Lack of healthy food choices at Woodall Welcome Break Service Station

I’ve been on the Alli diet (weight-loss pills) for 3 months, which has included quite a lot of dieting whilst eating out due to travelling etc.

It’s very difficult to stick within the fat limits of the Alli diet whilst eating out, but I have always been able to choose a menu option that was relatively low in fact. That is until I stopped at Woodall Services this bank holiday weekend. We needed to stop for food as it was late for our children’s meals and normally service stations have fairly reasonable food.

We stopped on Sunday at 6:45pm which I would hardly consider late for a 24 hour service station, but the Eat In canteen style restaurant had very few menu choices left. The panninis all contained cheese which is very high in fat, and all the hot meal options were served with chips except for two of them. I tried to order two of the lamb with mash potatoes and veg (the lowest fat from those available), but they only had one lamb available, no mash which was replaced with chips and no vegetables, only mushy peas. The only other meal alternatives they had was deep fried chicken with chips, lasagne with chips or pie and chips.

We had to feed the children and it was getting too late to go anywhere else so I ended up having to have the chips. It is the first time I’ve had chips on the diet (except for low fat oven ready chips) and I didn’t even enjoy the meal.

If you’re on a diet then I suggest you avoid Woodall Welcome Break Service Station, between junctions 30 and 31 on the M1 motorway.