I’m 8 days in and somewhat sane. My food intake, as well as much of the nutritional info of my daily meals are posted on this blog as well. The hardest thing about this diet is the lack of variety more than anything else. Limiting myself to the top 15 quickserve restaurants and excluding ones like Panera and Starbucks that aren’t really kids meal places really cuts down my food choices. In fact, I added Pizza Hut and Sonic to my rotation and am excited that I can now add hot dogs and pizza to my chicken sandwich, chicken nugget, burger, taco diet. Of course, that menu isn’t that different than my school lunch menu growing up but its harder to do two meals a day than it was for that one school meal.
Also, I never thought I’d say this but I’m officially sick of French Fries. Seriously, the quick service restaurant industry needs to come up with some new sides. Today I had a pizza hut pizza (see my food blog) and cinnamon twists with my Taco Bell meals and I think it marks the first time in maybe 8 days that I haven’t had fries.
In fact, this diet makes me wonder why all kids meals include sides at all. I had actually written an article on this subject awhile ago but its become more apparent to me than ever that these combos could gain a bit more variety (and possibly some more revenue for the restaurants) by replacing the side with some more of the main meal. Case in point. I could switch my Arby’s fries for another Jr. Roast Beef Sandwich or my Chick-Fil-A fries with two more chicken strips and save myself fat while taking in no additional calories. Even in the meals where adding another burger may add additional calories, you are at least getting some protein for your cost and this could perhaps allow a parent to buy one kids meal for two children. Even if the cost was raised slightly, I don’t think it would hurt sales as kids meals already cost more than getting the same food ala carte. Consider that a free suggestion (unless it works, in which case I want a cut of the extra money).
I also noticed that salad is really never a kids meal option. Sure many of the meals come with apples as an option and some come with mil or juice or yogurt but its hard to get vegetables as an option. Perhaps parents would consider kids meals a better alternative if they could get their child a salad as a main meal, or even a side. Again, if all the kid wants is the toy, as has been asserted, would throwing a salad as an option really hinder sales. Also, worst case scenario is the child doesn’t eat it and the children doesn’t get the empty calories that the french fries could bring. Again, just another thought.
Alluding to toys in the last paragraph, I am pretty disappointed in the quality of toys since I was a kid. I know cities have actually banned toys with kid’s meals as they consider them too alluring for children. Have they actually seen what kids are getting? I remember getting little race cars or action figures or fun stuff. The best things I have gotten thus far are a Spongebob cameras from Burger King. Its not awful but certainly wouldn’t distract me from my meal, regardless of age. And Chick-Fil-A gave out a computer game? I haven’t tried it out but if I’m getting a kids meal, I need instant gratification. Waiting til I get home to be able to use my toy takes all the fun out of kids meals. Plus, there just seems like something odd about having kids eat fast food and then giving a computer game about backyard sports instead of actually giving children something they can use to play actual backyard sports. Surely we can package toys in there that may encourage kids to play a little.
Well, that is my ranting until the next newsletter release. I can’t say I’d recommend this diet to anyone but it has been a great way to count my calories and cholesterol and help me realize how much I had actually been taking in on my normal diet. I’ve also seen that you could probably continue on this diet indefinitely and, if you can get over the aforementioned variety issues and the embarrassment of being an adult getting kids meals, its really not that bad for you from a calorie or cholesterol standpoint. If you aren’t intentionally choosing the unhealthy options like I am and mix some apples and diet soda or milk into these meals and then add in a salad or some fruit for your other meal, you probably wouldn’t be in that bad of overall health and it certainly doesn’t strain the wallet too far.