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The Fast Food Survival Guide

Oct18

  The Fast Food Survival Guide
Article By: By Jeffery Lindenmuth  Print Email 

Get the essential tips for healthy drive-thru dining.

It’s no wonder that too much fast food can contribute to obesity: A typical meal of a burger, fries and soft drink contains more than 1,000 calories and a PointsPlus™ value of 30!

Worse yet, the chains are forever encouraging us to double our order size for a few pennies more, or to try the new signature sandwich that somehow squeezes in one more beef patty than the last one.

It’s hard to eliminate fast food from your diet since it’s cheap and convenient. But you can make better decisions at the counter or drive-through so that you can continue to enjoy the occasional fast-food stop.

Here’s what you need to know:

Go for the small burger
If you really want a burger — and you probably do — the small plain burger is your best bet, says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, LD, of Northwestern Memorial Hospital Wellness Institute in Chicago. The chart below shows how the small hamburgers stack up. The Wendy’s burger has the fewest calories, but that’s mainly because it’s the smallest at 3.4 ounces.

Burger Oz. PointsPlus valueMcDonald’s Hamburger 3.57Wendy’s Jr. Hamburger 3.46Burger King Hamburger 4.27

A quarter pound of beef
If a small burger just isn’t enough to satisfy and you’re willing to part with a few more PointsPlus values, here’s how some popular 1/4-pound burgers weigh in.

Burger PointsPlus value McDonald’s Quarter Pounder 11Wendy’s Classic Single Hamburger with everything 12Burger King Whopper without mayo 14

Have it your way
Order your burger without cheese or mayonnaise-based dressings and save 1 to 5 PointsPlus values. “These are small sacrifices that add up to huge savings,” says Blatner.

Understand trans fat
An order of small fries has about 5 grams of trans fat — the harmful, cholesterol-boosting fat that has made news in recent years. Consumed daily, those fries would increase your risk of heart disease by as much as 23 percent. New York and, to some extent, other cities have banned the use of all but a tiny amount of trans fats in large restaurants. A better solution: “Don’t fall into an ordering rut and always choose fries,” says Blatner. “You can find mandarin orange slices from Wendy’s with 80 calories or Apple Dippers from McDonald’s with just 35 calories.”

Look beyond the beef patty.
Here are some alternatives at…

Taco Bell
Chicken Burrito Supreme “Fresco Style”; i.e., without cheese or sauce

Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value330849188Pintos and Cheese
Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value 12061994

KFC
Tender Roast Chicken Sandwich, without sauce

Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value 3004283410Side of Green Beans
Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value980510Corn on the Cob 3″
Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value710.51622

Boston Market
1/4 White-Meat Rotisserie Chicken, No Skin

Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value24041506

Arby’s
Regular Roast Beef

Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value3201334209

Subway
6″ Roast Beef Sub

Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value290545198

Wendy’s
Ultimate Chicken Grill

Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value320736289

Drink smart
The calories and PointsPlus values from regular soda or juices like lemonade can increase the risk of weight gain of regular fast-food eaters. “Choose water, unsweetened iced tea or diet soda,” advises Blatner.

Go green
Most large fast food chains have responded to consumer demand and added tasty salads, a meal-size version of which comes in at 100 calories or less, or about 2 PointsPlus values. But watch out for the add-ons such as meat, tuna, cheese and croutons. Additionally some fast food low-fat dressings are not low calorie. One way to get around this is to use only half the dressing in the packet.

Crunch on this.
Here are some salad selections from some national fast-food chains.

McDonald’s Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken
Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value220612305Burger King’s Tendergrill Chicken Garden Salad
Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value22079305KFC’s Roasted Chicken Caesar Salad, without dressing and croutons
Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value19065295Wendy’s Mandarin Chicken Salad (without noodles, nuts or dressing)
Cals Fat Carbs Protein PointsPlus value180216244

Bar some items at the salad bar
Watch out for breaded and fried items that sneak their way into a salad, says Blatner. Some of the highest calorie dishes are salads with fried chicken on top or tortilla shell bowls; added cheese can also be sneaky. Burger King’s TENDERCRISP® Chicken Garden Salad with cheese tops 400 calories and has a PointsPlus value of 11.

How to Enter a Room and Network Like a Pro

Oct2

How to Enter a Room and Network Like a Pro

Consider these tips to make a lasting impression on new connections, before a meeting even starts.
BY Ross McCammon | July 26, 2011|
So, we’re assuming you’re on time and you know why you’re there and you know exactly what you want from the people in the room and you’ve Googled them and found out where they went to school and that according to LinkedIn they made a couple of questionable professional moves in the early ’90s and at least two of them tweet. What we’re interested in is that pregnant series of moments that lasts for around a minute and is ostensibly about introductions and handshakes and the offering of beverages and, if you’re lucky, a Danish or something, but is really about the beginning of potentially important relationships.

How to Enter a Room

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How to Enter a Room
 
4 Reader Comments.

The main problem with entering an unfamiliar meeting room is that it’s like leaving a bar when it’s still light outside. Things seem a little too bright, a little overwhelming, a little disconcerting. Yet no matter how thrown off you feel, the guiding principle is: It’s your room. For the next, oh, 30 seconds to a minute, you’re in charge. Even if it’s their room, you’re in charge. Even if your earnings are a 10th of the salary of that guy you’re about to shake hands with, you’re in charge. You’re not the only one determining the mood of the room, but you have to take responsibility for it.

Consider a lesson from the forest. “Pretend everyone’s a bear in the woods,” says Robbie Pickard, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based comedian who spends his career entering rooms full of people he needs to impress. “If you look scared, the bear is going to attack you.” Which we always thought involved yelling and waving your arms and stomping the earth and throwing a Coleman lantern. But what he’s saying is, offer no apologies or expressions of trepidation or false humility. Protect yourself with confidence. Confidence makes you look comfortable.

It should seem like there’s no other place in the world you’d rather be.

At this moment, more than any other moment in the meeting, you’re your own agent. You’re saying, “I’d like you to meet myself.” (Note: Do not under any circumstances actually say, “I’d like you to meet myself.”)

Key Technical Matters

1. WHEN people introduce themselves, say their names back to them or take a mental note. But try to keep their names in your head. Saying a person’s name back to them 20 or 30 minutes after you’ve met them suggests graciousness and respect, and it will endear you to them.

2. DO NOT give out business cards before the meeting begins. Because it makes you look like a blackjack dealer.

3. LOOK everyone in the eye for, like, a millisecond longer than is comfortable.

4. Don’t carry yourself in a way that could be described as “jaunty.”

5. IF there are fewer than six other people in the room, shake everyone’s hand. If there are six or more, shake approximately five hands, and then nod amiably to the rest. The shaking of hands can get out of hand.

6. At no time say, “Let’s do this!”

7. NO fist bumps.

8. DON’T talk about anything that isn’t pleasant, such as how much traffic you were just in or how hot it is or how you have a cold.
 

 
 
 

Bill Clinton is a useful example. The man knows how to enter a room. He might not know how to leave, but he knows how to enter. Two out of the two former press secretaries we called for help with this column (we figured they might know something about the subject of entering meetings, since they’ve seen people enter the most important rooms in the world) mentioned Clinton as the best room-enterer they’ve ever seen. Which is pretty easy to do when you’re the president of the United States, but still, there are lessons in his approach.

“When Bill Clinton entered a room, he owned the room from the second he walked in,” says Dee Dee Myers, Clinton’s first press secretary and now a managing director at The Glover Park Group, a D.C. communications firm. “Because he was curious, he wanted to talk to people and would totally engage them. And pretty soon all the energy in the room was running in one direction.”

Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, says, “Bill Clinton was probably the best I’ve ever seen. He walked in and demanded the attention of everyone. The lessons of Clinton are: Don’t be aimless, don’t be casual, don’t be flippant. Let your audience know they’re important and that you’re there because you have a message to give them.”

So, it’s an act, yes. But it’s not entirely an act. The act is supported by an important psychological underpinning: actual curiosity. “You have to be curious,” says Thomas Huseby, managing partner at Seattle VC firm SeaPoint Ventures. “Most entrepreneurs are thinking about what they want to teach or what they want to convey, and everybody would much rather talk to someone who is curious. It’s amazing what that attitude does.”

That’s how to enter a room. With curiosity. But not necessarily about the business at hand. Meetings at Esquire often start off with questions about the view from our conference room on the 21st floor of the Hearst Corporation tower in Midtown Manhattan. If the person we’re meeting with asks anything at all about the city, we take them over to the window and give them a quick tour: the Empire State Building, the exact location in the Hudson where Captain Sully landed the plane, that statue of Ronald McDonald that somehow ended up on the roof of a four-floor walk-up on Eighth Avenue, how New Jersey looks vaguely bucolic if you squint. It’s a rich, interesting conversation.

Who wouldn’t want to be in a room with you now? You’re amiable and confident and pleased with the way things are going. You’re ready to talk and to listen. You haven’t given them any reason why they couldn’t see themselves giving you a lot of money or offering you a contract or partnering with you in some way. You’re someone they could see themselves doing business with, is what we’re trying to say.

All that, and you haven’t even sat down yet. 

Have a question for the Esquire Guy about how to comport yourself at work, on the road or maybe in a bar? (or even at work in a bar on the road?). Ask it at Askesquire@entrepreneur.com.

This article was originally published in the August 2011 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: How to Enter a Room.

Friends that Mutate

Sep29

Friends that turn and become ememies. People that once stood with you, suddenly begin to bite from behind. It’s set up for brighter days ! 

 Psalm 23:5
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Armor up Everyday

Sep29

Putting on daily Armor protects your life from any foreign assaults. The shield covers your heart which protects your faith.The helmet guards your mind and keeps it steadfast.

Ephesians 6:11-15

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.

12For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.

13Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place].

14Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God,

15And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the [a]firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness [b]produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.(A)