Research Your Low Carb Fast Food! ;-)

Monday was kind of an “off” day for me. Which is odd, because I usually kick the week off strong – but yeah, not this week.

I had my usual coffee early in the morning, then about mid-morning I had some snack foods. I ate almonds, string cheese and a can of Vienna Sausages (all except for the two I accidentally dropped on the floor, which my Great Dane cleaned up in two seconds flat! lol).

For lunch – and yes, I was being totally lazy – I had a hot dog dipped in mustard and some more almonds & string cheese. I really wasn’t up for the gym at all, but on my quest to MOVE every single day I did hop on the Gazelle at home for a solid half hour.

The entire bag of almonds (which I split between two “meals”) was 6 net carbs. The meat, cheese & coffee were negligible. So I was doing good on my carb count, I squeezed in a workout, but still – I just really felt “off” yesterday. I’m still not sure why. Probably just post-flu fatigue or something like that. No big deal.

But by dinner I was really craving something YUMMY. And my first mistake was that I waited too late to eat (I was crazy hungry! lol). My second mistake was not researching my “craving” before I indulged…

I decided to go to Hardee’s and get not one but TWO Memphis BBQ Thickburgers.

Hardee’s 1/3 LB. MEMPHIS BBQ THICKBURGER®
A 100% Black Angus Beef Thickburger®, Pulled Pork, BBQ Sauce, Crispy Onion Strings all on a Seeded Bun.

That probably sounds ridiculous, but I ordered them without the BBQ Sauce, and of course took the buns off. And I wasn’t able to eat both of them – more like one and 1/3 of the other. Which is funny to me because I used to eat the whole burger, bun and all, plus the fries too! But I find that I have a much lighter appetite when I’m eating low carb…

I knew the worst thing on my plate was the crispy onion strings and the bbq sauce on the pork. And yes, I went into it in a “splurge” mood. But I really wish I had looked it up online before I dove in, lol. Geez.

That said, I’m actually proud I didn’t eat a whole combo and totally blow it.

On most of their menu items you can add/remove items and see the carb count using their nutritional calculator. (but this isn’t the case on the Memphis BBQ ThickBurger).

For example a MONSTER BISCUIT® (without the biscuit) is only 2 carbs total: It starts with bacon, then a sausage patty, slices of ham, folded egg and two slices of American cheese all piled high on a Made from Scratch Biscuit™.

I have some great Hardee’s coupons right now for that big MONSTER BISCUIT®.

If you look up the Memphis BBQ ThickBurger, you’ll see that it’s 79 net carbs WITH the bun. The bun is 45 carbs. I figured that out by looking at other burgers with the same bun.

So my “burgers” were 34 net carbs each (if you include the bbq sauce, but I ordered mine without). Ack! My guesstimate on total carbs for the day – close to 50.

It was quite the splurge considering I normally eat 20 net carbs a day or less. More of a splurge than I thought it would be – which is why you should ALWAYS research your fast food choices online before you head for the drive-through.