So i'ts 2 weeks until my holiday and although I know I'm not going to achieve the ultimate beach body I do know theres enough time to at least loose a few pounds. Usually I just cut out a food group or just eat fruit and veg or sometimes I even just drink liquids however this time I took a different approach. As I have recently started doing 'Insanity' I thought I'd take some inspiration from the nutrition plan they provide. So, as I selected some of the items to eat I constructed a shoppping list however when I got to the supermarket I realised just how uneducated I was when it came to food!!
So usually I go shopping when I'm hungry and although intend to bring home fruit, veg, cereal etc 90% of my trolly consists of micro curries, pizza and doritos! This time however I was all set with my list and entered Tescos feeling pretty positive. However 5 minutes later having not written my list in any type of order I was bumping into people every 2 seconds as a result of staring at my list totally clueless.
So there I am standing in the middle of the isle googling things such as 'cantaloupe' (which I just had to type into google again to spell!) and 'melba toast' as I realised I didn't even know what type of food they were! Then after walking from one end of the shop to the other and back again repeatedly finding the items on the list, I then find myself serching google images for 'whipped cream cheese' and 'low fat swiss cheese' as not being able to find them I thought I'd try and match the illustrations. After looking for Swiss cheese in what I realised was the Polish section for about 5 minutes (assuming I was being silly as Swiss cheese is from Switzerland??) I decided the remaining items musn't be in stock and tottered off to the checkout. When I got there I was impressed by my shop but then reaalised I'd been in the shop for over and hour!! (That was without my usual saunter around the magazines, toiletries and clothes section).
So with my shopping completed with items such as cantaloupe, wholemeal pitta bread, wholegrain crackers and cottage cheese I cant say I'm as excited about eating it as a spicy chicken pizza but at least I'll not be bloated and hopefully loose a few extra pounds before my holiday!
Lisaloo x
For me, I'm lazy and use the drive through to buy fast food 99% of the time and have never really considered what the service is like on the inside of any of the fast food chains. I am always pretty satisfied by the quick efficient service of the drive through especially from both Mcds and BK however, my experience of my recent BK visit was somewhat anexperience and felt it deserved a weeeee bit of a rant!
Just to note this rant is based on my visit to the Stirling branch and I have no idea what it is like in any of the others.
As a child my dad used to take me to BK every Saturday afternoon and I remember it was always very quick, a friendly atmosphere and the food was enjoyable. Having not visited the inside of BK in numerous years I was surprised by what was occuring. As we entered the place was very clean and pretty quiet (it was weekday) so we found a place to sit and two of us went to ordrer. We were second in the queue at this point and 10 minutes later we still hadn't been served and a lengthy queue was starting to form behind us. I was surprised as there appeared to be quite a lot of staff on but I'm pretty patient so I wasn't too bothered.
While standing in the queue my cousin and I were just stood observing what was going on when we spotted something somewhat of a shock. One of the employees who had just finished emptying the bins in the eating area, bare handed notices the queue and and heads towards the counter. My cousin, who admittedly is a bit anal about hygiene, spotted this and watched the girl leave the bin and walk straight onto the counter and start serving without washing her hands!!!! Now I do not wish to appear a drama queen but surely when you are physically handling food as part of your job simple tasks such as washing your hands is a basic rule and would be instinctive?? Luckily we recieved another server however my cousin was still pissed off and had a quiet word with our server who happened to be the manager. She explained what she had seen and in response the manager firstly said he would ask her if she did wash her hands (even though we witnessed she never) however made clear they had a strict hygiene policy and dealt with the situation discreetly.
When ordering we were informed some of the items we wanted to eat were out of stock, which as a restraunt worker myself I understand, but as it was promotional items I would have expected them to be in stock. Then when we paid I seemed to find the price pretty high in comparisson to other fast food chains..anyone feel the same?? I knew the prices would have went up a bit over the years but for what we actually recieved and the quality of the food I was pretty surprised!!
Finally, the speed of service I would have to question as there appeared to be a lot of staff but from when we entered and were second in the queue it took close to 20 minutes to complete our order...whats fast about that? Also they didn't even have to make drinks as that is now something the customer does themselves. Plus once finishing our meal (which was actually pretty decent, which may have been due to extra germ seasoning [jokes] ) and leaving there was still people in the queue who were there before we started eating...and I myself am a pretty slow eater!
Overall I feel based on this experience BK has went a little downhill and if this is the way the service is now, I dread to think what it will be like in the summer holidays. I don't think I'll be returning anytime soon but I am sure the girl behind the counter won't forget to wash her hands again in a hurry!
Lisaloo x
