Dunkin Donuts

My father, son, and I walked over to our local Dunkin Donuts today, which proved to be very educational to me as a personal trainer. I never, and I truly mean NEVER, eat at your typical fast food places...EVER. Realizing that I'm in a very small minority of people, I thought I'd better offer you guys some good choices for when you're out and about.

Today's restaurant under fire is: Dunkin Donuts!

So there I was in line trying to figure out which is the least of all evils, allowing myself a treat since I walked the mile to get there and would walk the mile back home again. I noticed the "Low Fat Blueberry Muffin" complete with picture of a stick man running and everything and thought, this is probably what most people would choose if they were trying to be good, so I got one. Ever faithfully logging every bite (since August 30, 2011!) into My Fitness Pal, I about fell out of my chair upon seeing the nutrition information for this muffin!!!

Here's the panel (from the Dunkin Donuts website):

Do you see this? 450 calories for a little snack! My calorie goal for the day to maintain my current weight is 1680, so a 450 calorie muffin is about 27% of my total daily calories...for a snack! Don't forget that if you grab a drink you're adding on anywhere up to 800 calories (large Coffee Coolatta with cream). Did you just faint when you saw that? Because I almost did. 800 calories in one drink!

So what are you to do? Well, in an ideal world you would not go to these places (McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Arby's, etc) at all, or very seldom. I hear your scoffs and they are noted. But it is your decision. That's what your daily intake of food is, a series of decisions. (Tough love alert) you need to decide what is more important to you. Your health and the thousands of things that it affects in your life (ability to do activities, your lifespan, the amount of money you pay on healthcare, etc) or having a Coffee Coolatta every day (or even every week).

It is absolutely your life and no one should tell you how to live it, but I'm assuming that if you're reading this, you care about your health and you know this all to be true on some level but for some reason it's still hard to give it all up. Make a pros and cons list, that's a great place to start. Track your diet and see what you're eating and how it's affecting your life. I type everything into My Fitness Pal before I eat it so there is still time to reconsider.

If you find there is a day here and there when you've been super good or you've burned tons of calories doing something and you have the calories to use on a Coolatta, then treat yourself if you choose to. Or take the caloric deficit and lose some weight if you want, it's your choice.

You're going to go to Dunkins no matter what? Ok, that's fine, but if you fail to plan then plan to fail so go HERE to the Dunkin's Nutrition Catalogue, spend some time there and see what your best options are. You want low calorie, high protein, high fiber whenever available.

I hope this helped you :-)

Cassandra Wyzik

www.FitToYouBrevard.com

B.S. - ACSM Certified Personal Trainer

"Putting the FUN in functional fitness!"