Why “calorie fail” anyway?

Well, we all feel one of the biggest culprits for getting fat is making a horrible decision about what to eat. So we call these calorie fails. Some great examples would be putting a creamy, fatty, calorie laden dressing on an otherwise healthy salad or sandwich (in some cases TRIPLING the calories), eating 800+ calories in chips & salsa (the salsa is not the bad part!) BEFORE your meal even arrives, getting french fries or onion rings with your meal and then dipping them in ranch (holy calorie fail Fatman!), etc.

The biggest calorie fails are the ones that could “fairly” easily be avoided at any given meal. Using the examples above you could put just oil & vinegar on the salad, or just mustard on the sandwich. Skip the chips and salsa, appetizers you eat after you order your meal are a great way to over-eat (you eat your entire entrée even though you filled up on chips/bread/etc). Get a side salad instead of fries, again with a vinegar based dressing, if you don’t like salad at all get a fruit cup, or steamed veggies, or cottage cheese. Most places have several alternatives to deep fried and dipped in fat (ranch) sides.

Another good example of a calorie fail is when you could have, without really giving anything up, eaten a lot less calories. In fact, I did this quite regularly before I started considering everything I eat. I would be at a restaurant trying to decide between the gorgonzola NY strip with cheesy garlic mashed potatoes and creamed spinach or the seared ahi tuna filet with wild rice and steamed asparagus. I happen to love both of those items; I could easily have gone either way so would often just decide at the last minute based on price or whim. Now, of course, I pick the tuna because that meal is about 600 calories, where the other one is about 1400, and that’s not even taking nutritional value into consideration.
So that is a calorie fail, avoid them at all costs! =P