Recessiontastic Tip: Save $1144 and lose 68 lbs!

Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 11:58 am

: Image via Wikipedia

Soda and other flavored or sweetened beverages are a luxury. They are also an expense that if removed can save you not only thousands of dollars, but also thousands of calories, and 10+ pounds per year.

The average american drinks 50 gallons or so of soda per year. The average obese american or overweight American can drink as much as 500 gallons, and many healthy people drink 0 gallons.

I myself on some days could drink as much as 2-3 liters per day. (Think 3 large cups at McDonalds is equal to 3 liters.) Some days I could drink a lot more.

Let’s do some math.
Let’s say you eat at fast food restauarants 4 times per week, and you upsize your meals. That’s 208 liters of soda per year. It’s also roughly 312 dollars (at $1.50 each), and 79872 calories (at 384 calories per liter of soda). 3500 calories is equal to one pound, so that’s the equivalent of 22 lbs gained per year just from soda.

Let’s say beyond eating at McDonalds you eat at nicer restaurants maybe twice a week, like Olive Garden, or Applebees. You order a coke, and get 3 refills of a 12 oz glass. Now you’re spending a little more per drink – about $2.50 on average, and you drink about 36 oz. In a year you would spend $260, drink another 39900 calories, gaining another 12 lbs.

Do you drink soda at home? What about during football games? What about at parties? At School?
This is just how much money you spend by yourself – what about the rest of your family – your spouse, and any children?

Using the example above in a two person family, just a husband and wife, if you ordered water every time you eat out, you could save the following:

$1144 saved.
239544 Calories saved.
68 lbs saved.

On top of that you’ll add years to your life.

Some other good ways to save money is to stop going to places like starbucks if you need coffee brew it at home and save money. You can spend thousands a year on latte’s and it’s just wasted money. If you eat out religiously every week, try taking one week per month and having a spending freeze – spend no money except on bills and absolute necessities, you will find yourself saving hundreds more.

Times are tough right now, and American’s are more overweight than ever, just drinking water at restaurants can not only save your life and make you more attractive but it can save you from financial ruin.

I myself have lost over 80 lbs since January 1st 2009, by eating healthier, now’s a great time to eat healthy, and you can save money by doing it as well. It’s a win-win proposition.

Recession Took A Bite Of Restaurant Sales (cbsnews.com)
McDonalds Posts Fat Profits, We Post, uh, Fat (oneriot.com)
Water is a Miracle Weight Loss Drink (healthlifestyleforever.com)
McDonalds Responds To Record Wii Fit Sales With “McCheesy Quadtuple Deluxe” (the-minusworld.com)
Money Saving Tips 16-20 (malewail.com)
Beware Of This Fast Food Marketing Ploy (myinvestingblog.com)
Which Beverage Contains More Calories? (fitsugar.com)
10 Easy-to-Adhere-to Healthy New Year Resolutions for 2009 (dailymuscle.com)
Selling Obesity (spot-on.com)
Healthy Habit: Drink Plenty of Water (fitsugar.com)

ex-McDonald’s Thief is now Finalist in Contest to make new Big Mac Jingle.

Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 12:35 am

Comments

You know that stupid news, that’s sooo stupid, it can’t be made up?

This issue of stupid news is brought to you by McDonalds – Have it your Way..

Or is that Burger King?

Apparently McDonalds teamed up with myspace to come up with a new jingle, via some sort of social network contest. Lets call it Mc-Idol. It’s basically to come up with a jingle to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Big Mac(As if 5 Billion heart-attacks are something to celebrate.)

The original jingle was created in 1974(you know: two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, pickle, 500 grams of fat, etc… notice sarcasm – please or I’ll shoot you.);

Over 1000 users submitted videos and audio submissions, well the winner’s song will become the new official Big Mac jingle, and be featured on upcoming McDonald’s commercials, and yada yada yada.

The 4th finalist in the Big Mac Chant contest(the guy with the white tshirt and baseball cap); is none other than 29 year old, Tamien Bain, who actually held up a McDonald’s at gun point when he was 14 years old. Tamien Bain was convicted as an adult and served 12 years in prison for the deed.

The finalists were picked by a panel of judges, and apparently no background checks were done, or as techcrunch suggests perhaps they did a background check, and this is just a publicity stunt. Reportedly, Tamien Bain has hired a PR firm and is making the most from the publicity as he can.

Actually, it does seem that he may have turned his life around, only time can tell of course, and name one person who hasn’t done something stupid when they were 14, maybe not robbing a McDonald’s but still..Here’s what his profile says:

BAiNG “The Locksmith”, a top up and coming Miami rapper who went to prison at the age of 14 and did 12 years for robbing a McDonalds, now works with West Palm Beach State representative Maria Sachs on a project called “REAL TALK” which features him visiting juvenile detention centers to speak to the youth about overcoming negativity. BAiNG LOVES THE BIG MAC!! In the video he rides day and night through the drive through to get his favorite sandwich! He starts the song by saying: “see this is the chant”(the big mac chant), “and im just giving back” (making up for his error at the age of 12), “real talk though…” (because of the real talk project). HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!

Now watch the video for yourself – it’s actually really good at least in my opinion – I really do hope he does win – it’ll keep him from robbing another McDonald’s right? LOL.

Big Mac Chant