Say “Fast Food” to many Americans and it conjures up a picture of a cheap, greasy burger, fries and a huge soft drink. This doesn’t have to be so!

I think I’m like the average American. I get up early to get ready for the day. I normally have work left over from the previous evening that I finish before heading out in the morning. Since I’ve been working on losing weight, I’ve started eating a small breakfast at home, normally a 300 calorie or less breakfast.

I do try and take a low calorie lunch, but some mornings it’s not possible to get one made up. Or, I have an lunch appointment with one of our employees.

The nature of my work requires be to be in one area in the mornings and another area in the afternoons. Sometimes these areas can be 70 miles apart. Once I get done with my morning job, normally around 1 p.m., I head off to the 2nd one that is scheduled at 3 p.m.

This means I don’t get to sit down and eat a nice relaxing lunch!

I’ve always been a fast food junkie. I still am, now I’m very selective of what I stop and eat though. I’ve found I have a huge selection of healthy, low calorie, low fat foods to search from if I take the time to research what is good for me and what isn’t.

For example, one of my favorite spots to stop is Sonic Drive-In’s(r). In my pre-gottal-lose-this-weight life, I would stop and get the Super Sonice Cheeseburger with bacon and jalepenos, the Sonic Size(r) soft drink along with the Sonic(r) Sized onion rings. The “Lunch of Champions” I used to call it.

Little did I know (or care) at that time, that I was consuming 2135 calories with that lunch! That’s about what I consume in a whole day now! By the way, I could eat all that in about 10 minutes.

Now, when I stop at Sonic (r) for lunch, it’s a Grilled Chicken Sandwich, with mustard and a Large unsweetened ice tea. Bam, a 340 calorie lunch! My favorite is their Grilled Chicken Salad. 310 Calories and I carry my own seasoning to add to it. I also request their Lite Ranch Dressing and only use about half of the package.

You can also order just a plain grilled chicken breast or hamburger patty if you want to bypass the bread. You can also do this at most other fast food places as well.

Here is the link to the Sonic Nutrition Guide.

My favorite place to stop though is Chic-fil-A(r). I absolutely lover their Char Grilled Chicken sandwich! With only 270 calories and 30 grams of fat, what’s not to love! Want even lower numbers? Just get the Char Grilled Chicken by itself.

Funny, I’d never stopped at one of their places until I started watching my weight and now I’m hooked on them.

Here is the PDF download to see the Chic-fil-A Nutrition Guide.

My point is, if you’re out and about every day like I am, sooner or later you’ll want to stop for lunch. You don’t have to fall off the wagon, so to speak, to ge a low calorie, low fat lunch that taste great and is filling. Just fire up the ole Internet and start downloading these Nutrition Guides and know what is healthy at the fast food places in your area.

Some places such as Subway, have handy brochures telling you the nutrional value of the food on their menu. I have several of these stashed in my pickup, laptop case, etc. (I’m always misplacing these…lol)

Now, go out there and tackle the World witout fear of falling of the Fat wagon if you forget your lunch!

Don