Our family went out to dinner last night at On The Border. Now I’m not trying to single them out or anything, we truly enjoy their food and my five year old absolutely loves their black beans (she’ll eat two orders at a sitting and ignore the ice-cream – how strange is that?!?). But several things happened while we were there that made me think about how easy it is to slip off the diet wagon, especially when you eat out.
Right after we sat down, our waitress greeted us and asked us if we would like something to drink. But the way she asked was, “Can I get you something to drink? Sweet tea or Dr. Pepper maybe?” In the size glass that they use in restaurants, that’s about 350 calories – NOT including all the free refills which over the course of an hour or more meal could total up to 1,000 calories! Now she could have offered water (zero calories) or a diet soda (zero calories) but her first offer was for something with tons of raw sugar. Don’t let a friendly offer sabotage your whole meal!
Next comes the unending basket of free chips. D’you know how many calories are in each basket? 430!! D’you know how much nutritional stuff? Zero. All chips are full of fat and salt, but not much else. If you’re eating with one other person and you go through two bowls of chips before your meal, that’s an additional 430 calories – just for you! If you add queso or guacamole, that’s 250 or 570 more calories, all before you’ve started eating your meal. Fajita nachos have 1580-1670 calories.
So then you order your main course. Here are some sample values: chicken enchiladas with rice (but not beans) 1180 calories, steak fajitas 1160 calories, three beef tacos 960, taco salad 1260-1390.
So if you add all that together:
350+ (drink) and 430+ (chips) and 1000+ (main course) = 1800 calories and that’s IF you don’t have drink refills, queso or an appetizer. It’s not hard to hit over 3000 calories in one meal!!!
The kicker is YOUR DAILY CALORIE INTAKE SHOULD BE BETWEEN 1200-1800 CALORIES!!!! That means you’d blow your entire daily budget on one meal and possibly two days’ budget on one meal. I know Mexican food is good, but is it better than fitting into a smaller size pants? Than getting onto a chair instead of a booth? Than not having to stick yourself with an insulin needle twice a day?
So what are good choices at OTB? Start with water or unsweet tea and add Splenda or Equal. Tell them you don’t want the chips (because you know as well as I do that you’ll eat’em if they’re on the table). For an entree try chicken salsa fresca (520 calories), jalapeno-BBQ salmon (590 calories) or maybe a kid’s meal: cheese enchilada (410 caloires, beef taco (320 calories) or grilled chicken sandwich (330 calories). A side of beans has 180 calories, a side of rice has 290.
Think that’s hard to do? Dr. H and I ended up with : water and a diet coke, no chips, jalapeno salmon, no dessert. That’s about 54g of protein and since we didn’t even finish our entire plates, about 550 calories for each of us. And since the food was high protein and high fiber, we were stuffed. Remember: if you want to wear my dress size, you’ve got to eat my meals 
(and exercise with me, too but that’s a post for another day)
all nutritional information was obtained from the official OTB nutritional site http://www.brinker.com/gr/nutritional/OTB_NutritionBW.pdf
6. July 2009 at 12:22 pm
Perhaps lap banders should have some sort of badge or a hat that carries an easy to read notice that the wearer is not to be tempted with immense amounts of fat. In fact, link the disclaimer with the food server’s tip, something to the effect of: “I’m Losing Weight for Medical Reasons. No Tips to Servers Who Tempt Me Beyond Reason.”
I gave up on the main menu in almost all restaurants a long time ago; I do just fine with a cup of whatever tasty soup they have to offer.
By the way, doctor, how did you know the total calorie counts of those entrees?
6. July 2009 at 2:38 pm
Unfortunately , in Texas very few restaurants post nutritional content of food. You can find it on the corporate website for each restaurant which I suggest you do prior to your meal.
There is a link at the bottom of the post for “On the Border.”
Use your favorite search engine, e.g. Google, Yahoo, or Bing, to search for “[restaurant name] nutritional info.”
Thanks for writing us from California!
16. July 2009 at 8:13 am
THE MEXICAN CHOPPED SALAD IS GREAT!!! SOMETIMES I ADD SOME REFRIED BEANS. I CAN’T EAT THE WHOLE SALAD SO GO AHEAD AND ASK FOR A TO GO BOX. ASK THEM TO PUT THE DRESSING ON THE SIDE SO IT WON’T GET SOGGY AND YOU CAN HAVE LUNCH FOR THE NEXT DAY.
20. July 2009 at 1:05 pm
next time, try black beans instead of refried beans. Refried beans have a HUGE amount of fat whereas the blackbeans have very little and lots of fiber.
24. July 2009 at 12:25 pm
thank you for the infomation,sometimes we need to see it in writing,even though we know it.
7. August 2009 at 5:51 am
Reading through the blog, I’ve noticed that there is a lot of the “Sabotage” going on. It makes me feel better about the little cafe that I work at. The chef makes meals especially for those of us who have had lap band or gastric bypass, he makes small portions, low fat, always tender, and then they charge appropriately, so you aren’t paying for a full sized meal when you aren’t receiving one. We have several “lap band customers” from the office in Texarakana and more coming in each day, I know they come with their families because the food is exceptional, but I also feel that the specialized attention has a bit to do with it also. There are other restaurants in our area who do the same if asked. I guess thats the good part of living in a smaller area.
7. August 2009 at 9:59 am
Wanna write a short post about it for the blog here? We love to advertise local businesses that are good to our people so tell everyone (either in a comment or a post, whichever makes you more comfortable) so we can reward them for their thoughtfulness
8. August 2009 at 8:15 am
Thanks, Dr. K!!
The name of the place is Big John’s. It is located between Valliant and Millerton, OK. just south of the junction of Hwys 70 and 98. Its a small wooden building. They are open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The phone number is 580-933-5177 for take out orders or if you need directions
He hand cuts all the steaks, so you can actually order any size you want with a choice of sirloin, rib eye, or New York strip. They are all very tender and tasty. I love just the plain Hamburger patties, not fatty, but very flavorful.
The salads are actual salads, not just lettuce thrown in a bowl, with onion, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, cheese and croutons, on top of a combination of iceberg, spinach, radicchio and romaine. Numerous choices for light dressings.
They have an abundance of other items, all hand prepared, and will serve the amount needed per customer, understanding the lap band, because I too was a former customer before working there. Waitressing for fun is great exercise, by the way!!! I love visiting with all those who come in!
Ya’ll come in and try it, and I highly recommend the grilled chicken, grilled shrimp and grilled zucchini!
Just come on in and let us know what you need. We aim to please.
Thanks again Dr K and Dr H.
Sandy
8. August 2009 at 10:48 pm
We know how you feel about chips Dr. K; however, I was wondering what D’you think about pork rinds as an alternative to chips when you just gotta have that salty crunch??
10. August 2009 at 12:01 pm
Eeek! Here’s where looking at the labels helps a bunch. According to TheDailyPlate.com, 20 potato chips have 150 calories and 10g of fat. 18 pork rinds have 160 calories and 10g of fat – so they’re almost identical except the pork rinds have even more calories! And no nutritional value whatsoever
For a lower calorie, ultra low fat crispy snack food, try rice chips from Kame (you can find them in the oriental food section of Albertsons in TXK). They actually taste salty like chips, but have very little sodium, too so they’re healthy, filling and satisfying all around.
12. August 2009 at 1:48 pm
Here is the link to our blog post about your thoughts on restaurant sabotage: http://www.lapbandsurgerydoctors.com/lap-banders-in-restaurants
17. August 2009 at 2:08 am
Some resturaunts offer a discount to the lapbanders. But I have noticed in recent months that some are taking advantage of the discount without being banded. These are the people that will ruin it for us who really do have the band.. I am now to the point to say that Amigo Juans will discount if you can prove your banded so have your card. Also Golden Corral does this as well. Kudos to these restuaraunts.