How I Watch My Weight at the Office, and Save $7.00 a Day Doing It. And a Bonus: Exposing the Wrap.

I’m a big fan of Subway this year (though their ex-spokesman needs to meet the business end of a baseball bat, repeatedly).  Normally, by now, I’m packing on the holiday season pounds, using another hole in my belt and wondering how long it’s going to take to drop the weight come spring time.  Not this year.  This year I’ve been eating my lunch at Subway, quite religiously.  Now, because I’m such an active fella, that six-inch sub is for the birds, I go with the full 12.  That’s 840 calories, plus 240 for a PowerAde, plus a couple of hundred for some chips…  Call it 1,100.  My daily allowance is around 2,800.  I have an apple and a banana for breakfast, so that’s another 200 calories.  So far, that’s 1,300 for the day and that leaves 1,500 for dinner.

In the past, my lunch was a lot less, um… responsible.  I would consume upwards of 1,700 calories for lunch so by the time I got to dinner, I’d either have to eat light (which I never did) or suffer the consequences.  400 calories a day adds up after a while (that’s a pound every eight or nine days – figure 15 weeks for winter, and you’re looking at 12-15 extra pounds to come off).

So anyway, I’m all Subway Italian BMT all of the time.  I love ’em, but the meal (with the drink) costs $10.  A month ago (or so), I had my wife pick up all of the ingredients at the grocery store.  American cheese (white), ham, salami, pepperoni, spinach, green peppers, cucumbers and a few jalapeno for a little flavor.  Then, some real mayonnaise and I’m set.  I can build my own sub for about $3.  It was missing something though.  My subs are cold while the Subway version is nicely toasted.

So I picked up a toaster oven at the local appliance store.  $30.  I’ll have that paid off in savings in a little more than a week by my math.  Better still, my subs aren’t 12 inches anymore, closer to eight, and I’m drinking water instead of PowerAde – and I’m completely skipping the chips.  So now, I’m at closer to 800 calories for lunch instead of 1,300 – and this makes sense, in the middle of eating season.  But let’s not stop there…  While we’re at it, let’s really look at what’s in my sub…  A simple Google search will turn up the calories in virtually anything:

3 slices of salami at 41 calories each.
2 slices of Black Forest Ham at 60 calories each.
1-1/2 slices of white American cheese at 110 calories each.
1 Aunt Millie’s Super Sub Bun:  220 calories
4 slices cucumber, green pepper, lettuce and jalapeño peppers:  100 calories
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise at 94 calories each.

822 calories (man, they sure do add up in a hurry!).  Now, I think when we lay everything out like this, it becomes clear why weight comes off when we drop the bread, right?  Simply stated, bread can be looked at as wasted calories.  Not by me, of course, but by some.  That said, I decided to look into the calories in a flour tortilla… maybe turn that sub into a wrap and save some calories, right?  A large tortilla has more than double the calories of the sub bun.  467…  So, if you’re looking to save calories, maybe stick with a sub bun over a wrap.  This is one of those things that just doesn’t seem right, I mean how could a whole, entire sub bun be half the calories of a tortilla wrap?  I know what’s coming next, too.  “Well I eat the spinach wraps, so I save a bunch of calories there!  Wrong.  You save about 48 calories over the flour version, that’s it.  But hey, if you feel better, that’s what really important.

Finally, what’s important to me is that I get to eat well, all the while avoiding having to stuff my chubby ass into my Lycra shorts come springtime.  For that, I am grateful.