Yesterday I did a casual dining to go shop. Today I did two fast food and one casual dining shop and tomorrow I have a pizza shop. I did not plan all these to happen at the same time. Just sort of happened. It made me think about how much weight you can put on if you did enough of these. I have not even done the Godiva or Cinnabon ones I have been offered. Those are dangerous!

I also get a little sick if I do too many of them. I have started throwing the rest away if I'm not going straight home. If I am, my dog is pleased. She knows when to quit eating so she doesn't gain weight.

I kinda feel bad. My kids only ate fast food maybe once or twice a month tops and now it seems they are having it ever week. They basically split a large fry so it is not tragic but makes me feel like I am feeding them crap. I make them eat lots of veggies for dinner on fast food shop days! LOL

I got sick of McDonalds and stopped doing them. The MSC keeps calling me and asking me to do them, but I just say no. I still do an occasional other restaurant... love Panda Express and Five Guys. I really like Carl's Jr, but the MSC has become extremely slow to pay and I've gotten afraid to do business with them again. Oh, and love my In-N-Out Burger shops! I never turn them down!

I've learned to give food away many times. But yes, if I do too many tempting restaurants, I can gain weight back in a bad heartbeat. I've been aiming for Qdobas and some better casual dining places where I can get something healthy to eat. I've learned to split a burger with a grandkid and yes you have to eat the lettuce and tomato with it and no I'm not getting mayo on it. lol I eat my required bite if I have to and then take away the bun and the goop that goes with it if I'm going to eat the rest. I try to order healthier options for my grandkids but it's hard at an arches shop. Studying their "nutrition" chart scared me. My favorite thing isn't on the accepted order list, but a little bitty sausage burrito has 610 calories and I used to get three at a time. Now I just get Muffin options and avoid as much of the cheese as possible.

Qdobas offers vegetarian options or grilled chicken. Tortilla soup only has 2 Weight Watcher's points and the Mexican Gumbo has that as it's base. I can get a really tasty option built the way I want it from their Craft 2 menu.

Some of the casual dining places have great salads but you have to watch the dressing options.

I did a Picadilly cafeteria recently so it was easy to get diet friendly options there.

I get Pizza for kids or deliver it to a senior citizen from church. They get a pizza and a visit from me. If I order it from their house, the visit is longer and they always laugh at me taking pictures of the pizza.

Penn Stations are everywhere in Louisville. They don't pay a ton but they have great food. I get a nibble or two of something yummy and there are always takers for the bigger part of the sandwich. Wish they didn't make me get those gross fries though. Got cold ones yesterday and my granddaughter wouldn't even eat them until they were mostly catsup. lol

I do a lot of Golden Corrals. It takes discipline, but they serve plenty of veggies and have a great salad bar. And no, you can't go to the dessert bar. You have to at least glance at it, but don't touch it or you're doomed.

I do a lot of Buffalo Wild Wings. I always take someone with me and I get a salad. I've started keeping a couple of packets of my own salad dressing when I'm heading out to a shop. Some of the "light" dressings they serve in restaurants have a lot of calories because they include sugar.

I do ice cream shops all the time but I have grandkids. I pocket the five and they pocket the calories. lol

My big questions are always, is it ok for me to eat it, give it to my family or can I give it to someone else. I don't feel so comfortable throwing food away, but that is also an option if you don't have a dog.

Weight Watchers teaches you to ask for a box right away when your meal is served. Put part of it in the box to take home. That way, you not only don't overeat that meal, you have another meal for later.

It is so difficult when you have to write an accurate report, without at least trying the food. Once I try the food, if it is real good, it is hard to stop. Some of the companies say, no doggie bags.

I am trying to cut down by just eating half a meal. It is the desert that is the problem. I find some of the meals just thinking about gaining wait, makes my appetite disappear. However, when I get home, I am sometimes hungry.

Gaining weight is the downfall of this job...I never do FF, I have a healthy burger shop I love, and order a Maui Maui burger and sweet potato fries (at least it's healthy). My lunch, dinner, bar audits, I love their salad, and take half home, or they have great low calorie appetizers, (lettuce wraps or shrimp rolls), and now have a calorie counter. I usually eat lunch alone, so, that helps...it's the dessert that puts it on, I have gained 8 pds since doing this and two sizes, but I still manage to eat healthy, it did take awhile to develop my "just say no" side. I'm also not doing as many as I used too.

I've never seen a shop that says "no doggie bags". I've seen you can't order it to go. I order it for "here" and then get a box for leftovers. No way I can eat all the food I get. I get reimbursed $30-40 for a casual dine, you better believe I'm taking some home for my family. lol

1/2 price appetizers during happy hour can feed my family another full meal or more after the kids and I eat a small meal on site.

That's the way to do it....take home, why not? California iss the health capital,(salads abound), and although we have McD and the rest, between weight and cholesteral, not this kid. Takes alot to feed a family, take advantage of it, and use their "doggie bags.

i know in ads for food when they are doing a shop they take one bite and usually toss the rest... sometimes they even spit out the bite that they take if its a ton of takes... its your food..use it how you want it...yes it is wasteful to throw away but its not you that is paying for it... it is the company... you could always start a compost bin at your house (if you own) if its a problem...

LOL!! I gained so much weight from dining shops that I joined Weight Watchers. All the money I saved from eating out, I paid back to WW!!! I've lost 55 lbs., and my dining shops have voluntarily been curtailed.

cooldude, you don't put meat or meat products in a compost pile. On second thought, how much of the fast food stuff is 'meat' or 'meat products' anyway????

Generally the same materials I would put in a compost pile are materials I would offer my goats, who are vegetarians. Breadstuffs they like, certainly produce scraps they love. But they will not touch animal products at all--not trimmed fat or skin or bones. They sort of turn their noses up at left over french fries as well except those fried in peanut oil.

I did one golden arches shop and then saw the following video


[thestir.cafemom.com]

I have never gone back and have never eaten the frozen ones you can buy at the grocery store since.

For the first 3 yrs. of this business, I wasn't contracted with any MSCs that offered fat laden FF shops. 2 mos. after I accepted my first such job, I failed to make weight in a powerlifting meet; as this had never occurred I thought it was a fluke, 4 mos. later, I wasn't even close to my target weight, but for an unknown reason I didn't make the association with FF. I struggled and failed, so accepted my metabolism had changed until I was fired by the only MSC for whom I completed that work. Since that discharge last Oct., I've lost 16 lbs. without any other lifestyle changes. I now avoid Sonic, Church's, 5 Guy's and McDonald's like the plague and am truly grateful to the MSC for their decision to sever our relationship. I've been asked if I'd accept re-reinstatement: ABSOLUTELY not! I know that when they'd wave a McD's bonused to $22, I'd be right back in the thick of the situation. It's similar to premium ice cream for me; I can either leave it at the store or take it home and eat the entire container. To exercise the willpower to moderate, is simply too difficult for me.

I want to add on top of packing on the pounds, the cholestral in that stuff is most dangerous. I got my cholestral down (thanks to pills), and feel great. every time I pass a big Mac, I keep going. There are many great burgers out there, many restaurants use Black Angus meat. I buy lean good hamburger meat and make them right in my kitchen, and don't have to wait to be reumbursed. I personally don't belong to the MSC that does them. Paying that big a price doesn't work as you become a senior, everything you once ate, comes back to your thighs or tummy, ....o.k., I'll stop preaching.