I was talking with a friend of mine, who doesn’t have diabetes but is trying to manage their weight, about my weight loss experience.
How Did You Do It?
So, the most common question is “How did you do it?” which makes me feel like I used some super secret technique or I have some set of knowledge that isn’t readily available to anyone, anywhere. After talking with my friend for some time, I realized that I did have experience that he didn’t. The knowledge that is making small changes in my eating habits could have massive effects with dramatic effects.
To help my friend understand this principle, we began to discuss some everyday items that he liked to eat and the nutritional information.
Prime Example
After talking about some of the items that he would eat, I picked one of the articles, a Jimmy John’s Sub. For those of you who don’t know what Jimmy John’s is, they are a sub (sandwich) making business similar to Subway, Fire House, Quiznos, but they make sandwiches.
When I heard that he liked to eat a Jimmy Johns, I knew that a small change to his sandwich would make a difference, but not until we started looking at the nutritional information did the shift become so dramatic and apparent.
Unwich Please
As a frequent visitor of Jimmy Johns myself, I knew that Jimmy Johns was one of the few sandwich stores that offered an alternative to the typical 8-inch French bread roll, call an Unwich. The concept is to replace the bread with lettuce then wrap the contents (meat, cheese, into a sort of wrap using the salad lettuce.
I have tried several variations of these Unwiches, and I liked them all, so I suggested to my friend that he should try one. What I didn’t realize what effect this change would have.
90% Change
When I started looking at the nutritional information for a typical 8-inch French bread sandwich, for example, the #4 Turkey Breast, compared to the Unwich I was shocked.
Calories: when it comes to calories the 8-inch French bread sub has 590 calories, while the Unwich is only 230 calories. That is more than a 50% savings.
Carbohydrates: this is where it get’s interesting. Keep in mind that as a person with diabetes I try to keep my meals between 30 and 60 carbohydrates, so my pancreas doesn’t have to work so hard breaking down sugars all the time. The 8-inch French bread sub has 57 grams, while the Unwihc is only 4 grams. WHAT 4 grams? Yes, that is correct more than a 90% reduction!
Two Please
With these kinds of results, you can order 2 of them if you don’t think that one will fill you up (I have to admit, I’ve done this before … they are that good) and you will still only be at 8 grams of carbohydrates.
If you want to go crazy, they have a really goo jumbo dill pickle that when sliced in quarters makes a sweet side to the Unwich rather than chips or a cookie. At 4 grams of carbohydrates, you can still have 2 Unwiches and a pickle while still only having 12 grams of carbs.
Where else can you find this type of results? Do you know of any other places where you can switch out a part of a food item and get dramatic results?
