It’s indisputable: the better you eat, the better you feel. Making healthy choices doesn’t mean you have to give up your favorite chain restaurants or brands. While it’s more than ok to treat yourself every now and then, you can find healthy and tasty options nearly everywhere and we at Her Campus UMich can help you get started!
Breakfast
Instead of McDonald’s Bacon, Egg & Cheese Bagel, try a McDonald’s Egg McMuffin: At 560 calories, this bagel sandwich from McDonald’s has a whopping 27 grams of fat and 1300 mg of sodium – more than 50% of your recommended daily sodium intake! An Egg McMuffin, on the other hand, has 300 calories, 12 grams of fat and 820 mg of sodium and still satisfies a craving for meat and cheese in the a.m.
Mid-Morning Snack
Swap JELL-O Chocolate Vanilla Swirls Pudding Snacks for JELL-O Cherry & Black Cherry Sugar Free Gelatin Snacks: One of these pudding snacks has 110 calories and 19 grams of sugar, while a gelatin cup is only 10 calories and is sugar free, so you avoid a sugar high during the day.
Lunch
Skip on Potbelly’s Wreck Sandwich, but select their Wreck Salad: All of the meat and cheese you love on a Wreck sandwich are even better on top of lettuce and tomato! This salad has 20% of the carbs that its sandwich counterpart has, plus it’s topped with hard-boiled egg, an excellent source of protein.
Afternoon Snack
Ditch the Crunchy Cheetos for White Cheddar Popcorn: Cheetos have almost zero nutritional value, which means empty calories. According to a study by the University of Scranton, popcorn may have as much antioxidants as your favorite fruits and veggies!
Dinner
Pass on Panera Bread’s Italian Combo Sandwich with Ham on Ciabatta but pick Panera Bread’s Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich on Tomato Basil Bread: This ham sandwich has 980 calories and 41 grams of fat, which will leave you feeling bloated and groggy. The veggie sandwich has 590 calories and only 13 grams of fat, and the cilantro hummus inside is packed with iron and fiber.
Sources:
http://www.paneranutrition.com/
http://potbellys.com/Food/Nutrition.aspx
http://www.kraftbrands.com/Jello/products.aspx
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/full_menu_explorer.html