How Much Fat is in the Food at Earls?

So, I've been trying to reform my negligent self-care habits lately - not as a new years resolution (who keeps those) but just as a response to a bit of a wake up call my body gave me earlier this month. It has been about ten days now that I've cut out junk food (so long Ruffles Chips and Philly Onion Dip), excessive Diet Coke (though I still allow myself some), and bread (except for today, when I indulged in a sub from Subway).

Things have been going alright so far, but there's been one hiccup in things. It seems that my friends and I all favor our socialization over a meal of some sorts and this has already cost me an outing with my bestie this week. Its so difficult to go to a restaurant and plan to eat well. One of the restaurants D and I love is Earls, so just out of curiosity, I looked up the nutritional information of their menu items on their website. Firstly, it's awesome that they have it all posted - since visiting the Earls site I've tried the websites of a couple of other restaurants and they didn't have ANY nutritional information available.  But secondly, and sadly, what I found on the Earls site was incredibly alarming. I mean, I know that when you go out to eat the food is likely not going to be very good for you, especially in massive chains like Earls where healthy isn't a focus; that's why when D and I go there we don't especially concern ourselves with BEING healthy. 

With the aim of being candid, here is what I usually get when I go to Earls:

Wedge of Garlic Bread                         578.14 calories/27.8 grams of fat
Cajun Cheddar Chicken Sandwich       692.00 calories/40.4 grams of fat
Fries                                                      775.63 calories/41.8 grams of fat
Side of Mayo                                        110 calories/10 grams of fat

Ugh. I would normally want to avoid knowing the total but I love using computer calculators so I'm going to add it all up.  2155.77 calories/120 grams of fat. I just Googled what the average persons daily intake of calories and fat should be: 1800 calories/50 grams of fat.  So I was blowing my whole daily intake in one meal! Yowzers. 

I realize counting calories and other people's diets aren't very interesting topics, I totally get that. I just couldn't get over HOW bad the food was. I think I'm going to save my next Earls trip for a special occasion - and NOT weigh myself the next day!

I'm also going to make more of an effort to do things with my friends that aren't based on some kind of food outing - well, starting the day after tomorrow, or else I'd miss a hilarious and amazing brunch date with two of my favourite people.