Alright I'll Admit I Like Chipotle

I'm not much of a Mexican food fan or a fast food fan. So, this craze of Chipotle didn't quite catch on with me. My employees loved the place and constantly would bring back food from Chipotle to the facility.

When we first opened our Dublin location 2 years ago, it was geared towards athletic speed training. We had an open house and as an incentive to get high school athletes to attend, I purchased a bunch of Chipotle gift certificates. We had a bunch left over that just sat on my desk for a long time. I'm talking months. The stack did lower because my staff was "borrowing" the gift cards, but not returning them. HMMM!

Anyway, I kept three for myself and bought my first Chipotle back in November, 2009. It was a chicken fajita burrito with some of their chips and salsa.

I was hooked. The stuff is good. Especially those chips.

I know a lot of my clients love chipotle, so I had to go look up the nutritional value of some of their menu items.

BEWARE:: If you do not want to see this information for it might ruin your dining experience, then skip to the Side Notes. But it isn't all bad. If you want to read all about the foods at Chipotle, you can click this link.

I'm going to talk about all the foods that have too much fat in them. That number is actually fewer than the healthier choices. My definition of too much fat is if there are 30% or more calories of that food coming from fat. So, if a food has 100 calories, no more than 30 calories should come from fat. I will also list in parentheses ( ) the grams of saturated fats and the sodium in milligrams. Experts say that no more than 7% of your total calories should come from saturated fat. So, if you eat 2000 calories a day, 140 should be from saturated fat which is approximately 16 grams of saturated fat. Experts vary about how much sodium (if you exercise you need to consume more), but they say a safe range is 1500 to 2400 mg.

So here is the list:
• A taco shell - 33% fat (1g SF, 10mg SOD)
• Barbacoa (4 ounces) - 35% fat (2g, 510mg)
• Chicken (4 ounces) - 32% fat (2g, 370mg)
• Carnitas (4 ounces) - 37% fat (2.5g, 540mg)
• Steak (4 ounces) - 32% fat (2g, 320mg)
• Cheese (1 ounce) - 80% fat (5g, 180mg)
• Sour Cream (2 ounces) - 75% fat (7g, 30mg)
• Guacamole (3.5 ounces) - 80% fat (2g, 190mg)
• Chips (4 ounces) - 42% fat (3.5g, 420mg)
• Vinaigrette (2 fluid ounces) - 85% fat (4g, 700mg)
• Flour Tortilla Burrito (make note of this) - 28% fat (3g, 670mg)

You should note the ounces for each of those items. Not only are they fat, but when they are presented to you at the restaurant, it is much more than their serving size. I do not order my food with the condiments like sour cream, guacamole, or cheese, but those are small serving sizes they have listed. I see the wait staff dip a nice sized serving spoon in that sour cream and pour it all over orders. It probably isn't 2 ounces.

I'm sorry to be a buzzkill, but an order of a burrito with condiments and chips could easily exceed around 1200 calories and I think I am being conservative.

So, be aware next time you go to Chipotle. I think you can eat healthy there, you just have to watch what you are putting in your food. You also might want to eat half of what you get and save the other half for later. Especially if you are watching your calories. I still eat my chicken fajita burrito though. It comes with their rice, onions, green peppers, the chicken, and I add some corn to it. Unfortunately, I don't get the chips too often. That is the sacrifice of practicing what you preach.