Fat cost analytics is something I just made up. I even googled it and NADA.. Who would have thought I could be such a genius? It was just contrived while trying to think about a catchy topic for my latest blog. While it may be freshly contrived, it is more real than you can imagine. Hell, there should even be a study done on it and a book written…. I may very well be onto my "Next Big Thing". We have all been brought up in a society that year over year gets fatter and fatter. Our society has creatively reprogrammed our minds to rationalize the value of food by its size and not so much its quality or taste.
Our servings are measured in ounces or pounds or by terms that resonate something which is large. We have been programmed to go after items that imply value to our wallets and not so much value to our bodies. You see it everywhere; you see the words "SUPER SIZED" and "GRANDE" or the plain ole word "BIG" on every menu in most fast food restaurants. Fast food is a demon in our society that obviously cannot get repeat customers on its triad of quality, taste, and value. Heck, pick one and let’s keep moving. As fat Americans we give two immediate strikes against healthy food, we want it fast and in large quantities. We have learned to not exactly judge the rational price of food by its relative nutritional content or taste but by what our perceived value is based on size or quantity.
I remember back to my childhood, growing up in rural West Virginia and going to the county fair. That was my earliest remembrance of fast food as we did not have a McDonald’s up the holler. Where else could a kid walk up to a window and order a bucket of mouth-watering carb-tastic goodies and seconds later be handed something that would barely fit on the plate? I’m talking about things like hot, sweet, and sugary funnel cakes or foot long hotdogs that were 14” long. Has anyone ever found a food truck serving funnel cakes the size of a baseball? Yea, I DIDN’T THINK SO... Those gut busters are built to just barely fit the plate or, if one food cart at the fair wanted to sell more than his competitor, he would make his funnel cake 20% larger than the plate and sell 50% more than the guy next door. It is all based on perceived value... Bigger is better right?
Now, do not get me wrong I have been under this same belief all my life as well. Well, until a week or two ago when I was at dinner at Applebee’s and realized my perceived value of my meal was based on how much plate I could see surrounding my food. Less visible plate =’s more value right? Being on my low carb diet, I have reprogrammed my ordering process to leave off breads, sauces, substitute starches and pastas with veggies, and limit my liquids to water, coffee, and tea for the most part. This sometimes gets tricky, especially at places that like to CARB it UP!
I perused the menu for a short bit and decided on the double bacon cheeseburger (no bun) and would substitute the fries with a veggie. A short while after ordering I received my plate. (EYEBALL RAISED) Sitting in front of me, staring me in the face, was this huge plate with a single patty of beef centered in the middle with a slice of cheese on top and a piece of limp bacon strapped across the top. Those two slivers looked like a thong on a wimpy burger. Next to the plate was this small saucer with about a half a cup of broccoli sitting in it. I was like “WTH?” Conscripts in the war probably received bigger portions… About that same time, my daughter was messing with the electronic menu thingy on the table and brought up the receipt. Yup, you guessed it….. After tax and a tip the total was hovering over $20 for this hint of beef, sliver of bacon, whiff of broccoli, and a kid’s meal. That realization hit my wallet before one bite even hit my mouth.
At first I was pissed. My mind was running the numbers trying to calculate how much I just got screwed… My perceived value in the meal was accounting for the super huge bun that normally accompanies the beef patty down the aisle in a blissful marriage called a cheeseburger... The next thing missing was the 24 Friedsmaids and French Fry Groomsmen that smother the plate surrounding the happy couple. Throw in a pickle wedge and a garnish and we have a plate fit for a KING… That my friends would be my perceived value in what I had just ordered. Not this lonely pathetic sad little piece of lonely beef surrounded by more plate than home base and a tiny side of broccoli. What happed to the DOUBLE part of my order? I whipped out the menu and quickly saw the error in my ways… The “Double Bacon” cheeseburger was a double shot of bacon; one piece cooked crumbled up in the burger and one piece riding shotgun. Not, the double patty I was planning for. (HUMPF)
As I sat there and ate my tiny meal I started thinking about what was happening. I shook my head at first and soon the “ah-ha” moment hit me. I began by thinking the meal in front of me should not have cost the same as the one on the menu right? WRONG!!! The perceived value on the meal came from all of the years of eating the ingredients that got me to the place I am today; FAT!!! The plate of fries and huge bun are chocked full of carbs. I am now on a low carb diet and those two foods are not something I need to stuff into my body anyway. I started that very second reprogramming my mind of the value I put on my order. Looking at it differently I quickly realized, “wow I have been paying all my life to get fat eating buns and fries.” You hear people all the time saying it is too expensive to eat healthy. That is due to the perceived value of food. We have it all wrong. That patty and the serving of broccoli were all my body needed. Sure, I could have added a salad or another side of veggies but in all reality my smaller more frequent meals over the past 2 months have shrunk my stomach and after eating that burger, broccoli, and having a glass or two of water, I was content. I was even content on the price now.
Losing weight is big business in the world. Every day we pay companies billions of dollars to buy their supplements, diet drinks, gadgets, or services to help us lose weight. My meal just did that for me. Before, I would pay the same amount ($10) and then have to pay someone else like Lifetime Fitness or Hydroxycut to help slim off the extra pounds I just bought. Now, I pay for quality ingredients with smaller portions and I don’t need to spend the extra cash to someone else to help offload those pounds. This new mindset is what I am calling “FAT COST ANALYTICS”. It’s basically reprograming your mind and the way you order food and also being happy paying the same price for less of a meal.
Let’s say for illustrative purposes I put a new perceived value on my Applebee’s plate at $6 instead of the $10 I paid for it since it was missing the bun and fries. My fat cost analytics calculates as follows: $10 minus the $6 of value equals $4 negative equity. That $4 is converted through fat cost analytics into positive cash flow to lose weight. It is a tiny deposit into my healthy body account that I am glad to pay. I just paid my health bank $4 to eat a healthy version of a $10 fattening meal. Where else can you get paid to eat healthy and lose weight????
Hopefully somewhere in this blog you had an ah-ha moment and now you can also cost justify getting less of a meal for the same price but at the same time making a tiny deposit into the healthy you…
This my friends is what I like to now call “FAT COST ANALYTICS!!!!!”