Ever go out to a restaurant just to keep someone else company, with no intention of ordering food? Low and behold, there sits a basket of chips and salsa or bread basket with butter sitting right there at your face. These freebies are things that we tend to munch without even thinking about their caloric content. In fact, speaking personally, I could scarf the whole basket of chips or bread, ask the waiter to bring more, eat most of that second round, then- if I didn’t order an actual meal- leave the restaurant thinking I didn’t eat anything. Oh but I did! Did you know that 1-ounce of tortilla chips (7 chips) is roughly 140 calories? For most of us, me included, seven chips is hardly enough to wet our whistle! Calories add up, not only in meals, but in freebies, too. The freebies may not tax your pocketbook, but they tax your diet! Next time you go to a restaurant, people-watch. Notice how the people around you conduct conversations and munch on freebies, mindlessly. Observe them, don’t join them. Don’t let mindless freebie-eating lead to your diet demise.
