The launch of Fat Ho Burgers feels like a soft opening. A temporary sign featuring the name in bright red letters flutters above the front door. Not much has been done to spruce up the interior—the mural of a mariachi band on the wall makes it clear that the restaurant has not received a fresh coat of paint since its last life as a taqueria. Mismatched chairs are pushed up to the tables, which are covered in plastic-coated red tablecloths.

Newly minted restaurateur Lakita Evans, 24, said the joint’s provocative name came to her when she was watching Mo’Nique’s 2006 film Phat Girlz. “I was trying to make myself laugh,” she said. “I knew the name would put a smile on people’s faces, so I just did it.”

Evans, a 2005 graduate of Waco High School, studied culinary arts at community college and worked overnight shifts in the produce department at Walmart prior to striking it out on her own. “All I wanted to do is find a way in this economy,” she said. “I was just planning on opening a regular burger shack. I didn’t know it was going to be like this.” Fat Ho Burgers has been so popular that they’ve been selling out each day.

The burger joint has enjoyed both national and international media attention since opening its doors last Tuesday. There has been some handwringing over the suggestive name from local churches, and others have complained of the restaurant’s casual misogyny. But business is booming. Some glass-half-full Wacoans view any press as good press for the town. “Shout out to @fatHOburger for making Waco in the news for something other than drugs, Baylor and Branch Davidians,” Katie Beaird tweeted. A fan (perhaps hoping to piggyback on the restaurant’s buzz) has even written and recorded a theme song for the restaurant, with the chorus: “Fat Ho Burgers, juicy as they want to be/Fat Ho Burgers, one bite will set you free.”

Two Baylor freshman made the trek from campus to the restaurant after hearing about it on the news. The pair braved the lunch rush Monday, when they patiently waited over an hour for their food.

Both admitted they were intrigued by the name. “I’m sure the name was a shock to some of the people in the community,” said Thomas Gibbons, 19. “It’s smart though—it’s packed.” Native Houstonian George Strake, 19, joked about the lack of dining options in town. “It’s always exciting when there’s a new restaurant in Waco,” he said. “It’s amazing what a name can do,” Strake said of Fat Ho’s busy first week.

But while the name will get you in the door, the food won’t necessarily keep you coming back. “Supa Fly Ho with Cheese” was not especially juicy—or fatty, as the restaurant’s name would suggest—and the patty itself was almost charred. Strake said while his Ho burger wasn’t amazing, he preferred it to the fare at Health Camp, Waco’s other cheekily named burger joint.

Evans’ offerings are unlikely to score her a spot on TEXAS MONTHLY’s 50 best burgers list unless her cooking catches up to her marketing acumen. In the meantime, she can cash in on the name’s shock value. Both Baylor students happily chirped that they’d buy Fat Ho T-shirts if the restaurant were to sell them.

I always found the “moral” critique of the restaurant to be an interesting one. I mean, we’re a capitalist society, right? And realistically speaking, a capitalist society is only as “moral” as its buying public. That’s why “Fat Ho Burgers” can flourish next to a “Gospel Cafe” that serves meals to the homeless. If it isn’t sacred to the people of/near Waco, then someone’s gonna use it to make money.

And while the “double standard” question – would this be funny if a Black man or non-Black person did this? – is an interesting one, I don’t know that I’d be ashamed of my answer. It’s the equivalent of “Bitch Cafe” to me. The person behind the restaurant had better have a damned good answer of why they’re misappropriating such a loaded term, and their answer had better be believable.

Lastly, that Ho up there? He does not look Supa Fly. It looks like a bun made of enriched flour; I can’t tell what’s going on with that meat and, although I don’t eat beef, I spent enough time working in restaurants to be able to identify the quality of the food I’m looking at; those fries look a little less than appetizing and that looks like a slice of processed cheese food product. I was hoping she could do much better – and she still can – but right now, Clean is something that that Ho up there… is not.

I’m still proud of her, buuuut… I reserve my financial support for restaurants that serve quality products. Here’s hoping that she’ll get there someday.

Fat Ho Burgers Receiving Negative Critiques is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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Post tags: fat ho burgers, restaurant, restaurants

Now, I don’t remember everything from my time working in a restaurant, but the [not-so-funny] thing about this is cooking your meats only kills the bacteria that speeds up the rotting process, no? It doesn’t necessarily kill the bacteria that could grow within the product and make you ill.

This is another reason why trying to eat locally (and support restaurants that purchase their ingredients locally) – minimal transfer and transporting time. There’s nothing more traumatizing than hearing “they do it on purpose – running the refrigerator costs more fuel.”

The fact that the second day of investigations yielded NO law-breakers lets us know that they are capable of abiding by the rules… they’re just not.

So what can you do?

• You can start with trying to support your local farms via CSAs (community supported agriculture) and farmers’ markets.
• You can follow up with visiting well-kept grocery stores that support local agriculture – that way, even if they are, for some strange and foolish reason, still only importing food without refrigerating it, it won’t have had to travel two thousand miles to get there.
• Support mostly restaurants that make it a point to talk about how they get their produce from local sources.
• And, lastly, cut down on the amount of out-of-season fruits and veggies you consume. Please don’t think your avocados in December are being home-grown in Snowville, USA. It’s just not financially wise nor is it sensible.

Thoughts?

Video Vault: How Fresh Is Your Favorite Restaurant Or Grocery Store’s Food? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Video Vault: Robyn O’Brien (@unhealthytruth), And The Quest For Real Food
2. Video Vault: America The Beautiful
3. Video Vault: …In The Whole Foods Parking Lot!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dining out, food, fresh fish, fresh fruit, fresh meats, fresh produce, fresh vegetables, groceries, locavore, locavorism, produce, restaurants

$55 -- Lobster-and-black-truffle salad at the Four Seasons;Credit: Johnathan Beskin

“It’s insanity!” says 28-year-old public relations consultant Erin Ward, who was recently on line at a Midtown salad bar. “You’re not paying for the food at that point. You’re paying for the name.”

Indeed, a salad with similar ingredients — diced chicken breast, bacon, blue cheese, hard-boiled egg, avocado, tomato and baby greens — from run-of-the-mill takeout joint Café Metro costs just $9.57 with tax.

And yet some New Yorkers are willing to pay even more green for their greens. Now that summer’s officially here, the city’s most exclusive restaurants are awash in exorbitantly priced rabbit food. The luxe leaves are selling so well that chefs are staffing up the garde manger cold station just to meet the warm-weather demand.

Call them “status salads” — among them the $55 lobster-and-black-truffle salad at the consummate Midtown power lunch spot Four Seasons and the $25 chopped chicken salad at Fred’s at Barneys.

All of which begs the question: How much can you get away with charging for a salad?

“It depends on what’s in it and where you’re eating it,” says guidebook CEO Tim Zagat.

C’mon, out with a number!

“$100 — if you sprinkle enough caviar on top,” he replies.

That artfully plated $55 lobster-and-black- truffle salad at the Four Seasons ­— with a sculptured village of seasonal vegetables — is certainly selling well. When it was a special last week, the titans of industry who gather in the Grill Room gobbled up 30 of them in a single day.

But the popularity of double-digit salads isn’t just about the ingredients, it’s the swank surroundings.

Unlike Michael’s, Café Metro doesn’t have art by David Hockney on its walls, Christofle silver on its tables and actor Michael Douglas lunching with the powerful, Gekko-esque Henry Kravis a couple of seats over. And let’s not forget the impressive size of the Michael’s salad.

[...]As it turns out, New Yorkers are fiercely loyal to their status salads.

“It’s my death-row salad,” says p.r. maven Diana Biederman of the famous Gotham Salad at Bergdorf Goodman. Currently served in the department store’s swanky seventh-floor restaurant BG, it combines diced chicken breast, ham, gruyère, tomatoes, bacon, beets, hard-boiled egg, lettuce and Thousand Island dressing.

Price tag: $25.

Admittedly, it was cheaper back in the ’80s, when Biederman first got hooked. At the time, she was making $6.25 an hour as a salesgirl at Laura Ashley, scrimping and saving just to indulge every few months.

“Since they’ve gone fancy, it’s a little overpriced,” she concedes.

Still, die-hard dieters maintain their salads amount to much more than mere washing and assembling.

“All that meticulous chopping — it would take me an insane amount of time to make,” says Biederman.

‘21’ executive chef John Greeley, who serves a $31 Cobb salad complete with quail eggs and artisanal bacon, agrees. “Each vegetable is cut in a certain way to enhance texture and flavor,” he says. (Note to the hoi polloi: The Cobb will appear as an appetizer on the Summer Restaurant Week menu — three lunch courses for $24.07!)

According to defenders of double-digit salads, the brawny entree-size bowls offer a fairly priced fine-dining meal — especially since they’re so sizable, they’re frequently eaten without an appetizer.

And then there is the simple matter of setting. After all, the pricey greens are often just a civilized pretext for wheeling and dealing.

“If I’m having a business lunch, obviously I’m not taking them to Dishes,” says ‘21’ regular Alexandra Lebenthal, referring to the East 45th Street assembly-line salad spot she occasionally frequents.

The CEO of financial firm Lebenthal & Co. and author of the forthcoming novel “Recessionistas,” Lebenthal is something of a salad connoisseur. In addition to regularly nibbling on the Cobb at ‘21’ (hold the blue cheese), she’s also a fan of the $25 chopped chicken salad — a mix of shredded chicken, avocado, onion, tomato, pears and bibb lettuce tossed in a Dijon mustard-balsamic vinaigrette — at fashionista-friendly Madison Avenue eatery Fred’s.

“At the end of the day, is there anything as satisfying as a salad — except maybe chocolate cake?” she muses.

Still, she’s a bit surprised when told the ‘21’ Cobb salad costs $31.

“I actually never looked at the price,” she laughs.

So, what’s the most she’d pay for a salad?

“$32.”

And what will she do if ‘21’ raises the price?

“Hopefully they’ll grandfather me in,” she says. “I’m a longtime customer.”

For Pulse: Freds @ Barneys Freds Chopped chicken salad $25 Dollars - Credit: Johnathan Beskin

I didn’t want to paste those parts out of context, but I think it’s important to see the highlighted passages.

To me, there are a couple of interesting aspects to this article. For starters, I’ll tell y’all the same way I responded when I first saw this article: “If all of the ingredients are organic, if the blue cheese is homemade, if nothing comes from a bottle and if that chicken is organic and free range… if everything is chopped and pitted correctly and I’m not bothered by seeds or other vegetable innards? You’re darn straight I’d pay that much for it. No bacon though. #TeamAntiBacon”

I place a high value on the food I bring into my body and share with my daughter. Some people value their shoe collections (believe me, I am one of those people), some people place a high value on their clothing and for others, it’s their jewelry. I.. I value food.

I appreciate the experience. I make a big deal out of eating. I like pomp and circumstance. I like simplicity. I like dishes and dining experiences that find an appropriate balance between the two. As someone who worked both in a franchise restaurant (think Applebees, Fridays, Chili’s type places) and a small fine dining restaurant, I’ve learned a lot about the difference between dining and feeding. One includes an experience worth every dollar, and one includes an experience where you get what you pay for.

Having said that, there’s also an interesting – and disturbing – bit that needs to be highlighted, here. All the food history that I know… has consisted of this interesting volleying between the rich and the poor. Not the “upper class” and the “middle class.” The rich. And. The poor. There is no middle ground between those who can, and those who cannot. Once upon a time before food manufacturing wasso big, the rich were “the fat ones,” gorging on every fruit and vegetable they could get their paws on. Devouring every ounce of beef and pork they could. This is why the women were accepted for being curvier – it was a sign of being moneyed.

The poor were skimping – portion controlling, saving, penny pinching. Mixing different ingredients so that they could make a lot out of very little. It made tons of sense. It still does.

When food manufacturing became the thing, and people were rushing out to eat this… food… American waistlines started to grow. Everyone scrambled left to right to figure out what the cure for this problem was – more likely, so that food manufacturers could chemically engineer the “problem” out of the food, allowing you to buy as much of it as you want – but the rich.. they pretty much already knew. They went back to minimalistic dining principles. Clean eating.

Compare the menu of your favorite restaurant (provided it isn’t a fine dining one) to the menu of a fine dining restaurant. Compare the portions. Compare the make-up of the dishes. A $36 salad.. that’s enough to buy two racks of ribs, three handfuls of fries and a shot of tequila at the franchise restaurant I have in mind. You might even be hard-pressed to find something like ribs at a full fledged fine dining restaurant.

My point, really, is this – while we’re so busy trying to “live it up” and “live through food,” the upper class are taking the simple route and making the eating more about the experience. While franchise joints are rushing to offer up huge steak and shrimp dinners, fine dining restaurants are focusing more on the experience of dining – not the need to feed – and raising the price on it.

Sounds like all the more reason to create my own dining experience – taking the simplistic route with my dishes and save by cooking from scratch – how about you?

The $36 Salad: An Exercise In Elitism? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Elitism On A Food Stamp Budget?
2. Q&A Wednesday: Exercise Won’t Make You Thin?
3. Three Great Ways To Exercise At Home

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: classism, clean eating, elitism, NY Post, restaurants, social eating, society

I’m not gonna lie – this is more for me than it is for you, dear reader, because I have a bad habit of running back to foods that are laden with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and usually don’t realize what I’m doing to myself until I’m halfway through the package. As if my mind says “Nooooo! Don’t look at the ingredients li– aww, damn.”

Conventional wisdom (and your brain) tells you, “if it feels good, do it.” Well, you know how sometimes, things feel a little too good? Like, so good, it’s downright sinful? Rest assured, you probably have no business doing it. My favorite piece of cheesecake? Sinful. My favorite Tira Mi Su? Sinful. The BBQ sauce I just tossed out the other day because I was clenching the bottle trying to understand why common sense wouldn’t let me put it down? Sinful! (By the way, all three of them contain HFCS.)

Having said all that, let me introduce you to HFCS. Actually, I’ll let the Corn Refiners Association do it:

Now… I laugh, only because I work in marketing. Ads like this serve one purpose: damage control. So when I see something like this, my first thought is “what happened to make the corn farmers toss money at the small screen?” They’re essentially mocking the very people they’re targeting — those who know it’s bad for them, but aren’t able to quickly express why — and still expecting to win them over. Or… is this a stealthy method of giving “comebacks” to HFCS fans to use when those hoity toity picky eaters get on their soapbox about Cheetos and Capri Suns? Who goes to those kinds of lengths when everything is ok? …when the accusations are baseless?

So… digging, I go.

First, let’s look at that ad up there. “My hair dresser says that sugar is healthier than high fructose corn syrup.” Follow that up with the witty retort of, “Wow! You get your hair done by a doctor?” [insert laughter]

You and I BOTH know that it doesn’t require an MD to be able to study and understand a pros and cons list. If I show you a list that says “fattening,” and another list that says “leaves you prone to diabetes, inflates your appetite, and apparently can be linked to high blood pressure,” you’re going to be able to easily identify which one is going to leave you worse off, right?

Do you need to explain to someone that High Fructose Corn Syrup fiddles with leptin, a hormone in the human body that aids in regulating the appetite, in a way that prevents you from being able to control your hunger? Do you need to be able to explain to someone that HFCS screws with your body’s ability to process insulin? (Just in case you’re wondering, that works like this: since HFCS is metabolized as fat quicker than regular sugar once it hits your liver, this process triggers something called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This process leads to insulin resistance and type II diabetes.) It isn’t enough that you know something makes you uncomfortable and you don’t want to partake in it. You have to be a doctor now to speak ill of it?

Well, let me tell y’all somethin’ – I’m no doctor, and I’ll still be damned if someone tells me that my own bad feelings aren’t enough to justify not wanting a chemistry experiment nourishing my body I was given. Period. You might get the mental judo chop for that one.

Let’s also talk about this moderation thing, here. Of course, HFCS is safe in moderation. At the same time, so are Doritos. The difference between the two is, well… do you know how many foods you eat each day contain HFCS? Let me put it to you like this: Soda? High Fructose Corn Syrup. “Processed Cheese Food?” HFCS. Jam, jelly, ketchup, BBQ sauce , “fruit juices,” Wonder bread (most breads, actually), eggos, pop tarts, cough syrup, and mayo? High Fructose Corn Syrup.Yes. Apparently, you have a better chance of escaping Doritos than you do HFCS.

I think I’ve named at least ONE thing that we all eat throughout the day. If not, then think about this: I’m sure you’ve had a McDonalds menu meal, right? The same corn that makes your HFCS feeds the cows that turn into your burgers, becomes the oil that cooks the fries and the syrup that sweetens the shakes and the sodas, and makes up 13 of the 38 ingredients in the Chicken McNuggets.  Now, think about “moderation.” How can you effectively moderate something that is everywhere and in everything? You can’t… and they know it. Your ability to gauge what “moderate use” is becomes swayed by the fact that it’s been in everything you ate that day. For those of you who use these foods regular and often, “HFCS in moderation” is pretty much… a joke.

Why is that, though? Why is it that you can’t escape this substance? In as few words as possible, here’s why.

Once upon a time, our government approved a plan that pretty much pays farmers to overproduce corn in America. Considering the basic principle of supply and demand (the more rare, the more expensive; the more common, the more cheap), that drives the price of corn down. Since they have this item in such abundance and so cheap, they come up with multiple ways to use it… hence HFCS. You, a food exec, have an extremely cheap item in your hands that makes food taste (or, at least appear to taste) better. Why not use this to your advantage? Stick some extra fat in certain foods to stretch out our supply… and when the taste is altered? Stick a little HFCS in there. Want to create a cheap juice? Find a “strawberry” flavor, some high fructose corn syrup, and water. Pow. Cost $0.50 to make, but watch me sell a giant jug of it for $2.50. I’m in there like swimwear. It’s just smart, business-wise.

Nutrition-wise, it’s doing nothing for you, the consumer. It’s empty calories. That means for all that you’re ingesting, there is no vitamin or nutritional value for any of it. At all. You should seek for all of your food to provide you a liiiiiiittle somethin’ in the end. Besides a gut, that is.

There’s one more point I want to bring up before I wrap this up… and that’s the point about rewards, gratification, and habit. HFCS tends to trigger a sort of… Pavlov’s dog syndrome, if you will.

To summarize briefly, a Russian scientist named Ivan Pavlov studied conditioned responses in dogs. In short, if you get in the habit of doing something and the SAME reward happens each time you do it, you begin to expect (or, in other words, you become conditioned) the reward before you’ve even done the action that brings the reward. In other words, if you know you love that BBQ sauce… if you see it, your body starts to experience the pleasure you get from it long before you taste it.. thus causing you to indulge. You want that good feeling again. It’s that simple.

Feels like I’m sticking you with a burden, right? That’s not my intention. I would love it if you could resolve a few things within yourself.

First, resolve that you’ll begin to phase out some of the unnecessary HFCS-filled foods in your life. If you overdo the mountain dew, consider packing it away… for good. If you love the ketchup or pancake syrups, look for something a little more natural. If you can’t afford the healthier option, shoot for a less expensive option. (In the case of the syrups, the healthier alternate that my grocery had cost an extra $4. So instead, I top my pancakes and french toast with a little confectioners sugar, $0.99, and fruit slices, $1.29. In the case of the ketchup, I simply stopped eating hot dogs… the one thing I couldn’t eat without ketchup.)

Then resolve that you’ve made the best decision for you, and no corny commercial or insulting advertisement will make you feel less comfortable with the decision you’ve made for yourself. Just like you don’t owe anyone any expanation for why you want to lose weight and eat healthier, you for damn sure don’t owe anyone any explanations for why you choose to phase High Fructose Corn Syrup out of your diet.

Lastly, like I’ve written before, resolve that this is a difficult lifestyle change — a lifetime lifestyle change and it will be bumpy at first. That’s perfectly okay. As long as you’re taking and following steps each day, you’ll be able to bet that you’re moving in the direction in which you need to go.

Be happy, be healthy!

High Fructose Corn Syrup: What’s The Big Deal? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Saturday Night Live Pokes Fun At High Fructose Corn Syrup
2. Another Reason To Ditch The High Fructose Corn Syrup
3. High Fructose Corn Syrup Wants New Name: Why You Shouldn’t Care

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fast Food, food labels, high fructose corn syrup, obesity, overeating, restaurants

Take my favorite example – at Friday’s, you’ve got the “Three-For-All.” For Applebee’s, it’s the “Sampler.” Olive Garden offers the “Tour of Italy.” All for the eater who “can’t choose what they want, so let ‘em eat ‘em all!”

CSPI also talks about the ridiculous appetizers and add-ons offered at most restaurants that are little more than slightly smaller versions of full-course entrees. Adding half a rack of ribs to your dish for $6.99,

Taken from the press release:

Keep in mind that most people should limit themselves to about 2,000 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat, and 1,500 mg of sodium per day. And the envelopes please…

• Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue: This retro item is also making comebacks at Olive Garden, Uno Chicago Grill, and at a chain that sells nothing but fondues, The Melting Pot. Red Lobster’s Ultimate version, “shrimp and crabmeat in a creamy lobster cheese sauce served in a warm crispy sourdough bowl,” is crammed with 1,490 calories, 40 grams of saturated fat, and 3,580 mg of sodium. That’s two days’ worth of both artery-clogging fat and blood-pressure-spiking sodium.
• Applebee’s Quesadilla Burger: Here Applebee’s inserts a bacon cheeseburger into a quesadilla. Two flour tortillas, two kinds of meat, two kinds of cheese, pico de gallo, lettuce, and a previously unknown condiment called Mexi-ranch sauce, plus fries, gives this monstrous marriage 1,820 calories, 46 grams of saturated fat, and 4,410 mg of sodium. Bonus heart-stopper: Applebee’s actually invites customers to top the fries with chili and still more cheese.
• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites: This is four mini-bacon-cheeseburgers served on a plate with fries, onion strings, and jalapeno ranch dipping sauce. (“Mini” is relative: each one is like a Quarter Pounder.) Like the “sliders” available at other chains, Chili’s Big Mouth Bites can be an appetizer or an entrée (these numbers are for the latter). 2,350 calories, 38 grams of saturated fat, and 3,940 milligrams of sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Chicken and Biscuits: Nutrition Action calls it “discomfort food.” If you wouldn’t eat an entire 8-piece bucket of KFC Original Recipe plus 5 biscuits, you shouldn’t order this. But unless you live in a city with menu labeling, you wouldn’t know that this dish has 2,500 calories. The rest of the winning—or rather, losing—appetizers, entrées, and desserts are in the June issue of Nutrition Action.

Because of all this, I was asked if I thought these kinds of offerings should be deemed illegal. And I’ve got to admit, I’m kinda torn about this.

No… actually, I’m not.

There’s no denying the fact that these numbers are bananas, and these dishes are disgusting looking. Having said that, the only question I have left to ask is…

…so what?

I mean, let’s look at CSPI’s findings for what they are. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if these restaurants are going to serve these gut-busting atrocities and pass them off as meals, then they should also be forced to make the nutritional information for those dishes available to the public… just like the processed food manufacturers. Not as an obscure link on a website. As a part of their menu. To me, it just makes sense – if the FDA says that food manufacturers have to put the nutritional info on the side of the box, then restaurants should be forced to have the information equally readily available. Kudos to CSPI for helping bring to the forefront the issue of hidden calorie counts.

However, to say that because CSPI uncovered these heart-stopping (literally) findings means that we should all campaign to have the dishes banned by law? I think that’s quite a reach. I mean, complaining about high-calorie appetizers that are supposed to, by definition, whet the appetite… you’d probably do better to talk to the person who orders the appetizer as their meal and remind them that “this dish is intended to serve 4… not one.”

I look at it like this – the reality of it all is that for the past 50 or so years, we’ve had someone assume the “responsibility” of leading the American diet. Not the various cultures from which we came (regardless of how connected some of us were allowed to be to our cultures), not the traditions of our respective nations… but… the government. The charge has always been led by someone who could develop/has developed ulterior motives or a fundamental incapability to properly rule on these most serious of matters. (Would you trust the entity responsible for protecting the longevity of an industry to tell the public how to safely enjoy said industry? Have you met the USDA?)

Do I have a problem with the dishes? You know I do. I find them disgusting, especially since I could probably duplicate that 2,500 calorie pasta dish in my own kitchen for mayyyybe 600 calories. But to tell people that they shouldn’t be allowed to order them is excessive. I’ve simply had enough of people trying to assume the responsibility of telling us what to eat. They either get it wrong – repeatedly – or they start getting drunk on their own power and abuse their privilege… trading in our health for their own personal favors. Unacceptable.

In reality, I’m a much larger proponent of forcing restaurants to post calorie counts of their food items than I am anything else. That would compel those who care to make better, more knowledgeable choices and force franchises who want that money to create healthier dishes and compete for those dollars fairly. The hypothetical question of banning certain foods is just excessive, I think.

The point of all this, really, is to underscore the fact that the responsibility for my eating habits should solely rely upon me. No one is going to look out for me and my health the way I can… especially when there is money to be made off of me. Don’t rely on others to make these kinds of decisions for you, leaving yourself open to poor health. Take charge! Some things, we can’t rely on a magic button, pill, garment, organization or law to do for us. Some things are important enough for us to take charge of ourselves, and that includes our health.

Your thoughts? Let’s hear ‘em!

Should A 2,500 Calorie Plate of Pasta Be Illegal? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Understanding Calorie Counting: Creating Your Calorie Goal and Being Honest About It
2. Science Catches Up: A Calorie Is Not A Calorie
3. Weekend WTF: The 98,824 Calorie Taco Night & The 71,000 Calorie Lasagna

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: center for science in the public interest, cspi, government, Healthy Eating, restaurants

Taken from Women’s Health magazine:

Here’s how this deviousness works: Human beings have what food-industry insiders call a “bliss point,” a nirvana of the taste buds triggered by particular amounts of salt, sugar, and fat. Menu scientists (yes, that’s a job!) at popular restaurant chains and packaged-food corporations use their knowledge of the bliss point to manipulate your appetite, adding salt, sugar, and fat to their products in combinations that are designed to create hedonism on a plate—a taste experience so intense that it kicks the brain’s pleasure system into overdrive. It’s like a drug. And like any drug, it leads you to obsess about that moment of pleasure so much that you’ll do almost anything to prolong or relive it. The result: a bigger bottom line for them—and a bigger waistline for you.

It’s just the way it is.

So, now you have one more piece of information telling you the chips – literally – are stacked against you. What do you do? Do you give in knowing that it will result in a bigger booty (and no, not in a good way) or do you start limiting and minimizing your fast food/restaurant food intake? These are things to think about!

Overeating: Why You Can’t Stop At One Nacho is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Overeating: Comparable To Drug Use, Cause of Mental Illness?
2. The Three Stages Of “Full”ness: How To Stop Stuffing Yourself
3. Portion Distortion: Stop Eating Out Of The Bag

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bliss point, Fast Food, overeating, restaurants

I bought myself an iTouch. Just… because. I figured if I was going to throw myself into disappointment again, I’d at least do it with a new toy. Sure enough, I got hooked. Music? AND videos? AND apps? Wait… what are apps? After a little snooping around, I find out that I can keep up with news, play games, and do actual important stuff with these things. Neato.

So, I go lookin’, and lookin’, and lookin’… and I find an app called Lose It! that basically operates as a food journal. I once purchased a little black notebook where I’d write down everything I ate, but it quickly lost steam for me. LoseIt!, for some reason, was easier for me.

Using LoseIt!, I was able to input what I weighed at the start, what my goal weight was, and when I wanted to reach it. I added the foods I ate during the day – as honest as I could – and I added the amount of water and other drinks I drank.

When I tell you this was the most powerful thing I could’ve done for myself… believe it!

Now, mind you. I’m not necessarily advocating you go out and get the LoseIt! app (although, as of this writing, it is free and anyone who has an iTouch or iPhone really should look into it) because not everyone has or uses the iPhone/iTouch. The downside to the app, for me, is that it doesn’t allow you to input the time at which you ate. The LoseIt! app also, supposedly, mines data from our inputs as well, and some people might not be thrilled with that. (Yes, I AM usually the conspiracy theorist here, but the benefit outweighed the data collecting, to me.)

What I AM advocating, is the use of a food diary. My food diary showed me exactly where my problems were. I was eating too much of… well, everything. I had no portion control. I was partaking in a giant amount of fat and sugar. My carb meters were off the charts. I simply wasn’t doing what I knew in my heart I needed to do. Taking in over 2100 calories a day wasn’t going to help me lose weight. In fact, the only reason I didn’t gain astronomical amounts of weight was because of the 7-10 hours a week I was spending in the gym. After 6 months and only losing 20 lbs, something needed to really change.

The first two weeks of using my food diary were painful. I was able to track my carb, fat, sodium, fiber, protein, cholesterol and caloric intake. I spent lots of time researching what I was putting in my body in terms of fast food and restaurants, and the nutritional values for those meals. Seeing the numbers in front of me was painful. Painful! I used to LOVE tearing into a Checkers/Rally’s Fried Chicken Sandwich with large fries and a banana shake… until I started looking for their nutritional information.

That’s when it started hitting me like a ton of bricks:

An order of large fries from Checkers? 590 Calories, 38g of fat (20g of saturated fat, 2g of trans fat), 40mg of cholesterol, 1410mg of sodium, 7g of protein, 57g of carbohydrates.

The chicken sandwich? 740 calories, 41g of fat (13g saturated), 70mg of cholesterol, 2190mg sodium, 60g of carbohydrates (13g sugars), and 34g of protein.

And lastly, but certainly not least? The banana shake: 650 calories, 18g of fat (14g saturated), 75mg of cholesterol, 300mg sodium, 105g of carbohydrates (81g sugars), and 16g of protein.

What was I doing to myself? Don’t you know, I had to break out a calculator to tabulate how much I was putting into my body in ONE MEAL? 1,980 calories – almost the value of what’s recommended to take in over the course of one day. 3900mg of sodium. 222g of carbohydrates, about 40% of it being sugar. Seriously… what was I doing to myself? And why did it take me actually writing it down and committing myself to researching it for me to truly see it? Why didn’t I KNOW what I was doing to myself? (That’s another post entirely, but we won’t talk about that today.)

Slowly, I began to wean myself off of things that were doing me in. I no longer ate fast food. Sure enough, I lost almost 8 lbs immediately. Strange, huh?

A food diary highlights the weaknesses in your diet. It shows you patterns in your eating habits that you might not’ve noticed. Do you eat a lot of fried foods? How about a lot of bread? Do you have one heck-uv-a-sweet tooth? Maybe you eat a lot of foods that require TONS of seasoning? Variety, literally, is the spice of life.. and a food diary is the best way to show you where you could inject a little bit of just that – variety.

Make it a healthy day!

Considered Keeping a Food Diary? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: Have You Considered Trying The Poop Burger?
2. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Eating Disorders When Dieting Wasn’t Enuf
3. Food Diaries: A New Approach To Food Journaling

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: black girls guide to weight loss, Fast Food, overeating, restaurants

Without going into my full on rant about these companies, I’ll put it like this: Their job is to sell you what they think will help them fatten their wallets. It doesn’t matter whether it fattens your tushy. No one is looking out for your health and well-being because that is our responsibility as the individual and owner of our bodies. As long as you continue to purchase what they put out there, they’re going to keep pumping it out for you to buy.

Having said that, allow me to introduce… the Double Down. Yes. This sandwich, as the newscaster says, includes two fried chicken fillets, bacon, cheese, and Colonel’s Secret Sauce. Those two fried chicken fillets? Serve as the bun. Yes. You won’t find bread on this sandwich. That’s what the chicken is for… duh.

KFC Tests Sandwich That Uses… Chicken.. In Place Of Bread is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Q&A Wednesday: Is There A Place For Alcohol In Clean Eating?
2. Weekend WTF: He EATS The Chicken In A Can!
3. Weekend WTF: Chicken In A Can?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fast Food, kfc, restaurants

WACO, Texas – You can get hot, juicy burgers with crispy tots or fries at a new restaurant in Waco, Texas. But it’s not the food that’s getting the attention at Fat Ho Burgers.

That’s right. The restaurant is named after a fat (as in hefty) ho (not the garden tool).

“It’s not calling people a ho. It’s just like they say, ‘Oooh that ho is big,’ or, ‘That ho is tight!’” said Lakita Evans, the restaurant’s owner.

The 23-year-old worked her way through college to open her burger joint and said the name is mostly a bit of humor in an otherwise serious world.

“Look what’s going on in Japan. It’s like clear this world is not gonna get any better. Why cry and be depressed? The economy is bad. Somebody gotta keep a sense of humor around here,” Evans said.

For now, that means grilled favorites including the Sloppy Ho Brisket or the Supa Dupa Fly Ho with Chz for a lunch crowd that’s spilling out of the front door.

But not everybody’s laughing.

One of Fat Ho Burgers’ closest neighbors is the Gospel Café. Folks at the volunteer-run religious café and bookstore wish the burger joint was a little more “holy.”

“Would’ve been nice to think a little more sensitively,” said Pastor Marsha Martie.

Let me just say… as someone who started her first business at age 22, I am impressed. Starting a business as advanced as a restaurant at that age is… highly impressive.

And have you seen the menu?

• The Toasty Ho
• Fat Chicken Ho
• Bad Mamajama

Her dollar menu? It includes a Tiny Fat Ho.

There are also Tiny Ho Meals – which include corn dogs and chicken nuggets, so I assume the kids can come be tiny hos at Fat Ho Burgers.

As much as I want to crack jokes about being able to hopefully have a “Clean Ho” someday… all I’m gonna say is I hope her ingredients are quality, or that she has plans to step ‘em up if they’re not. I know one of y’all knows her. Put a bug in Lakita’s ear. If she’s gonna be sellin’ Sloppy Hos, they can at least be Quality Hos, too.

Got a Weekend WTF?! to share with the class? E-mail it to wtf@blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com!

[source]

Weekend WTF: The Supa Dupa Fly Ho With Cheese is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: Weigh Over 350lbs? You Eat Free At The Heart Attack Grill
2. Weekend WTF: Denny’s Is Trying To Kill You
3. Weekend WTF: Would YOU Eat Lab-Created Meat?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dining out, Fast Food, restaurants

Boot camp.

All too often, I get people who are freshly acquainted with the concept of clean eating – either through this website, or through other conversations with friends – and feel lost. What, exactly, is clean eating? How do you start? What makes it so much better than what I’m doing right now?

I’m going to attempt to answer all of those questions in one fell swoop, and spend this first week of boot camp doing my best to make it clear that clean eating is absolutely the best route to go for better health and, consequently, weight loss.

Over the course of this boot camp, we’re going to cover the importance of cooking at home (as well as how to cook, y’know, for those of you who can’t boil water!), the value of limited chemicals in our bodies, limiting the amount of impact we have on the environment in terms of pollution and trash, controlling emotional eating, the problem with processed foods, affordable living, portion control and how to combine all of these to make food enjoyable without stress playing a part in our relationships with food.

Yes, y’all. It’s that deep. I’m not playin’ around, here.

Is it expensive? It may feel that way at first because you may need to buy a couple of big ticket items to get started (and by big ticket, I mean $4 for a bag of flour, $4 for a bag of berries you like, $2 for a 3-pack pouch of yeast) on building your clean eating kitchen, but the pay off in the end is amazing. Some people like to say “pay now with your food, or pay later with your health” – I don’t love that saying because of what it implies (that healthy food is just as expensive as health care), but it definitely applies here. Your choice.

What, exactly, is clean eating?

Clean eating is when the food you eat comes to you from as close to the source as you can get. What is “the source?” The Earth! Regardless of what your beliefs are, you do have to know that all animals, plants and humans are on this planet together, serving as links in a very long chain that are dependent upon one another to thrive. Our animals eat either plants or other animals to survive, our plants only grow when humans or animals deposit their seeds into the ground and spread them, and we humans thrive by ingesting either those plants or other animals. When we do our best to respect those connections we share with other plants and animals, we absolutely reap the benefits of better health because we are serving our purpose in that chain. I’m down 150lbs, and have built a body that I am quite proud of, thus far. I’m a believer. No doubt about it.

Think of it as karma: what you put out, you will inevitably get back in return. If your actions promote better health for your environment, your result will be better health for yourself.

If you didn’t know that I’m a bit of a hippie.. I’m sure you know now.

Clean eating means more fruits. More vegetables. More pleasure, more enjoyment, more exploration. It means living with food, not living through food. It means winding down a long day with a good meal, not hiding from your responsibilities in a box of buttery crackers. It means eating whole foods, which doesn’t mean that you have to shop there. It means learning about your body and what it likes, not just shoveling crap down your throat because you’re starving. It’s loving who you are, not hiding from yourself and shaming yourself with food. It means filing food and dining (not just feeding, but dining) appropriately in your life, not filing everything around your food. Put food in its place, and you will see a change almost immediately.

We’ll spend approximately five weeks discussing clean eating, while taking on weekly challenges to help detoxify ourselves of bad habits and replacing them with healthier, cleaner versions. This week, while we discuss the harms and problems with the typical American diet, I challenge you to spend one week without buying fast food! That’s it. If you usually buy it for lunch, pack a bag! Find yourself stopping by on your way home from work? Go another route! Your only challenge this week is to stay away from the fast food joints while we learn about what good food truly is. Sound fair? I hope so!

I guess the last question to as, here is this: are you in…or are you out?

Show a little love by voting for me in the Black Weblog Awards for Best Health or Wellness Blog category! That’s right – BGG2WL is a finalist thanks to you! Let’s do what we can to bring it home!

Welcome To Clean Eating Boot Camp! is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Clean Eating Boot Camp: Step Two
2. This Week’s Clean Eating Boot Camp Assignment: Portion Control
3. What Time Is It? Clean Eating Boot Camp Time!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 72 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: boot camp, clean eating, emotional eating, Healthy Eating, overeating, processed foods, restaurants, saving money

I was a server – even pinned as one of the best they had, thank you very much! – who occasionally donned a cape and tights and helped out the kitchen staff by handling some tasks they were too busy to manage. One of these, was plating the cheesecakes. That’s just taking the cheesecake out of the box (You didn’t think the cheesecake you paid only $7 for was made from scratch right there, did you?!), putting it on a plate, covering it with saran wrap, and setting it on a cold shelf.

At this restaurant in particular, the cheesecakes came from The Cheesecake Factory. And this box in particular had the nutrition information on the side. Apparently, 1 slice of cheesecake had.. oh, 954 calories and 56 grams of fat. Did your head explode? Mine did. I think I spent the rest of my shift picking up my face… and moving twice as fast through my tables to burn off that cheesecake I ate earlier that day.

Needless to say, you’re not thinking about any of that when you order, but is it the reason why you might be packing on the pounds? Below, I’ve listed things I’ve learned from being on both sides of the table, from franchise to fine dining.

Hey, it paid the bills.

Don’t dine out. You might think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I betcha five dollars your parents, at your age, didn’t eat outside of the home anywhere near as often as you do. Just take a moment to remind yourself that you DO have food in the house. Even though you may feel like eating a six course meal yet still don’t feel like COOKING a six course meal, this isn’t an excuse to hit the nearest sit-down restaurant. It’s a reason to drink a glass of water, and think of something quick and filling to cook at home.

Have the server bring you a to go box WITH your dinner upon arrival. Why? Split the dish in half, put half in the to go box, and put the to go box AWAY. Trust me – you won’t need to eat all of it at once.

Drink water – yes, water – throughout your time out. It takes about 20 minutes for your mind and body to connect on whether or not you’re full… so drinking water gives your body time to make this determination without it resulting in you being OVERstuffed. All bad.

Don’t order appetizers as dishes. I know, they feel like suuuuch a bargain – inexpensive in comparison to the rest of the menu, lots to offer, super yummy.. I know. They also carry enough calories for more than one person. Add to that the fact that almost all of ‘em are fried, creamy or coated in oil? You’re better off going back to #1 up there.

Skip the table breads, chips or crackers. The stuff they give you to tide you over until your order comes? Yeah, ignore that. You might even be better off asking them to take it away. By the time your appetizer has arrived (if you ordered one), you’ve eaten around an additional 300 calories. Restaurants do this because they know there’s sometimes a long wait time, so to keep you from ticking off the server they give you this. Not an awful idea, but definitely a hazard to someone trying to cut down.

Avoid the creamy and fried dishes. The creams and frying oils are nothing but an abundance of heavy excess unnatural fat. Be real with yourself – if you can’t split the dish in half and ONLY eat one half of it? Make some changes. Go for the red pasta sauce, or no sauce at all – skip the pasta altogether and find something else. Skip the chicken fingers or fried egg rolls, and opt for something lighter.

Drop the dressings and sauces. I know this ties into the previous point, but in a lot of cases, the additional dressings and sauces are just as many – if not more – calories as the dish itself withOUT the sauce. In many places, you can ask them to drop the sauce or the cream. I’m good for ordering a pasta with no alfredo (and I LOVE alfredo) and just getting noodles, chicken, a little butter, and lots of spices. Hey, it works for me. You might not need to be that drastic – you could opt for the tomato sauce, instead – but don’t feel bad or weird if you do.

Don’t dine alone. Go with friends, chat, enjoy yourself. Tying in with an above point, this gives your body time to process that food is being put inside of it, and if you let go of the “I must clean my plate” philosophy while really listening to your body, you’ll be surprised by how little you’ll actually eat.

If this seems logical-yet-way-too-restrictive for you, be sure to see point #1 again.

All jokes aside, you’ve got to be vigilant about being a healthy eater. So it means yes, you’ll need to be conscious of when your hand reaches for something you have no business eating. You’ll need to spend a little longer thinking about what you’ll eat. You’ll need to take some time  And considering how much assistance you’ll need from your waiter, be sure to tip them nicely for helping you make it through the night without gorging yourself. If you’re careful to avoid ordering the rough stuff on the menu, you might notice the healthier dishes are among the least expensive (no outrageous ingredients to justify the cost), so you should have enough money left over to drop something nice for the waiter.

How To Dine With Nutrition In Mind is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Pole Dance For Jesus? Don’t Mind If I Do!
2. Can We Really Trust Nutrition Labels?
3. Comprehending Calories: How To Properly Read A Nutrition Label

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: restaurants, saving money, social eating