Welcome to 10,000 Pounds!

I'm glad to be here, literally! I hope you are, too.

I've called this blog 10,000 Pounds! because that's how much weight I think I've gained and lost over the past four decades. Or at the very least, it seems that way. If you have a long-term problem with obesity, then you know exactly how I feel. You've spent years beating your head against a wall, trying every diet plan that comes along, no matter how unlikely it is that it will result in permanent success.

My intent is to share with you my successes and failures over the last 40 years. I'll tell you what I did wrong, what I did right, and all the mistakes I made. I'll tell you the reasons I believe that I gained weight repeatedly. And I'll tell you how I finally found success.

But I'm also going to use this blog as a platform for change. I believe the entire population would be better off if we could make more informed decisions about the things we eat. Let me start with a little story...

I used to treat myself every Saturday morning to a large, hot chai tea latte with whipped cream...to the tune of about 300 calories. I knew it was high calorie but I was careful not to eat anything bad. The coffee shop had doughnuts and Danish, but they also had muffins...a much wiser choice, I thought. I really wanted the chocolate doughnut...all that nice cake fried in hot grease called my name, but I would not succumb. The coffee shop proprietor purchased her baked goods at Dunkin Donuts. Feeling righteous, I decided to see if I could find out how many calories I was saving by passing up the doughnut and eating a muffin instead.

I found the Dunkin Donuts website and perused their nutritional information. That chocolate doughnut that I craved was only 250 calories! It was less than my hot chai with whipped cream. I was stunned. Confidently, I pushed forward and found the list of muffins. The one I normally ate was called a coffee cake muffin...plain muffin with a crumb topping. Much to my dismay, I discovered that "better choice" I thought I was making was actually 720 calories...TWICE the calories of my decadent hot chai. I was sickened to learn that between the muffin and the chai, I had quickly ingested over 1000 calories in one brief sitting. That was almost an entire day's allotment of calories! And I had been doing it for months, completely oblivious that I was eating an excessive amount of calories and fat.

That episode prompted me to research other restaurant websites to determine what I should be eating when I went out. Amazingly, some of the biggest chains provided NO nutritional information at all. For example, Longhorn states that because they "custom" prepare food that they can't give out nutritional information. What a lame excuse that is! Applebee's provides calories/fat/fiber information but only on items listed as "Weight Watcher" choices. Most of these dishes are less than 500 calories. But what if you don't like anything on that limited diet menu? An independent web site that calculates calorie content from a variety of restaurants listed Applebee's Southwest Philly Roll Up with Sour Cream and Salsa at a whopping 2,231 calories and 160 g of fat! So if you choose to eat anything not on the Weight Watchers list, you have no idea how many calories you may be sucking down...and in this case, ignorance is definitely not bliss.

Some establishments do provide complete nutritional information. I normally don't eat at McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts, but I applaud their forthright disclosure. At least, if I do darken their doorways, I can make an "informed" decision. Panera Bread/St. Louis Bread Company also has full disclosure on their website. I have a friend who frequents Panera and other restaurants that provide this information so that she doesn't inadvertently eat more calories than she intends to consume. This tactic, along with frequent workouts, has resulted in a 100-pound weight loss in the past year.

I think it's time that the public demands full nutritional disclosure from all restaurants. The obesity rate in this country is rising daily. We have become a nation of fast food, or at least food we don't have to prepare ourselves. Blindly eating restaurant food about which we have no clue plays a definite role in the rising obesity rates. We need to take matters into our own hands and demand full disclosure.

So I am recommending the following. Call or write your Senator and Congressmen. Tell them you want a law passed requiring full nutritional disclosure from all restaurants, either posted on the company website or available as a handout to in-store customers.

In addition, I am asking you to join me in a boycott of restaurants that fail to fully disclose their nutritional information. I am starting with Longhorn Steakhouse. Don't eat at Longhorn, and ask your friends and relatives not to eat there as well. Explain to them why Longhorn needs to provide full nutritional disclosure. You can even send a postcard to your local Longhorn telling them that you are boycotting their restaurant until they provide complete nutritional disclosure.

Let's get the ball rolling!!

M. E.