Diet Destroyers: The Pizza Parlor

 

A small shot of the destruction done in one night at a friend's house.

 

     Forget chocolate, pizza is my weakness. Seriously. It is a wonderful combination of tomato sauce, tons of cheese, and thick (or thin! I'm diversified) crust. During my freshman year when our cafeteria was being renovated and the temporary one was a good 15 minute walk from my dorm, my friends and I would often skip dinner and just order in Domino's (conveniently overpriced, but in a small enough way that desperate students like us would still pay for the pizza). My best friend and I sometimes did it twice a week during finals and winter term where it was NOT worth the trek to get to healthy food. We would order the same thing - 1 medium cheese pizza, 1 order of Cinna Stix, and 1 Orange Fanta - and would then divide everything in half. And consume our halves. Unfortunately, there is one major difference between my best friend and I... she has the metabolism of a Nigerian long-distance runner, whereas MINE is more akin to a turtle. A fat turtle. So she continued to stay thin, but I noticed a difference quickly. Talk about The Freshman 15. Anyway, just recently I looked up the calories of the pizza types that I had been eating so long ago. No WONDER I ballooned out like a whale!


1. Domino's Pepperoni Feast Pizza (large)

http://www.dominos-now.com/campus.html

   One slice of this meaty wonder alone is 178 calories... 136 of those from fat. In case you're wondering where all that fat came from, reread the title. Pepperoni Feast. Pepperoni FEAST. I hope the combination of those 2 words allowed you to come to an accurate conclusion. Yes, it is from the incredible amount of pepperoni.

2. Domino's Meatza Pizza

 http://www.newenglandbites.com/2007/05/papa-johns.html

   Aww! Meatza Pizza! It rhymes! A boy in my grade used to order a large Meatza, along with breadsticks and Cinna-Stix, and consume it all himself. Of course, he obsessively worked out, so it made no real difference other than it was generally unhealthy. But most people can't afford to consume an entire Meatza, especially with each slice being 217 calories, 143 of them from fat. 

3. Domino's Cheesy Bread

 

http://smartcanucks.ca/canada-freebies-free-cheesy-bread-from-dominos-with-first-online-order/

      This is something I never quite understood. Cheesy bread. As a side to a pizza. Pizza is (at it's purest state): cheese, bread, tomato sauce. Cheesy bread is cheese, and bread. And in case the difference between the two was too extreme for you, there is a dipping container of Marinara sauce, so you can have a practically-pizza side with your legitimate-pizza main course. But even justifying it like that doesn't make the additonal 140 calories (63 from fat) per piece seem more reasonable, so once again I am clueless as to why this is ever ordered.

 

4. Domino's Breadsticks

 http://www.ucfdominos.com/index.php?a=breadsticks

     Like the cheesy bread up above, I also don't understand breadsticks. Although I admittedly DID used to order breadsticks (and love breadsticks) a lot, I came to realize that they were an extra 130 calories (63 from fat) in addition to the massive amount of pizza I was eating... A really unnecessary 130 calories when you consider that the crust of a piece of pizza is practically a breadstick AND is already included in the calorie amount of the slice.

5. Domino's Cinna-Stix & the Sweet Icing

 

http://www.copykat.com/2009/07/09/dominos-cinnastix/

    A favorite side among all my friends (and loved, as far as I know, by most everyone who has tried them), Cinna-Stix are really addicting. But the Sweet Icing that comes with it is 100x more so... almost to the point of it being a bit strange how good it was. I checked how many calories were in an order of Cinna-Stix...140 calories (63 from fat)... and wasn't really surprised. They are covered with sugar, after all. Then I checked into the icing... my stomach dropped. That one container of icing is 250 calories (27 from fat). No wonder it tasted so good.

6. Domino's Garlic Dipping Sauce

 http://wordosity.com/

    This used to be my favorite sauce when I was younger, because I didn't use to like tomatoes (eliminating the marinara sauce) and I found the fake cheese sauce to be too spicy and overpowering when I put it on my food. So garlic sauce was the winner. When I was researching for this blog, I figured, what the heck, might as well see what the calorie content of that is. I didn't expect much, as is apparent. I nearly had a heart attack when I read what I had been putting in my body. One container is 440 calories... with all. 440. Calories. Being. From. Fat. 

7. Pizza Hut's Personal Pan 6" Cheese Pizza

http://www.morinnbuzz.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

      This shouldn't be TOO bad, right? It's only 6" in diameter, and it's just plain cheese. It's tiny! Well, this tiny pan of pizza brings a whopping 620 calories to the table (234 of them from fat). It's a sad world when things marked "personal" are what really needs to be split.

8. Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza

 

http://forums.montrealracing.com/off-topic/662779-post-picture-your-weakness-food-2.html

      If you didn't have enough cheese on your pizza, you can now have it oozing out of your crust! One slice of this baby and you've already packed away 380 calories, 144 of which are from fat. And since when does anyone eat a single slice of pizza?

     I am not saying "no pizza." Partially because that would be controlling of me, but mostly because then I would have to abide by that rule too seeing as everything I say on this blog are things I truly believe in. I would recommend only having it maybe 1 time a month. It makes it taste SO much better when it's a true treat because you haven't had it in so long. Also, I would say ix-nay on the eesy bread-chay. Breadsticks aren't that necessary either. A salad makes a refreshing side to a couple of piees of pizza, AND it helps move the greasy carbs and dairy through your system, instead of it all sitting and sticking.