5 Tricks to Eat
Healthier at Restaurants
Dining out is
a big part of most people's lives.
Maybe you have to eat out frequently
because you entertain clients at
restaurants. Perhaps you don't even
like eating out. Regardless, if you
want to keep a nice fit body,
restaurant meals will give you a
huge obstacle to overcome. In fact,
eating out at restaurants is one of
the biggest reasons why so many
people fatten up while traveling.
Below, I'll
give you a few very simple tricks
you can use to eat healthier and
stay lean even while dining out at
restaurants...
The 3 most
important things to avoid that are
everywhere at restaurants are:
-
deep fried
foods (anything battered that
got a scorching bath of trans
fats)
-
refined
starchy foods
-
any sodas,
juices, or other sugary foods
(except whole fruits, which are
great)
If you can
skip these major culprits, this
eliminates the major food sources
that do the worst damage in our food
supply - trans fats, refined
vegetable oils, refined starchy
carbohydrates, and processed sugars.
This means you
should try to skip the table bread,
skip the french fries that come with
every single sandwich on every menu
known to man, and reduce all of the
heaping portions of pasta and rice
that are often loaded on the plates
as well.
Instead, try
to order just meat with side
vegetables, and a salad, asking for
the vegetables or salad as a
substitute for the typical french
fries, pasta, or rice, that most
restaurant meals usually come with.
Almost every
restaurant I have ever been to will
always allow me to substitute
vegetables or a side salad for the
french fries or chips that almost
always come with burgers or
sandwiches.
On a side
note, it always amazes me how many
people scrutinize me because I
substitute veggies for fries by
telling me that I am "not living"
because I refuse to eat french
fries... are you kidding me! If
that's your idea of "living it up",
you need to get some better hobbies!
Ironically,
these are also the first people to
complain that they are overweight
and have "tried everything", yet can
not lose weight, no matter what. I
am not sure why so many people think
that eating french fries equals
"living it up"... hey, I am all for
moderation with many things, but if
there are 2 things that should be
totally removed from everyone's diet
because these foods are simply that
dangerous... it is sodas and fries!
Take a look at
the typical difference this simple
substitution makes between choosing
smart and doing what most people
do...
Most people
will eat a meal out such as this:
-
Burger or
sandwich or burger
-
chips or
fries
-
soda or other
sweetened drink (and no, diet
sodas are NOT healthy!)
A MUCH smarter
alternative if you care about your
body and health is this simple
change:
-
Burger or
Sandwich
-
Salad or
veggies
-
unsweetened
iced tea or water (no diet
drinks -- unless you like to
drink poison!)
These 2 simple
substitutions save at least 400 -
900 calories every time you dine out
(depending on drink refills and
fries portion sizes)... AND you are
cutting out the most harmful foods
to your body as well by avoiding the
evil trans fats and high fructose
corn syrup from the fries and soft
drinks.
Another side
note: a little-known way to eat full
portions of pasta, rice, and breads
and actually get away with it
without packing on the body fat is
to make sure to schedule a high
intensity full body resistance
training workout (can be free
weights or body weight training)
before your scheduled meal time.
Sometimes it
may be hard to fit the workout into
your schedule right before the meal,
but if you can, the meal can be your
"post-workout meal". After a high
intensity resistance training
workout, your body can handle a
higher amount of carbs than normal
to help replenish the muscle
glycogen depletion you had during
the intense workout.
A typical
moderate intensity cardio workout
will NOT cut it for this... it must
be high intensity resistance
training workout to deplete enough
muscle glycogen to handle restaurant
portions of carbs.
I hope these
dining tips help you choose smarter
and healthier for a leaner body next
time you eat out.
