Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Still chugging toward better health.

My office served a catered lunch today because we are having a big meeting. The food was an assortment of Cosi sandwiches, including my favorite, the TBM (which stands for tomato, basil, mozzarella). I had actually brought my lunch today (leftover spinach enchiladas and baked lemon shrimp), but I figured I'd check out the free food and I could always save my lunch for tomorrow if anything looked good.

But since I'm on the Healthy Living plan, I dutifully looked up the nutritional information before I selected my sandwich (my choice was between my adored TBM and the Turkey Light--which is basically just slices of turkey with lettuce, tomato, and honey mustard). The Turkey Light sandwich is a reasonable 476 calories and 9 grams of fat for a 10-ounce portion.

But the TBM? Oh my god, the TBM. An 11-ounce sandwich is 729 calories and 42 grams of fat. Forty-two grams of fat. Cheese is the devil, tempting me. But I am more or less a saint, because I had the Turkey Light. And liked it.

But oh, the tears I shall shed for my lost TBM. Never again will I be able to enjoy the sandwich, blissfully clueless about the havoc it is wreaking on my daily caloric intake. Now, even if I choose to order the sandwich, I have to face up to the fact that I am willfully injecting my body with 43 grams of fat. I'm pretty sure that awareness is not all that it's cracked up to be.

And damn it, as a more serious afterthought: Why the hell did I wait 23 years to start thinking about things like fat grams in cheese? Why did I exist for so long without really paying attention to what I was putting into my body? Why wasn't I like all those other women in my office, peacefully eating their plates of lettuce at lunch while the men chowed down on greasy Chinese and barbecue? What an unhealthy waste of time.

2 comments:

  1. Jess -

    While I fully support your healthy living plan, as a vegetarian who has very few options at really yummy restaurants like Cosi, don't ruin it for me!!! Granted, this makes me really happy that I didn't buy the TBM I was thinking about getting in the airport this past Sunday, but now I have to take every future TBM purchase into serious consideration... sigh.

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  2. Sorry! I guess I should have put some sort of spoiler alert or something at the top of this post. Now I know better for next time.

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