What To Order At Gas Station For Fat Loss (Men Over 40) - 156

Coach Brian Parana (0:12.738) You can eat more than 700 calories at a gas station without touching the chips, candy, or pastries. One of those giant Slim Jims, you know, the one single serve bag of peanuts. Then we've got a large sugary drink can totally sabotage your day, your visit at the gas station, and push you well past 700 calories. That Slim Jim and peanuts alone. Coach Brian Parana (0:42.496) It's just giving you 19 grams of protein, which is not a lot out of this whole thing. That's less than 80 calories out of the 700 to be exact. So what one seventh of the calories less than? Is yeah, this isn't it. That's a full meal's worth of calories just for one snack, though. One of my clients, Ryan, lost 45 pounds in about four to five months. Coach Brian Parana (1:8.116) And he's kept it off for well over a year now while traveling regularly for work. You can hear his full episode in number 86 for Driven for Health, and his schedule is constantly busy. He's got two young kids, three and five years old, and he's making decisions around his food between meetings, airports, being on the road, and juggling his day-to-day life while still losing weight. This is the cool part is that. Coach Brian Parana (1:35.917) He used the strategies from the eating on the go guide. And so can you, with the knowledge that is in there. Whenever you're on the road, it's the real test for any plan. How do I actually maintain my goals and progress and not let a gas station BOGO or buy three for whatever and cost you to say give you a flat tire in a sense of making progress that way? Coach Brian Parana (2:5.452) Now we want to make sure that you can decide what you're eating or what you're going to even do when you stop for gas at a gas station and go in and not just grab whatever looks good or is in a crinkly package it's calling your name. Now, I personally have traveled through all 50 states and I've been into a lot of gas stations in a lot of different states. Okay. We have traveled a lot. Coach Brian Parana (2:33.964) In the last 10 years, and do not want a gas station pit stop to throw me off my game. So if you're not just road tripping once a year, but you're on the road all the time, the eating on the go guide is built for you, and that's why it exists. You'll definitely want to check the show notes to grab a copy of it and start using it today. On this podcast, I'm going to show you how to build a quick snack. Coach Brian Parana (3:2.060) Or even a full meal of what most gas stations can carry. We'll compare some of the beef jerkies together, the Slim Jim, Jack Link's, and what which one is better with the label. I'll show you what's inside a few of the foods that are there, like those weird roller tubes that are inside that roll grill, right? And so welcome back to Driven for Health. I'm Coach Brian Parana. This is episode 156. Happy to have you. Coach Brian Parana (3:33.837) What we want to pay attention to in the eating on the go guide is you can find good food in almost any gas station. Just need to know where to look. Before you grab anything, decide whether this is a pit stop and if you actually need food, what can hold you over until the next time you can actually get food? Or do you need to actually grab some food to be able to make it? Coach Brian Parana (4:2.670) through the next couple of hours driving along wherever you're going, whether it's family vacation, trip, or you're just bopping around town for the love. If you're just bopping around town, you should not be eating at a gas station. It's not the idea. And if you work and your gas station is your lunch, we probably need to talk about that too. All right. Your travel schedule doesn't have to be sabotaged by on the road food. Coach Brian Parana (4:32.342) All right, let's get into some tiered lists and some awards of what can make these sound more exciting and different brand names, package sizing, they all change from store to store. Even the options. There are certainly general options at each store, but they come in different sizes and packages. The meat stick test. Okay, an original giant Slim Jim. It's about 130 calories, six. Coach Brian Parana (5:2.008) Grams of protein. So six times four. Remember, four is the calorie calculator. That's twenty-four calories out of the hundred and thirty. News flash, it's not protein. All right, that beef stick is a fat. Now standing next to a one-ounce serving of Jack Link's original beef jerky, that's 80 calories and 10 grams of protein. So if we compare Coach Brian Parana (5:29.762) The Jack Link's is 50% protein, whereas the Slim Jim just doesn't hold its weight in the protein. So we'd want to go with the Jack Link's beef jerky. You do have to pay attention. Sometimes these beef jerkies have a lot of sugar added to them for the flavoring, and you'll see carbohydrates added to the list, and you scratch your head. Why are there carbs in beef jerky? That's what makes it. Coach Brian Parana (5:59.407) Taste sweeter, more flavorful, more enjoyable. Here's something that most guys never read on the Slim Jim label: the ingredients list. Beef, pork, mechanically separated chicken. Hmm, that sounds delicious. Federal regulations define mechanically separated poultry as meat and tissue removed from the bones through the mechanical process. Coach Brian Parana (6:28.366) So you're getting chicken breasts or are you getting tendon? Chicken tendon. Hmm, yum. And it produces a paste-like substance product. It's regulated and considered safe. It's also different from the whole piece of beef used for a traditional jerky. Just worth knowing as you see it at the next time you go into the grocery store or the gas station ends up not being your beef stick of choice. Coach Brian Parana (6:57.824) The roller grill reality. One of the big convenience store chains, even just down the road from me, has the roller grill. Sometimes I wonder what the heck is in these things. You've got the different things. They all look like hot dogs or cannot think t it starts with a T off the top man, I cannot think of what it is called. But the majority or you have the cheeseburger roller bite. Coach Brian Parana (7:26.344) These things are gonna come generally about two to three hundred calories. They're gonna have some protein in them, maybe 10 to 15 grams, but they're gonna have 15 to 20 grams of fat with them. And they're just basically a sodium sausage stick with about 500 to 600 milligrams of sodium in each of those. So I don't know. I personally am gonna pass on the roller grill. For one, you just don't know how long they've been there, okay. Coach Brian Parana (7:56.211) And how long they've been a food product as well. In general, people, we've gone over this a number of times, but eat things that were recently living will keep you healthy and happier than you can imagine. All right. Now there are nutrition labels for these roller grill items as well. You just have to either look around the roller grill itself, on the side, maybe. Coach Brian Parana (8:25.074) Or on the wall, or maybe on their website, and then you can have more accurate understanding of what these things are. And you probably could Google it or maybe even look it up in MyFitnessPal as well. So we just check to make sure that if you do eat these things, that it's within reason. We have the portion control trap, a 1.75 ounce single-serving pack of Planters salted peanuts. Coach Brian Parana (8:54.860) Sounds like a good option. Hey, go grab the peanuts and that'll help hold you over. Well, they're 290 calories, 13 grams of protein, 25 grams of fat. Now, peanuts do have carbs too, about 8 grams of carbs in that serving. These are okay as a choice. Just obviously know that they are fat. They are not a protein source. They have protein in them. Coach Brian Parana (9:23.640) So nuts in general are roughly 75% fat calories that has some protein with it, about 13% protein and about 13% carbs to round out to the full hundred percent. So a small bag has more than half the calories of the entire four-tender box at a at Chester's, and about only a fifth of the protein. And if Coach Brian Parana (9:52.289) You are looking for main protein sources, the nuts just aren't going to work, and you may need to find some other food options there, like any type of cooked chicken, possibly. Now, those calories do add up in the small bag because you eat it and you're still hungry afterwards. That's good to know and understand that it's not going to hold you over. So if you wanted to pair something, it was be the bag of peanuts with. Coach Brian Parana (10:22.348) An apple or banana that they have at the grocery at the gas station as well. That ends up being super helpful for you to be able to enjoy that type of combo. And yes, that will hold you over a little bit longer because of the extra fiber coming from the fruit. And it's only an extra hundred calories. Now we're on the eat less list. More than this is a two more worth a quick. Coach Brian Parana (10:49.676) Word to understand of the things that we want to avoid. First up is potato chips. Start with a thin slice of those, and that's going to help you watch out for those. So potato chips just don't work. Okay. They're cooked in oil, they're thinly, thinly sliced potatoes, and generally they end up making a lot of calories in a small package. Coach Brian Parana (11:19.308) Roughly about 10 to 12 calories per chip itself. That's not a good deal because nobody just eats five or ten chips. They eat a whole bag. And remember, a Lay's mini-size bag, a regular like fun-size bag, is 140 calories or so, 150 calories. So that ends up carrying a lot of weight from the frying process. And then also the oil. Coach Brian Parana (11:49.005) There and the carbs. So we have to be careful because chips are everywhere in gas stations. Slushies are the other ones. certainly depends on the recipe of what it is, the cup size, but good lord, what do you think is in there? Sugar, colored sugar, flavored, colored sugar. That's it. A large sweetened drink can add hundreds of calories, especially in a slushy like. Coach Brian Parana (12:18.486) Substance, and you're definitely void of any type of nutrition there. Now we have the next one. It's just the protein bar backup, a Quest chocolate chip cookie dough protein bar. These are pretty good. I'm a big fan of Quest and some other Quest similar type protein bars. If you were to have those, they're gonna come in. This one specifically is about 190 calories, 21 calories. Coach Brian Parana (12:48.238) Grams of protein, nine grams of fat, and about 25 grams of carbs. That's a reasonably balanced protein bar. And generally, I would suggest those being the type of protein bars that you end up buying. They do have a lot of fiber in them as well, which is nice. It is added fiber. It's not fiber from, say, an apple in a sense, and the type of nutrition that's going to come from that. But Coach Brian Parana (13:17.986) This can hold you over and keep you from overeating something you should not be eating, like a candy bar. This has one of the highest protein numbers among the shelf stable snacks in the lineup that we've talked about. It's more processed, obviously, than a whole food, but it still can be a legitimate pick when nothing else is around and you want a sweet treat while you're on the road. But the trap for Coach Brian Parana (13:46.891) This whole category, though, is plenty of bars on that same shelf, say protein in giant letters, but they carry anywhere from eight to fifteen grams of protein, and that's really important to know and understand that not all protein bars are created equal. Marketing, the recipes, the different combinations, also, even just looking at the nutrition label to see. Coach Brian Parana (14:13.196) Some of them just have a bunch of soy and some of them are actually more whey based, so it's very important to see what is in them and some are glorified candy bars. Coach Brian Parana (14:25.420) The best whole food snack. A 7-Eleven two-pack hard boiled eggs, 120 calories, 11 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat roughly, and this will be a winner. And you'll find this not even just at a 7-Eleven, but other ones have it too. This is the item that my own eating on the go guide names first as a good choice. And it's for good reason because it's just one ingredient. It's an Coach Brian Parana (14:55.412) Egg. That's it. It's the egg white and the egg yolk. So we're not overwhelmed with all sorts of different the you should see the the lists in there of how many different substances are inside a gas station. That would be a actually a very interesting experiment to go see. Is if we looked at every single different label, how many. Coach Brian Parana (15:22.602) ingredients are inside a gas station. Very, very interesting. But for now, an egg is an egg, and that's it. So that's a good one. If we're looking for one gas station that has a hot case, a meal, say Chester's, has a four-piece fried chicken tender box, about 480 calories with 64 grams of protein. So big Coach Brian Parana (15:49.751) Opportunity here, and it only has 18 grams of fat. That is a big win. It does have a bunch of sodium over about 1200 milligrams, but to get that much protein, that could be a big win to help hold you over. There are going to be some carbs and fats in it because it is fried chicken, but the protein can help seal the deal here and make it a little bit more advantageous for you to have. So this is one hot case. Coach Brian Parana (16:19.018) Item that you could do. We'd want to pass on the Jojo's and whatever else is inside that case. So there's some six categories for you to think through on what's in a typical gas station. Now let's build some real meals random. What's a quick snack? Well, we got the hard-boiled eggs with a piece of fruit is going to be an easy win to hold you over for two or three hours. It's not a very filling meal at about 200. Coach Brian Parana (16:48.718) To 250 calories, but is good enough and it'll keep you on track. The next one is building a full meal, a bigger meal, something that could actually replace a meal and hold you over for maybe four or five hours. Well, we have a Premier Protein shake, a Core Power shake, plus the eggs, a piece of fruit, and that'll give you. Coach Brian Parana (17:15.958) Just under 400 calories to 41 grams of protein. Now, if you get the big Core Power 42, that will give us more like 53, 55 grams of protein and could be a good winner there. Now, Premier Protein and Core Power are two very popular protein set shakes that you'll find in those stores. It's just pretty good. Coach Brian Parana (17:42.827) So that would be a good combo. Now, if you had to, you could totally add a piece of the the bag of peanuts, piece of fruit, and the protein shake. If you really needed something, get those eggs in there, and that will be a very filling meal. Now we're going to be over 500 calories, but it should hold you over with real food. Of course, sans protein shake, but that still can help us stay on track. Coach Brian Parana (18:12.504) We have the Chester's chicken tender box or other things for a hot meal. You want to scan through what might be available at certain ones, like even say Buc-ee's. They have a lot of things there. And you want to make sure you pay attention to how many calories are there because those things will the like the the beef brisket and stuff, they can have an enormous amount of calories, way more than you think. And even if it is a lot of protein. Coach Brian Parana (18:42.062) There's still lot of fat and then carbs from the bun. So we have to in this type of situation when it comes to hot case type meals, we really need to maybe just pair with a piece of fruit and definitely skip the fries, the chips, any type of sugary beverage, because that'll easily top over a thousand very, very quick. If we don't have a no-cooler backup plan, well, we got a Quest bar. Coach Brian Parana (19:11.990) Serving a Jack Link's beef jerky and a piece of fruit. This can be three fifty to four hundred calories, thirty-one to thirty-five grams of protein. Sodium's gonna be a little bit higher here, but it's gonna again hold you over for a while. If you if you absolutely had to, the roller grill compromise, we can look for a roller grill item that might have some chicken in it. but we we really Coach Brian Parana (19:40.953) Would just want to pass on those things. And then default to what are the lowest fat, highest protein food item inside the gas station to hold you there. Now, as we boil in through here, we've got the some of the main items that we can grab. Hard-boiled eggs, fruit, we've got protein bar, protein drink, the the nuts, as long as we portion them out. Coach Brian Parana (20:9.206) And these can be the key winners. Now, most gas stations will have some form of nutrition data if they are cooking real food. So it is important to look at them. And I just want to call that out one more time here. But they're all going to be different because they're all served different foods and different opportunities at these different places. And some are like Buc-ee's is really trying to stand out. Coach Brian Parana (20:37.130) in the a busy marketplace to be a fun adventure when you go into that store. I know that we've stopped at Buc-ee's on a couple road trips and that is it's like an event in a sense with how much stuff is in there and the wall of soda drinks and all sorts of the beef brisket station and and all that. So there's just a lot. Coach Brian Parana (21:2.498) Now let's cover into the fast five as we've gone through some of these things. The obvious things that we should skip: potato chips, anything in a big poppy bag, different cookies, baked goods like that, probably not gonna move us toward our goals. But the protein and vegetable fruit will. So the fast five. Number one, check the serving count before comparing labels. Super duper important is Coach Brian Parana (21:32.600) on episode 79. I want to say one second, let's reference it properly. No, 79 is eating on the go guide. 74. Episode 74 is the actual nutrition label. How to read nutrition label? So episode 74 is what we want to look for in terms of understanding how to break down a nutrition label. So we see the portion size, the Coach Brian Parana (22:1.118) amount of portions to that and the physical gram count and weight on there. Very important to know and understand. So check those out before you just grab something willy-nilly because say the protein cookies have way more calories than you think. And usually those could be a two-serving package. So Lenny & Larry's for example, it's a 500 calorie cookie basically. Not what you think when you Coach Brian Parana (22:30.218) Originally go to eat it. You're like, it's like 250 calories times two. All right, number two, when protein is the main reason you're buying something, look for close to 10 grams of protein per 100 calories. Super easy hack to look at to manage between different packaging and products. The other thing here is keeping fat. Coach Brian Parana (22:58.262) The lowest amount of you can. And again, if protein is at least 10 grams out of the hundred, then there's not too much room for fat to show up either. Number three, use nuts as a fat source. Obviously, we went over that earlier, but these can help hold you over, but they do multiply calories if you're not careful. Number four, start with the cooler. That's where you're going to. Coach Brian Parana (23:24.674) Find the eggs or the protein shakes of fruit. That's a place to go in the store first, not the candy aisle, not the desk, the front desk, or near the soda slushy machine either. Number five, water, zero calorie beverages are gonna win and definitely hands down, way better than the sugary drinks, because most sugary drinks are gonna be two, three hundred calories and all sugar, which is not gonna help you. Coach Brian Parana (23:54.793) even stay awake on the drive that you're doing because you're gonna have a energy crash. So all right as we start closing if you want to remember one part of this whole episode when you are going into a gas station you need a plan first decide what type of food item you're gonna have and then pick accordingly based on the things that we talked about here. Then you'll at least be able to stay on track a little bit more and not Coach Brian Parana (24:23.928) Falter when it comes to the BOGO sale or whatever candy bar thing that looks good in the moment. Now you can also listen to episode 86 with Ryan as he talked about traveling and using the guide quite a bit and coming up with useful plans. He and I would game plan those out while he was traveling so that he had action planned to follow through with and stick to it. You can find Coach Brian Parana (24:53.056) The eating on the go guide at go.brianparana.com/eatingonthego. You can just click the red button, download it, and it's yours. It has 25 plus pages, gas station, airports, the fast food, fast casual, sit down, fine dining, all in between. And if you're someone, a guy that really needs some help putting these things in action, regardless of if you Coach Brian Parana (25:22.114) Are at a gas station or not, that's what the Call To Rise 100-day fat loss challenge is. It's designed for busy men, career-driven men with families that are looking to lose 20 plus pounds in the 100 days while figuring out in a sustainable approach with the busyness of their job, their travel, their schedule, and their family. We focus, of course, on strength training, muscle building. We focus on individual. Coach Brian Parana (25:49.238) Nutrition that focuses on eating the right foods at the right times and the right amounts. There's massive amount of accountability and support by me and also the Brotherhood of other successful, like-minded, career-driven family men that are like you listening in, and they have somehow not figured it out in their health. It unfortunately happens more than you would think. I literally just ran into a new guy. Coach Brian Parana (26:18.798) Today, who is a very successful person in an ER job at the hospital, but is fifty plus pounds overweight because his life is stressful, it's busy, and he doesn't know how to make his food help. Next up in this thing, so look at thecalltorise.com to then learn a bit more about it. Our next episode is going to be on airport travel. Coach Brian Parana (26:48.520) Same question about what the heck should I eat? A different stop off entirely because each airport is a little bit different, but it's gonna kind of wrap in a lot of things that we've talked about so far. All right. If you are on the road, you know someone that's on the road that they need this guide too, please pass it on, pass this episode on, and that's it for this episode of Driven for Health. Train hard, eat smart, and I'll catch you in the next one.