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Now that I'm paying attention...

Now that I'm paying attention to what I'm eating, I am starting to see how fast food chains contribute to us gaining weight (or how they have a helping hand in making us fat).

If you know me, you know that I LOVE my Starbucks. I love my iced mocha, I love the Gingerbread Latte at holiday time, and the Maple Pecan Latte in the fall. I also love their cheese danish and chocolate croissant.  And I used to go many times a week. If you don't know Starbucks, you earn 2 stars for every dollar you spend there, then once you have enough stars, you earn a free drink (we all love free stuff). Well, to add to the cravings for Starbucks, they entice you by offering BONUS stars if you purchase multiple times within a week (or a weekend). I used to go solely to get these bonus stars. But now that I only try to go twice a month, I see these bonus dashes twice a week or every week, and I think "they are trying to make me fat" for real. Because one coffee can be anywhere from 200 to 500 calories, depending on the milk you get, and if you get whip or not (I don't anymore seeing how it is like 100 calories for that).

But it isn't only Starbucks.
We went out last Thursday and decided to grab dinner out. The place we ate at has an app and you earn points when you eat there. Well, I guess if you eat there between Monday and Thursday, you earn a free fish sandwich. So we ate there Thursday, and Friday my husband had a free fish sandwich. Again, we aren't going to go eat there TWO DAYS IN A ROW.

If you look long enough, I bet you'll see so many places that "entice" you to visit their establishment multiple times a week for BONUS or FREE things.

We're all tight on money, right? And we all love free things. And that is what draws us in. If we aren't thinking about what we are putting in our bodies, and are just worried about not wasting that free food, we've already lost. Trust me, we've been there. Who wants to pass up free food? (especially free food that you don't have to make yourself)

Maybe it's just that I'm getting old and crotchety, or maybe it's that I'm just paying attention now, but the people in charge aren't stupid. Their promos work. They just don't work for those of us who are trying to shed those fast food pounds...
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