Oscar Mayer Deli Creations
2008/06/09 at 11:51 am | Posted in Commentary, Food, Food Review, Health, LG enV, Life, lifestyle change, Phone-Cam, weight loss, weight watchers | Comments OffTags: lean cuisine, Oscar Mayer Deli Creations, smart ones, weight, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers
In what now appears to be a regular part of this blog, I now offer a review/critique of yet another food item. I will do these for two reasons:
- To give an unbiased opinion on a food item, and
- To let everybody know that with the Weight Watchers Points Program, you’re not limited to berries and twigs.
Today’s offering is Oscar Mayer’s Deli Creations Flatbread Sandwich, Fajita Beef and Salsa variety:
The packaging alone already beats the Hillshire Farm wrap I reviewed a few days ago. But will its flavor live up to the attractive imagery? Before we get into that, let’s flip it over and read the nutritional information:
Here’s a quick rundown:
- 280 calories, 9g fat, 1g fiber = 6 Points
One package = one serving. With numbers like that, it’s on par with your average Lean Cuisine and/or Smart Ones meal. As is the case with most packaged foods, the sodium content is a bit on the high side (which preserves freshness or so I’m told). And what makes this item great is that the package front proudly announces that all of the cheeses inside–Jack, cheddar, Colby, and mozzarella–are of the 2% milk, reduced fat variety. Good so far.
Assembly is required. You pretty much lay out the flatbread on the tray, splatter the ingredients evenly, fold it over and nuke it from 50 seconds to 1 minute. When finished, you have a what is touted as a “hot & melty” sandwich, a phrase which the marketing firm for Oscar Mayer convinced everybody was a fantastic idea. Personally, I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing or reading that again.
But I digress. Upon completion, the sandwich is indeed both hot and melty. The beef and flatbread are soft, cheese completely “melty” and the salsa very tasty and with a little spice (but not what I’d consider hot). It was definitely a better meal than the Hillshire Farm thing I made myself eat a few days ago and 6 Points less.
Would I recommend: Yes, and you might even feel a bit guilty when eating one of these. I think it’s a fine substitute for when you get sick of Smart Ones, Lean Cuisines or anything else you have for lunch.
—
Bookmark this post:
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
Hillshire Farm’s Deli Wraps
2008/06/05 at 8:36 pm | Posted in Commentary, Food, Food Review, Health, lifestyle change, weight loss, weight watchers | Comments OffTags: deli wraps, french fries, hamburger, happy meal, hillshire farms, lean cuisine, mcdonalds, smart ones, weight, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers, weight watchers points
Hi again. Here’s the extra post I promised.
When it comes to lunch, I’m pretty fond of the choices that Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones offer. In fact those are about the only two things I eat on a regular basis for lunch, save for the occasional salad or leftovers. If I had to choose, I’d lean towards Smart Ones since they boldly place the Weight Watchers Points Value on the front of the box.
But Ann went to the store yesterday and thought I needed a change, so she bought me a few Hillshire Farm’s Deli Wraps:
Looks tasty, no? Well let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. While I was indeed intrigued by the plastic-box packaging and the attractive picture, I wanted to see what I was getting myself into. So I flipped the thing over for the nutritional information and here’s what I saw:
The nutritional information gives you, the consumer, a virtual cornucopia of dining options. Most notably, you can see a column “with dressing” and “without dressing.” Since the thing is a Southwestern Chicken wrap, it would seem downright silly to eat the thing without dressing so the second column seems pretty useless.
So I figured okay, fine. 260 calories, 14g of fat and 2g of fiber. That’s a nice 6 Point lunch for me. Cool.
But wait! Did you see that those numbers are per serving? Egads. And that there are two of them in there? So then that’s 520 calories, 28g of fat and 4g of fiber for a total of 12 Points.
For comparison purposes, chew on this:
- McDonald’s hamburger: 250 calories, 9g fat, 2g fiber* = 5 Points
- McDonald’s small fries: 230 calories, 11g fat, 3g fiber* = 5 Points
- Total: 480 calories, 20g fat, 5g fiber = 10 Points
You could pretty much order a Happy Meal and save yourself a few Points for the weekend. And when you consider the sodium content (1740mg for the wraps vs. 680mg for the burger and fries), in this case you would actually be better off dining underneath the romantic glow of the Golden Arches!
But the real question is, how did they taste? They were acceptable but not exactly the best thing I’ve ever tried. As the sodium content might indicate, the wraps were extremely salty and the chicken didn’t really look like the real thing. In fact, it seemed too “fleshy” to be chicken. (Sorry, but that was about the only thing I could used to describe it.)
All things considered, I’d rather walk down to the local McDonald’s for lunch and burn off some calories in the process than eat another one of these things. And if you think this is bad, wait until you see the nutritional information on the Turkey and Bacon Club variety. It’s even worse!
What’s my point in all of this? Just because the thing contains chicken and not red meat doesn’t automatically mean it’s better for you. If you’re serious about losing the weight and aren’t already a long-distance runner, you should always read the back of the packaging before buying.
Would I recommend: Yes, but only if you have absolutely no choice. You could just order a hamburger Happy Meal and save yourself 2 Points for the weekend.
—
*Nutritional information courtesy McDonald’s Web site, June 5, 2008
—
Bookmark this post:
: : : : : : : : : 
: 
:
A Book of Lies?
2008/05/01 at 12:40 pm | Posted in Commentary, Food, Health, Life, lifestyle change, SimulPost, Thoughts, Uncategorized, weight loss | Comments OffTags: calories, david Zinczenko, diets don't work, dottie's weight loss zone, eat this not that book, fast food, fat, lifestyle change, saturated fat, weight, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight loss men
Could this quite possibly be the most useless book ever written? Or is its author the smartest man in the universe?
If you ask me, it’s a little of both.
Author David Zinczenko is ca$hing in on the laziness of Americans by catering to their one vice: fast food. In his book Eat This, Not That! he tackles the issue of choosing between which of the worst foods are actually, well, better than the other.
Take the example on the cover. Although it’s hard to see, the author—he’s the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine—is telling you to choose a Big Mac (540 calories; 29g of fat) over a Whopper (760 calories; 46g of fat).
Well, gollllly, Sgt. Carter! That’s fantastic! By eating the Big Mac, I not only save all those calories but also cut my fat intake to 29g instead of 46g for one meal! I guess I’ll order the fries, too!
But wait! What about the sodium content? The Big Mac has 1,040 mg of sodium; the Whopper has 1,450 mg. When you consider that the RDA is 2,400 mg, either one will get you nearly halfway to your RDA for sodium in no time flat. And remember, too, that the RDA amounts are based on a 2,000 calorie daily intake. So when you factor in the amount of calories, fat, sodium and saturated fat (with an RDA of 20g) of the burgers, neither is “healthier” than the other.
Also consider that as editor-in-chief of a health magazine, the man’s lifestyle is likely to be less sedentary than the average person trying to drop a few pounds. In fact, it’s not uncommon for marathoners and runners to consume high-calorie meals as most will be expended during their run so that they have enough in reserve at the end of their run and don’t, um, die afterwards.
If you’re truly serious about losing weight, here’s a thought: avoid fast foods. That isn’t my advice; that came from my doctors. And rumor has it that they know a little about the human body.
Now I’m not saying I don’t enjoy an occasional fast food meal but I don’t make them a staple of my diet. (If I do eat out, it’s mostly chicken—I’ve given up red meat and fried foods.) I didn’t lose my weight by not brown-bagging it to work, not making healthy meals the night before, not cutting up watermelons and pineapples to make my daily 2 cups of fruit, or not drinking at least 2 pints of water per day. Losing and maintaining your weight is all about choices and if your dilemma is choosing between a Big Mac and a Whopper, you’re doing it wrong.
Sure, David Zinczenko is good-looking, successful and had his book featured all over the place. But in Eat This, Not That! the only thing the dude is doing is saving you from reading the nutritional values and combining the information with pretty pictures in a perfect-bound package. Crap on a cone still isn’t ice cream no matter how you look at it, even if you once dated Rose McGowan.
Look, if all you want is fast food nutritional information that is constantly updated, it’s available for free on Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone, my one source for Weight Watchers Points Values before eating out.
—–
This entry is a SimulPost and can also be read at HolographicMeatloaf.com
Weight Loss: Not a Guy Thing?
2008/04/30 at 12:36 pm | Posted in Commentary, Health, Life, lifestyle change, Thoughts, Uncategorized, weight loss | Comments OffTags: diets don't work, lifestyle change, weight, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight loss men, weight loss women
When it comes to getting recognition or praise from peers, weight loss is definitely not a guy thing. Here’s why I say that.
We had a meeting at work yesterday and while we were all in line for 500-calorie breakfast bagels, I heard somebody compliment one of the girls on her recent weight loss (Note: I had a bagel and ate my fruit cup for lunch instead of the Lean Cuisine pizza I had packed.) Coincidentally, the meeting was about our benefits package that includes a new wellness and fitness program.
And they’re feeding us bagels and cream cheese?
Ah, but I digress. The girl was beaming with delight and, frankly, a bit snotty about dropping some weight. Maybe it was the way another was ingratiating her about it. Keep in mind that the poor little thing was probably a Size 4 to begin with and now she’s down to, well, Size Subatomic Particle.
Then just before the meeting began, I heard another two women sitting beside me chatting about how a former employee lost about 40 lbs. on—get ready for it—the Weight Watchers Points Program.
“She looks so good!” one of them exclaimed. I leaned over and added my piece since, well, it’s working for me, too.
“Oh, I’m doing the Points Program, too,” I said with a smile. The woman nodded without acknowledging my drop in tonnage and continued the conversation with the other. And it’s not like our company is so big that these two women didn’t know who the hell I was. My God, I used to work in their department.
So..ahem. Yo, almost 62 lbs. lost here! What’s not to notice? My Fat Guy Pants are all gone! I’m into Size XL shirts now! And only one person at work—male, coincidentally, who is also on a weight loss plan—has spoken up about it?
It seems to me that unless a guy drops a ridiculous amount weight and goes from being his incognito fat self to a ripped Calvin Klein model, nobody seems to care about his achievement. But when a woman loses, oh, six ounces of water then it’s time to buy a new wardrobe, put her on a pedestal and throw her a damned party.
L’chaim!
It’s not like I go out begging people to give me props but damn, is the world that freaking jealous of what I’ve accomplished? Or am I just looking for recognition in the wrong places (around people I see every day)?
But you know, it’s this kind of thing that motivates me to do more and get it done right. And we’ll see who’s talking when I reach 200 lbs.—or less.
Oh, who am I fooling with that statement? They’ll probably ask if I got a haircut or something.
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
Clarification
2008/06/11 at 9:04 pm | Posted in Blog Stuffs, Commentary, Food, Food Review, Health, Life, lifestyle change, weight loss, weight watchers | Comments OffTags: diets don't work, kraft foods, lifestyle change, south beach diet, south beach living products, weight, weight loss, weight loss blog
Today’s post has much to do with my soon-to-be-frequent reviews of South Beach Living products and less about my usual topic of weight loss.
For all those concerned about the future of this blog, allow me to clarify a few things.
Continue Reading Clarification…
Share this:
Like this: