Cheeseburger And Fries...But Paradise?

It sucks to keep to a diet all the time. Especially for someone like me who loves food of all kinds. I watch the Food Channel and Travel Channel just to fantasize about what it would be like to have their jobs and get paid to eat and travel.


But, one of the best parts of maintaining the diet, and working out as much as I do, is the joy I get when I choose to break my diet. Sometimes I do it more than I should, and at those times I watch the needle on my scale move east, pound by pound.


I do like my junk food when I indulge. Living with three teenagers forces me to indulge and come face to face with temptation on a regular basis. Sometimes I say an outright no to chips, dip, ice cream, candy, and pizza. Most times I simply moderate my portions. In the end, I still pay for it.


I try to keep takeout to a minimum, if only for the health factor. Tonight, however, was one of those times when I intended to cook dinner, but life just got in the way. I decided, with the help of my youngest son, to break down and treat to Whataburger. The tradeoff was that he and his weekend guest would have to eat my home cooked meal on Saturday night. Considering the scheduled meal for Saturday night was barbecued chicken, the negotiations were not too difficult.


Off to Whataburger. I ordered my burger with jalapenos, cheese, and onions, then topped it off with half of a large order of fries (I split that large order with my husband). As I funneled it down, I wondered, in a vague sense, how many calories I had just consumed. I tried to savor the taste but I kept returning to the fact that the taste was really just all the extra fat and sodium that my body and taste buds are not used to consuming but nonetheless crave. Not only that, but what about the numbers...grams of fat, sodium, and cholesterol. I am not sure I really want to know. Despite that, I feel obligated to inform.


So, for anyone wondering the nutritional value of a Whataburger:


Calories: 620
Total Fat: 31 g
Saturated Fat: 10 g
Cholesteral 60 mg
Sodium 1513 mg


The only upside is the 27 g of protein. But look at the price paid in unhealthy "others". And notice that I did not include the nutritional cost of the half helping of fries that I literally inhaled along with that burger. Worse yet, I was tempted to eat the whole order and blame it on my oldest son. Somehow my guilty conscience got the better of me before I went down that road. Sorry, B.


I felt the pain of indulgence quickly: my parched mouth from the overload of sodium, and, was that one of my arteries collapsing because of the extra fat trying to make its way through my heart? I knew that pain meant something.


I will have to work out twice tomorrow to make up for giving into temptation. Nuts and twigs, literally, for the next week.


Paradise is difficult to come by these days and each person defines it differently. Jimmy Buffet tries to define it via a cheeseburger. I can live with that, especially because I don't eat cheeseburgers that often. When I do, it is like paradise for a brief interval in my day. A rush of pleasure. But, in my case, the pleasure is superceded by guilt...and awareness that my true pleasure comes from maintaining a healthy body.


Cheeseburgers on a regular basis do not lead to my paradise.


So, back to my marginally restrictive diet: yogurt, muesli, protein drink, salads, no bread, crackers, or chips, limited alcohol....etc....etc....etc...my paradise.