CHICKEN WINGS. As I describe my experience below, you will see how I came up with my new type of food blog: Friend or Foe. In these blogs (more to come in the future), I will be judging certain foods that I like to eat (or that I am tempted by) and will decide whether or not they can be a friend of mine, or whether I should stay away.....
Some of you may know that I live in Buffalo, the HOME of the original Buffalo Wing. Restaurants all over the city pride themselves on having the best wings around. The two "go-to" restaurants in the area are: (1) The Anchor Bar, which is where the original buffalo wings was invented (and yes, the original wing sauce is made with Frank's Red Hot, my favorite hot sauce); and (2) Duffs (why they don't have an American website, I don't know).
This past weekend I had some friends in town that will only go to Duffs for dinner about 99% of the time they come to Buffalo. I sometimes feel like they come to Buffalo more so to go to Duffs over anything else (yes, they're wings are that good....) Of course, they invited me to join them, but immediately I began to feel guilty. I hadn't even EATEN a wing yet, but I could already see where my weekend was heading: 12 wings later combined with a few pints of beer meant that tracking for the weekend was going out the window. I really had to think to myself: is it worth it? If I was already not feeling good days before I put a chicken wing in my mouth, why the hell would I go eat the thing that made my stomach turn by just thinking about it?
I thought I would look up the awesome nutrition that chicken wings would provide me to help with my decision....
Not surprisingly, Duffs and the Anchor Bar do not provide nutritional information on their chicken wings. I found the next closest thing that I could: 12 chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings (a chain restaurant whose sauce selection is decent, but the wings aren't nearly as good). The nutritional info is as follows:
Serving: 12 wings
Calories: 600 (calories from fat: 360)
Fat: 40 g (Saturated Fat: 10 g; Trans Fat: 2 g)
Sodium: 3500 mg (1.5 days worth of sodium)
Fiber: 0 (NONE, ZERO, ZILCH)
Protein: 56 g (a chicken wing's "redeeming" quality?)
Total WW Points: 37.5 points (this is not only more points I get in one day, but it also is over the extra 35 weekly point allowance)......
I know you may be thinking I'm crazy because of the epic battle going through my mind. It really was a struggle for me! I truly do love chicken wings, but I know that they are NOT going to get me to my goal. I needed to make a decision: do I go eat the wings or not? I decided against it! I really do want to get to my goal this year. Instead, I made the decision that I would eat dinner at home, and would meet my friends at Duffs afterwards for a drink. I had a cup of my own homemade chili and a pita pizza (total points for dinner: 7).
SUCCESS! Eating beforehand got rid of ANY temptations I had when I got to the restaurant, and I was able to enjoy a pint of Duffs homemade Ale (only 4 points). My total points for dinner and the beer = 11. That is 26.5 less points than I would have eaten (not including any beer I drank that night) if I had gotten the chicken wings.....
I'm proud of my decision this weekend! I know it is going to be hard and unrealistic to "give up" chicken wings forever. However, at this point in time, I am in the zone and am ready to get to my goal so it was a (somewhat) easy decision to make. I am blogging about this now so the next time I think about going to get chicken wings I can come back to this blog and remind myself that they really are not my friend.....
Chicken Wings: Friend or Foe?
Answer: FOE!
I had such a craving for pizza and chicken wings the other day too! I ended up caving into the chicken wings, but ate them in very small quantities, and found a place that didn't fry them, instead they baked them, I think. Not quite "Duffs" quality, but they satisfied the craving! I skipped the pizza, ate the wings in moderation, and ordered a big salad to go with the wings so I ate fewer.
ReplyDeleteLook into grilling or baking your own wings and making the sauce with the hot sauce, etc. from scratch so that you can control the butter, and things that go into it. That's what I'm doing for my super bowl party.
Tough being in buffalo and not having buffalo wings, isn't it?! good luck!
Hey man I really don't know why Duff's doesn't have an American website either. Whenever I want to see if there are other locations I cannot. I think we should look into this more...
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for the Super Bowl this weekend!!! Guess what one of the main entrees will be... DEEP FRIED WINGS in my Turkey Fryer from Thanksgiving! We'll be thinking of you as we dip them into Blue Cheese! Your welcome to come down for a dozen or two... I take it your not interested? :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested, Michael, however I'm having my own Super Bowl party where one of the main entrees will be chicken wings....I just will not be eating them! :-)
ReplyDeletethis is a little bit weird neil
ReplyDeleteFrom someone who struggles with the same issues as you, that was a good decision. Good for you!
ReplyDeleteSara
Hey buddy!
ReplyDeleteI found this today when I was googling nutritional information for Duff's Chivetta's wings - I've been in WW since April as well :-) A good average value for chicken wings is 3 points per wing - believe it or not, ordering 3 wings and a side of french fries is usually a healthier option than eating just wings for your meal (which is hilarious to think about, that adding fries to anything makes it healthier!) I've also had the salad there with chicken fingers (but without cheese, cruotons or dressing) - they put the wing sauce on the fingers so they taste almost the same, but the fingers are all white meat and there are less of them on the salad than there would be in a serving of 12 wings, plus you're getting veggies :-) Good luck with your progress!
Erin
This article is so old at this point, but just wanted to point out...you don't have to eat 12 chicken wings. That's way too many even if you're not dieting. Why not just 6? Not rocket science....
ReplyDelete