What's the Deal with Taco Bell's Drive-Thru Diet?

By , SparkPeople Blogger


A decade ago, Jared Fogle lost 245 pounds eating two Subway sandwiches a day and the Subway diet was born. Today, Subway has capitalized on his publicized success by focusing their marketing and menu on healthier eating alternatives for those dining away from home.

A decade later, Christine has lost 54 pounds with the Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet. Is this fast food diet your key to success?

I am sure Taco Bell is hoping their new marketing focus leads to the next fast food diet success. Previously in our ongoing Food on the Run series, we highlighted some of the healthier alternatives available at Taco Bell. Four of the items we highlighted came from the Fresco menu because they fit within our goal to recommend single entrée items around 250 calories and 10 grams of fat per serving or less. Those four previously highlighted menu items still hold as the best items to select from the Fresco Drive-Thru Diet menu. Care is also necessary when selecting from the menu since the other three alternatives provide over 340 calories per serving as well as more than 1000 mg of sodium even though they are less than 10 grams of fat.

I think one of the best parts of the Drive-Thru Diet marketing campaign is the frescolution to help people pledge and make a commitment to maintain a healthier lifestyle. We could not agree more that the ultimate keys to success include leading a more active lifestyle while making sensible food choices and require a commitment. We even wrote a book called The Spark that includes a Healthy Lifestyle Pledge to help people do just that.

Whether you are following the Subway diet like Jared, the Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet like Christine, or the Spark diet like Brandy, the basics of success are the same.

  • Commitment to Change - Significant and lifelong change begins with a personal choice and commitment. The key to that statement is the word personal and reflects what you yourself have decided and not what a friend, co-worker or doctor has decided for you. If you are going to go in a different direction in your life regardless of where you want to go, you have to make the decision to do so. When you do, long term and successful change can begin.
     
  • Regulated Portion Control - Jared used sandwiches and Christine used a soft taco but both found success because they used regulated portion control to help them master meal portion limits. It is important to remember that a portion is the amount of food you choose to eat while a serving is the amount of food recommended to meet nutrition and health needs. Although typical portion sizes have increased over the years, recommended serving sizes have not which has caused many of us to have intakes that are out of balance. Finding a system or technique that helps you manage your portion sizes to more closely match recommended serving sizes is key to your success just like it was for Jared and Christine.
     
  • Recognize It Will Take Both Effort and Time - Both Jared and Christine's weight loss took time, they didn't happen in thirty days or less. We live in an instant society where people expect to see quick results for little effort. Unfortunately, most people did not get into a situation where they needed to make a weight loss change in thirty days although it may have taken little effort. My favorite reminder for the journey of weight loss change is the story of The Tortoise and the Hare. The hare is highly confident and bragging about what he is going to do, and how he is going to do it better and faster than everyone else does and challenges others to compete with him. The tortoise takes him up on the challenge and the hare is sure there is no way he can lose. As the race takes place, the tortoise understands the task and knows it will take from sun up to sun down but happily sets off on a slow and steady course to achieve his goal. As the day goes on, the tortoise remains undistracted by what the hare is doing and continues with his goal in sight, focused on the task with each deliberate step that he takes. In the end, the hare that was nothing but over confident, and distracted, fell short of his goal while the tortoise proved what he always knew to be true… slow and steady wins the race. The bottom line is this, if December 31, 2010 is the finish line to accomplish your goal, recognize that you have the time and you can reach a realistic goal if you are willing to put in the effort and finish the race by sticking to a slow and steady pace.
So, is the Taco Bell Drive-Thru diet a potential key to your success? For some, it just may be, especially if your lifestyle includes eating out at fast food restaurants several times a week. Instead of mindlessly ordering and having no idea what you are eating, selecting a certain pre-determined meal from Taco Bell, Subway, or McDonald's each time you eat out might be the first step of change you need. If you have made the commitment to change and need a regulated portion control system to help you take the first few steps on your journey, the plans that led to success for Jared and Christine just might be the best way to get started. Recognize is will take both effort and time to move beyond those first steps but just as with the Tortoise and the Hare, slow and steady will allow you to win the race!

What fast food tips and tricks have worked for you and might be helpful for others new to the healthy eating lifestyle process?