At this time of year, you’re racing around trying to use any possible minute that you have for shopping to get all of those back to school necessities including clothes and supplies.
Unfortunately, with all of this time that is spent at the mall, it nearly inevitably leads us to the food court at one time or another, because it is the only convenient option for making sure that we eat something within the small span of time that we have.
Unfortunately, all too many food courts are filled with greasy or sugary options. Even those that appear to be healthy can be packed with calories that can throw all of our pre-holiday weight loss efforts out the window.
If you’re suddenly finding yourself in this type of situation, don’t panic! There are some choices that you can make to help to keep yourself on track while still making sure that you will have a fast and tasty meal in your hand to power you back up for the next wave of sales and lineups.
The following are some of the most common restaurants and the best options that they have, as well as some of the tricky ones that appear to be a good option but that actually aren’t. Keep the following in mind the next time you’re at the mall.
• Panda Express – Broccoli Beef is one of your best options. It contains only 120 calories with 4 grams of fat. The sodium is huge (660 mg) but that will likely be the case with everything you eat at a food court. Equally, don’t fall for the Beijing Beef. It comes with a huge 690 calories and 40 grams of fat, with even more sodium at 890 mg!
• Quiznos – One great dieter’s option (for a food court) is the small size Honey Bourbon Chicken Sub, at 360 calories and 6 grams of fat. Just be sure to wash it down with water because it comes with a heart stopping 1,000 mg of sodium. Equally though, if you consider the alternative of a small Carbonara Sub, which comes with 580 calories, 30 grams of fat and 1,390 mg of sodium, then you’re easily doing better with the first option!
• Jamba Juice – The Peach Pleasure Smoothie (16 ounce size) comes with a surprising 260 calories, but only 1 gram of fat and 35 mg of sodium. This is a far better choice than the Strawberry SurfRider Smoothie (same size) that has 19g more sugar, and weighs in at 320 calories, though it still has only 1 gram of fat and 10mg of sodium.
