How to Eat Out and Lose Weight
Diners have become more health-conscious the last few years, and now want healthy choices whether eating at home or at their favorite restaurants. Luckily, the restaurant industry has been quick to accommodate the demand, so you’ll find you have many options to “eat healthy” these days.
Whether you’re eating at home or dining out, the same rules for watching your weight apply. You need to eat more vegetables, fruit and whole grains. Choose smaller portions of lean meats, fish and poultry. Eat a variety of foods, and fresh, raw foods are better. Cut back on salt, sugar, saturated fats and alcohol. Drink plenty of water, and include exercise every day as part of your daily lifestyle choice.
So whether you’re having lunch with the gang, or enjoying a romantic dinner for two, you can enjoy delicious-tasting foods that are low-in calories and good for you, with just a little forethought and planning.
Here are some easy tips to remember when ordering out that will help you to lose weight even when eating at your favorite restaurants:
1. If you know the menu from the restaurant you’re going to, plan what you’re going to have ahead of time. This will help save you from making a last minute decision that could result in high-calorie choices.
2. Drink at least one full-glass of water or iced tea before eating your meal. This helps your digestive process, and, because you’ll feel full sooner, you will eat less.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for the “senior citizen” special or kid’s-sized portions. Most restaurants will accommodate you — and often you’ll pay less as well!
4. Order first. That way you’re much less likely to be influenced by the choices of your companions.
5. If you’re not sure how something is prepared, don’t be afraid to ask. And if the dish is cooked in oil or butter, you can always ask if they have a “fat free” option.
6. If everything on the menu is high in fat or calories, ask if the chef could prepare a plate of fresh fruit and vegetables. Many restaurants offer a vegetarian selection, so if you don’t see it on the menu, ask.
7. When ordering meat or fish, ask that it be grilled or broiled, and prepared without oil or butter. (When you eat it, use lemon or herbs and spices to give it flavor rather than heavy sauces).
8. Order an appetizer and a salad as your meal. Or a soup and salad. For dessert, choose fresh fruit.
9. When choosing soup, remember that cream-based soups have many more calories than broth-based ones.
10. If you’re having a full meal, split the appetizer and desert with your companion.
11. If you decide to order pasta, tomato sauce has fewer calories than cream-based sauces, just like soup.
12. Choose breadsticks over bread, or if you eat bread, don’t add butter. Stay away from muffins and croissants, and choose whole grain over white.
13. Choose steamed vegetables instead of baked potatoes or other starches. Again, use lemon and herbs and spices rather than butter to flavor them with.
14. Whenever possible, eat like the Europeans do, and have your biggest meal at lunchtime. Not only will you save money, but you’ll cut down on calories at the same time!
15. Take the time to enjoy your meal. Savor the flavors and textures of your food, and enjoy the company you’re with. When you eat slowly, you give your body’s internal clock the time it needs to know when you’ve had enough. When you’re full, stop eating. Ask your server to remove your plate so you’re not tempted to keep eating while you wait for your companion to finish.
16. Ask for salsa on your baked potatoes, rather than sour cream and butter. Not only is salsa much lower in calories, but it adds a “spicy” flavor to potatoes.
17. Order salad dressings and sauces “on the side.” This gives you more control of how much to use. Another tip for salad dressing — rather than pouring the salad dressing on your salad, dip your fork into the dressing first, and then into the salad. You’ll get the same amount of flavor, without all the added calories!
18. Choose brown rice over white rice (or french fries), whole grain breads and rolls over white. Not only are they lower in calories, but they are better for you.
19. Stay away from “all you can eat” buffets and salad bars. It’s too easy to lose track of the amount of food you’re eating, even when it’s salads. If that’s your only choice, then stay away from the pasta, marinated salads, cheeses and fruit salads with whipped cream. Stick to soups, raw vegetables and fresh fruits.
20. Have your soup first. It will help to fill you up, and most soups have fewer calories.
21. If you’re craving something sweet, and don’t want fresh fruit, choose sorbet. If you absolutely HAVE to have the chocolate sauce, use the same trick as you did with the salad dressing — dip your fork into it first, then your dessert.
22. Split your dessert with your companion. You’ll still feel like you got to be indulgent, and you’ll only have to exercise half as long to burn off the extra calories!
23. When ordering sandwiches, order them with mustard only, rather than mayonnaise. Not only does mustard have almost no calories, but you won’t miss the mayo!
24. If the portion you were served is large, only eat half of it. Take the other half home. Not only will you get two meals for the price of one, but you’ll cut the calories in half as well!
25. Go for a walk after eating. Stroll along the beach, walk through a park, visit a zoo. You’ll burn calories and get your exercise at the same time!
Arnel Ricafranca
Fitness Expert/ Master Trainer
Founder of Fitness VIP
Located in Randolph and Stanhope NJ
fitness-vip.com
[email protected]
If you would like additional support and coaching along the way – I strongly suggest you take a peak at my online “member’s only” site at fitnessgenerator.com/fitness-vip – as what we have for you therecan definitely help you make progress fast.
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Help me, Im Addicted to Sugar
A client wrote, “Help me! I thought I was finally getting a handle on my weight issue but the sugar is killing me. I had an awful day. I won’t even tell you what I ate today because it is just so unbelievable. All I will say is that 90% of my food today consisted of sugar! I really, really need some help getting past these cravings. I am no doubt a sugar addict. If I could get past this there is no doubt that I will reach my goal.”
If you see a little of yourself in this message, you’re not alone. Tens of thousands of people describe themselves as sugar addicts. They believe if it were only for that one thing, then they could reach their weight loss goals. If you believe only one thing stands in your way of losing weight, consider this: What if that one thing (an addiction to sugar for instance) were gone? Do you really believe, “If I could get past this, there is no doubt that I will reach my goal,” or is it an easy excuse to stay stuck?
If I told you I could show you a way to stop craving sugar, would you want me to show you how? Think about that for a few minutes. Close your eyes and really think about it. You’ve said that is the answer and the only obstacle standing in your way. What if that one obstacle were removed? Would it solve the problem? How would your life change if that one obstacle were no longer an issue for you?
Would you eat differently, and if so how?
Would you act differently, and if so how?
What else would change, and what would stay the same?
Until you know what you want, know that you can achieve what you want, and know how your life will be different when you obtain what you want, you won’t discover if there are any obstacles that first must be considered. For instance, you may want to stop eating dinner after 7 PM, yet your husband comes home at 8 PM and expects you to join him for dinner. That’s an obstacle. If you don’t overcome that obstacle through discussion and compromise with your husband, there’s bound to be a problem. Determining in advance what might stand in the way, helps you achieve your goals more quickly.
The statement that “if this one thing were handled, then everything else would fall into place” is the type that gets people in trouble. They want a fairy godmother to make it all better. Holding a strong belief that one single thing (eatings sugar) holds the key, sets you up to fail. Especially if you particularly like eating sugar. Getting a handle on your cravigs is not an all-or-nothing proposition. You must leave room for occasional deviations. It’s not the occasional side trip that gets us in trouble but the road we usually travel.
NLP Process: Establishing a Well Formed Outcome
In the practice of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) one common exercise in known as establishing a Well Formed Outcome. “Well formed” meaning it meets all the criteria of a well thought out end result. Here are the steps to deteremining a well formed outcome:
1) State what you want (not what you do not want).
2) Determine whether you can achieve it (do you believe it is possible?).
3) What resources do you have and what do you need (time, money, space, clothing, equipment).
4) Check whether anyone else is involved and any potential obstacles that may come up regarding others.
5) Picture yourself “as if” you’ve obtained what you say you want and decide if that picture fits.
6) Putting together a plan of action for the achievement of your outcome.
While it may seem like a lot of effort simply to decide what you really want, going through these steps help you determine what potential obstacles there may be. If you decide you want to join a gym and start exercising every day but forget you don’t own a car and just lost your job, that plan might not work out. Better to look at it from every angle, then put together a plan you know can work and will work. By deciding what you want, it becomes much easier to take the necessary steps to make it become a reality.
Whether you want to overcome your addiction to sugar or you want to learn to swim, it all starts with this process, first determining what you really want and then a series of steps to be sure it’s a good fit for you. Try this process no matter what decision you are making and you’ll easily discover obstacles that you can handle first thereby ensuring better success overall!
This process is called “Achieving a Well Formed Outcome” and is one of the sessions in the Ending Emotional Eating 8-Week Workshop. You can also find more information on this popular and well known NLP process by searching for “NLP Well Formed Outcome” in your favorite search engine.
~~ Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor, author of the free e-book: Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com
Get The Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.
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