Arby's Fail

So today is a super busy day for me. We're hosting Mark Lowry in concert tonight and there are lots of things to do to get everything ready. Plus I went on a mini field-trip this morning to play for the senior adult choir. And I'll probably be here until 11-12:00 tonight. So I was worried about food, because the day of our last concert I was so busy I ended up not eating anything at all and wanted to pass out and die afterwards. So I thought I would do good and make sure I got my three meals in today and still eat healthy. I had a small piece of a sausage/egg casserole for breakfast (by far the biggest breakfast success for me yet!). I drank my water and took my Zija vitamins, and drank more water. And tonight my parents are coming to the concert, so they're going to come an hour early and bring me a turkey sandwich on wheat and some light chips and a bottle of water, all from Subway. So that left lunch. And I didn't really have time/need to go home, but didn't bring anything with me, so I decided to eat out, but eat healthy. Big fail. MAJOR fail. And thus begins my rant:

I chose Arby's because less things are fried there. I decided upon a Market Fresh Sandwich, NO fries, no side at all actually. And ordered a small ice water. I asked for no tomato or onion, per usual, and came back to my office to eat my sandwich. Its turkey, bacon, cheese, lettuce, and ranch on wheat bread. So I knew it wasn't a total health nut meal, but also figured it was better than a cheeseburger. WRONG WRONG WRONG. DO NOT order this sandwich at Arby's!! Half-way through my sandwich, I got on their website to look up the nutritional value. The result? This sandwich is a whopping, and I mean whopping 810 calories!!!!! 400 of these calories are in the BREAD.

 So at this point, I'm half-way through this beast (as you can see) and am in shock. So I decide to go through the rest of the Arby's menu, and to my horror discover this so-called healthy sandwich is one of the top 3 highest calorie items on the ENTIRE menu. I could have had a large Beef & Cheddar Melt and curly fries (which to be honest, I totally wanted) and had the same caloric intake as this "wheat" bread. I say "wheat" because obviously it is glorified bread. I could have also had a FRIED chicken, bacon & swiss sandwich with curly fries. What the hell? I mean, don't get me wrong. I understand that fast food places don't exactly make their living by selling lettuce and wheat and grains. And I don't expect to go through a drive-thru and eat for less than 500 calories. This much I know. But to order a turkey sandwich and have the bread alone be 400 calories? I mean, hell - the ranch dressing and bacon COMBINED were only 200 and I was thinking those were the bad part about this sandwich. In fact, I picked off half the bacon so that I wouldn't eat it, only to discover its contribution was only 90 calories.

Moral of the story kids? Read the nutrition info first, not half-way through eating. Also, restaurant menus are deceiving, and that irks me. I mean, I'd rather just know that I could have had a cheeseburger than to fool myself into thinking I made a smart decision.

So I'll be having my Subway version of a turkey sandwich tonight, which will be like 300-400 calories at best. And I'll still, at the end of the day when all is said and done be at or under my daily caloric intake needs. But nonetheless, I feel like I just ate a cow. Boo.

Eat it, Arby's.

Micha