Dieting Challenge: Red Robin

Something I'm realizing as I'm in month 4 of my diet...you know what, let's stop right there. Diet implies that this is temporary. I know that this way of eating will need to stay with me for life. Maybe not as restrictive, but the choices need to remain the same if I want to keep the weight off. So, let's call this month 4 of my new eating ways. Anyway, something I'm realizing more and more is that I can't always research the exact nutrition in a place we're going to eat out prior to the meal. That adds probably about 15-20 minutes to the wait before getting to the place to eat. And with 2 kids, waiting 15 minutes means waiting like 30-40 because then Darcy would want to eat, or Noah would start throwing a fit. So, I'm realizing I need to be able to figure these things out on the fly.

So due to Shannon's treatment today, we both ended up skipping lunch. It ended right in the middle of lunch, so instead of running out and getting something which we'd have to rush to eat before end of treatment, or instead of running and grabbing something after, we just skipped. Not to mention, breakfast was pretty minimal too, due to the time we get there. So, all I'd had to eat today was a Special K Protein Bar in the morning. Lots of calories, carbs, and fat needing to be used. But, since this was a rare case, the challenge will be modified a bit...

The challenge: Find a meal at RR for 800 calories or less, 25 grams of fat or less.

The choice: So, let's start with some eliminations...
1. Beef. Beef is great, it really is. But unless you KNOW you're getting 93/7 or 96/4 ground beef, avoid getting it. High in fat, and processed.
2. Ask for no mayo. This stings a bit, because I love mayo on sandwiches. But rarely do restaurants use light or healthy mayo.

So, with those in mind, RR has a HUGE chicken sandwich menu. The one I targeted for this occasion was the Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Sandwich. Asked for no mayo, left on cheese. Ate the fries as well, but if it was a "normal" day, I would've subbed a side salad with a low-fat dressing for the fries, no croutons.

The result:
Let's start with the side -
Side salad w/o dressing is 85 calories, 5 g fat. Dressings listed on the website are all high in fat, but I'd be suprised if they had no low-fat/low-cal options. So let's round up to 150 calories, 9 g fat.

Sandwich-
734 calories, 27 g fat. Huh. I thought removing the mayo would be enough, but RR puts TWO slices of cheese on their sandwiches by default. Also, the onion straws add 122 calories and 6 g fat.

So, assuming those two, our meal would be 884 calories, 32 g fat. So this challenge is a FAIL.

Ways I could've done it:
1. Sticking w/ sandwich, take the cheese down to 1 slice of cheddar and remove onion straws. This takes the sandwich down to 527 calories, 14 g fat. That's 200 calories and 13 g fat lower, which would easily put us inside of our ranges. Or, removing cheese and mayo, but leaving onion straws...559 calories, 13 g fat.
2. Don't eat a side. I've done this before with fast food. Just get the sandwich and leave the sides. It's a tradeoff, you get a full flavor sandwich but you may find yourself hungry still.
3. Healthier sandwich: Simply Grilled Chicken Sandwich, starts at 420 calories, 8 g fat. Doing this sandwich, you can add on fries to get 854 calories, 26 g fat. Not great, but close enough to be decent. And if you sub a healthier side...