Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Do NOT eat the Texas Toast

Before I rant and rave about Texas Toast, first I need to say Happy New Year to everyone!!! We had a great holiday, I have been eating up the relaxation and the family time, and I will also do some sort "2006 review" and try to set and let you know about some '07 goals very soon. But for now, let's talk about Texas Toast.

I go out for a nice relaxing 4 mile run today during my lunch break - oh, which, by the way I ended up doing at an 8:42/mile avg pace without a lot of effort...WHERE did that come from??? I haven't a whole lot of anything since the marathon. - and after I showered and got dressed I decided that my lunch would be the nice, seemingly nutritious Zaxby's House Grilled Chicken Zalad. It's nice and tasty and looks very nutricious with grilled chicken, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a little bit of cheddar cheese...except for that big piece of Texas Toast. And yes, it does look to be drenched in butter of some sort, "hopefully not margerine" I always think, but hey, I just ran 4 miles and I'm eating a salad as my first meal of the day, so what's a piece of bread going to hurt, right? WRONG. After scarfing down the entire salad and piece of toast like I do about every 2 weeks or so, I went prowling around the net to see if I could find some nutrition info on this salad. And I was thinking the whole time how good it was going to be, especially since I get the Lite Vinaigrette dressing and not that fatty Ranch dressing, when I found this from dietfacts.com:


I was horrified, I tell you!! Do you mean that I just ate a SALAD for lunch that had 650 calories, 53, I repeat 53 fat grams, and 5g of TRANSFAT!! Transfat is not allowed in my diet, under any circumstance. It's horrible for you, and it's not worth the consequences. So I am thinking that surely this information is wrong, when I confirm it by the official nutrition info from the Zaxby's site. The Zaxby's info actually broke down the components in the salad, though, including the piece of Texas Toast. So get this:

- Of the 650 calories in the salad, 191 of them are in the toast.
- Of the 52 carbs in the salad, 37 are in the toast.
- Of the 53g of fat in the salad, 29g are in the toast.
- Of the 5g of transfat in the salad, 4 of them are in the toast(and it never said where the other one was, so I'm not sure that it doesn't account for all 5).

All I know is that little piece of Texas Toast is NOT worth all that. It turned a healthy lunch into an unhealthy one for me. I could have had some ice cream and come out better than that! For the record, I soooo heart ice cream, but it unfortunately goes straight to my thighs as soon as I digest it.

Lessons learned:

1.) Research the food before you eat it, not after.
2.) Just because it looks fairly harmless doesn't mean it is, especially if it is drenched in the yellow stuff.
3.) Do NOT EAT THE TEXAS TOAST. Throw it away before you pick up your fork!!

Here's to a more nutritious 2007!!!

17 comments:

Rae said...

Ha! I really do like their Texas Toast though!! Brent was having weird Zaxby's cravings the other day!! I love their ice. Strange, but true.

Rachel said...

Hmmm. Never heard of Texas toast. That's one unhealthy salad! I would have been ticked. If I'm going to eat trans fat, it better be fudge, cookies, or a Big Mac!

Phil said...

You have, of course, hit on the primary reason we are the fattest nation on the planet. The garbage we eat in restuarants is simply amazing.

Now don't bad mouth ice cream :) I need a few vices and ice cream is way up on my list (after dry martinis)

Great run ... and just look at the pace ... you'd be pulling away from me for sure!

teacherwoman said...

I LOVE Texas Toast...but don't eat it after I found the nutrition facts on the side of the packaging...Yuuuck!

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

YIKES that is one messed up SALAD u sure that wasn't a BIG MAC Label-- geesh...

Ummmmm 2nite I did have thin crust Papa John's pizza -- well just a 2 slices -- it was pretty good :-)

I am too an ice cream lover but been really good about that, I just don't buy any...that's seems to work!

I use to say I will just have a couple of spoonfuls ...ya sureeeeeeeeeeeeee that plan never worked to well.

Happy Nutritious 2007' to U too!!

Bob

My Life said...

Oooh sooo sorry you wasted 650 cals on a salad! Good job on the run pace though! ;)

Michele said...

Awesome job on the run, that rest has done you some good, no lost fitness.

Bread is one of my weaknesses. I will have to remember to keep away from the texas toast.

Lance Notstrong said...

I did the same thing with tuna subs from Subway. I ate them for like a year before I realized they were one of the worse things on the menu.

Ashley Chin said...

Holy Cow! Thanks for the lesson - always research the food before eating it!!! Yikes!

walchka said...

You certainly got the raw end of that deal. At least you kicked butt on the run. :)

Cliff said...

Whenever I have a craving for junk food..i read their label....and that will scare me away.

Pixie said...

LOL! Texas Toast is horrible for you! Then we wonder why most of our state is overweight! Don't beat yourself up over that meal, you learned not to do that again, that's the important part. :) Happy New Year!

Neese said...

the moment i read salad was spelled "zalad" i knew it wasn't gonna be pretty lol

it's just horrible something like that is served for human consumption it should be against the law.

great post

RunBubbaRun said...

Hard to figure out what is good for you these days. Even supposdly good stuff is maxed out on salt.

I guess I will just order the 2 whoppers instead of Texas Toast to get the same grams of fat,, Ooo, not fun.

But I must draw the line on skipping on ice cream also. It taste so good.

qcmier said...

Dang I just had three pieces of Texas toast last night. Burp.

Have a great 2007!!!

Papa Louie said...

How much does the toast cost? Probably well over priced. When I read the labels I first look at the fat content including transfat, sodium, and sugar if any of them is high I do not eat it.
Happy New Year with much healthy eating!

Brooke said...

That nurtitional information doesn't lie. Damn. It get's you every time.