Determined To Succeed

We’ve all heard of the BBD (bigger better deal). It comes in many forms. In electronics stores like Best Buy it’s the 47-inch flat screen TV instead of the 37-inch TV. In cars it’s getting the Honda Accord over the Civic. And in food it’s getting the value meal over just the sandwich.

There are times these days when I run to grab a bit to eat at my FFBF (fast food best friend), Chick-Fil-A who has the best grilled chicken sandwich ever. Anyway, I get to the “on-deck circle” (the position before you get to order) and I look at the entire menu. Not that I am not tempted to get their delicious fried chicken sandwich (which at Chick-Fil-A is heaven) but what I notice is how much cheaper it would be to get the value meal with my grilled chicken sandwich.

Why in the hell is it cheaper to get their yummy fried potato disc thingies and a soda? Just the economics of fast food. You so want to save money and get the most “bang for your buck,” so it’s tempting to get the BBD. I did the math. It’s actually the same amount of money roughly to get the value meal rather than components of the meal as separates. Don’t believe me? Check it out at your FFBF sometime.

OK, so I get up to the speak-into-the-box thingie and I decide to order “one grilled chicken sandwich please, no lettuce, and a small side cole slaw.”

Now I have to say one of the reasons I love going to Chick-Fil-A is because they do have a much higher level of customer service, including how they greet and take care of you in the drive-thru. “Thank you for your order. Would you like the better value meal or just the sandwich and cole slaw?” See, I do get why they do this. It’s the up-sell. It’s their job and sometimes people do, in fact, order the meal without saying the designated number of the meal which inadvertently makes it more expensive. So the friendly person is doing a service. But it also is a temptation we, and I, don’t need. “No, thank you. Just the sandwich and the cole slaw,” I say as I receive my total and drive around to the pick-up window.

This happens in my CSBF (convenience store best friend), too – Wawa. Now that I have weaned successfully off of having a daily Coca-Cola or two I do get one as a treat, like last night (sometimes after dinner I really do need one). But that’s when I notice how much “cheaper” it would be to get a whole six-pack of 24-ounce bottles instead of two individual 20-ounce bottles (my new total Coke allotment for the week).

See, the BBD is everywhere.

Some of those constant choice we make along this weight loss journey don’t just involve food (like at a work birthday party where you know you should stuff yourself on chips or cake). They involve money, and in today’s economy it is understandably hard to know you are ultimately spending away more money than you could if you’d purchased the BBD (the value meal; the six-pack of Coke that has bottles offering even more of the good stuff). But I like to think of it in the same way Samuel L. Jackson thought about giving up his money at the end of one of the greatest films of the 1990s, “Pulp Fiction.” In that movie he justified giving up his $1,500 because he was “buying something” for his money. For him, it was so he could turn a new leaf, not shoot Ringo (Tim Roth), take the briefcase to Marsellus Wallace and get out of “the life.”

In my world, when I spend the extra money I know I buy satisfaction. Satisfaction in knowing that, while I spent more money on just the grilled chicken sandwich and cole slaw, I didn’t get the soda, too, saving me the calories (or icky after taste and results of diet soda). Satisfaction that instead of drinking 144 total ounces of Coca-Cola in a week (which I know I would if I kept that Coke in the house) I limit my intake to just 40-ounces in seven days. Satisfaction that I beat a system that seems designed to thwart a weight loss journey at every turn every where.

That is why the BBD doesn’t appeal to me. You may end up spending slightly more money but it’s you that comes out on top in the end.