in these products to get fit, then I hope she can stand up to the Network and use the real techniques she promotes to finally show us, the general public, the consumers, her real program for weight loss.  I understand that the biggest loser uses her as a trainer, so she may not be able to bring all of her techniques to assist the contestants there, but I am betting that given this show is hers, we will finally see all of the methods that she uses.  How have the discussions gone with the Network Jillian?  Are they good with the cleanses and diet pills?  I would love to hear how that is going.