3 things NOT to eat when at a restaurant

Everybody loves a going out for dinner. Even those who love cooking and find it therapeutic, sometimes just want to have somebody else do the food prep, cooking and clean-up. 

But most people really struggle to make wise choices when dining out. How do you order something healthy, yet appetizing? After all, aren't the "healthy dishes" boring and uneventful? Not always. And instead of telling you what to do, how about we look at what NOT to do? That list is a little shorter.

So here are 3 things NOT to eat when out at a restaurant.

It's not the oil that's criminal, its the bread!

1. Bread/chips at the table. I know this is so difficult to do because they are just staring at you, begging to be eaten. Bread waiting for olive oil, chips with the sad look on their face because all they want is to be eaten with salsa. But this is one of the quickest ways to destroy a great day of eating. First off, they are ALL high glycemic carbohydrates that will quickly be digested and stored as fat.

2. 1/2 your meal. Most restaurants grossly over-portion their foods. So you've got 2 options. A) Split the meal with somebody or B) have your server bring a to-go box so you can put 1/2 of your meal away for later. What's that? You got the 1200 calorie cobb salad? Have them bring your other half in a box so you can eat it the next day. Now all of a sudden that 1200 calorie salad is only 600 calories!
 
3. Anything fried. Aside from a psychological reprieve, fried foods do nothing for you. In fact eating fried foods can slow your metabolism and cause your body to store fat rather than use it as fuel! Instead have foods cooked in olive oil. This unsaturated fat is great for you and can help build muscle, improve the health of your heart, fight inflammation and it tastes great!

Here's the big take away with these 3 things: It is very difficult to resist eating chips/bread, french fries/zucchini/onion rings or eating all of your meal. Not many people have the will power to stare at a bowl full of bread or chips and keep their hands out of it, or to stare at a plate full of delicious food and not continue to pick at it, me included. I'm one of the biggest culprits - If there are french fries left over and nobody is eating them, I'll start picking at them. If there's bread on the table, you bet I'll eat it!! So just remove the temptation!

Have more questions about what to eat while your dining out? Then register for our "Eating Healthy While Dining Out" workshop with Diane Campbell, RD. Diane is going to share even more tips and strategies on how to burn fat and eat healthy while still enjoying a night on the town!!

If you do what you've always done...

"It's time for change."

We've heard a lot of that in the past year. Usually it comes from the political arena, but it also comes from many other venues. Granted not all change results in success.

But change for the sake of change is far too short sighted. If something is successful, why would you change it?

Most of us are unsuccessful with our current eating habits. In the case of most of our eating habits, change is something that needs to occur.  It is not change for the sake of change. Instead it is change for the sake of eating healthier and altering the way we look and feel. There is good change and bad change though. But most of us know the difference.

Let me give you a quick example of bad change. I usually eat pretty well - 4-6 meals per day, shredded wheat for breakfast, granola-blueberry parfait for snack, tuna salad for lunch, chicken-risotto-asparagus for dinner.

But Sunday night my wife and her friends husband decided to have a pizza cook off. All 4 pizza's were winners. But I was a big loser. I changed my eating habit and managed to put away 9 or 10 slices of pizza. What happened? I paid dearly. My stomach hurt for the next 36 hours, Monday was rough day for me as  I walked around nauseated, constantly feeling as if I were one bad scent away from having to rush to the bathroom.

What would good change have looked like? 1 slice of each pizza and a large salad that we also brought.

But here is my final point:

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. 

Your diet is the perfect example. If you keep eating the way you've always eaten, you'll continue to look the way you've always looked. You have to change things up. Your body is the way it is, because you do the things you do. 

So change things. If you "aren't a breakfast person," try to become a breakfast person. If you eat breakfast at 7 then don't eat again until dinner, mix in a couple of snacks. If your dinner plate is usually 1/2 covered with grains/pasta and only 25% green, switch it to 50% green and 25% grains/pasta. Take small steps, branch out from the norm and see how your body responds. 

We are at the start of a new Hi-5 FitCamp. Make a change for the next 4 weeks. Stop eating bread/grains/pasta at dinner, eat an apple each workday, cut out all soda/latte's/energy drinks for the next month. These are changes that will have a positive outcome. Your body will respond favorably to them


But I wouldn't recommend eating 10 slices of pizza... Your body will NOT respond favorably to that.

5 Snacks to help structure your eating!

Often times my wife gets more than a little flustered with me for more than a few reasons. But probably the thing that bothers her the most, is my lack of planning when it comes to things around the house. And I can't blame her.

I can't count how many times she has said "We need to sit down and discuss ________ sometime soon." My response is, "okay, let's do it."

However, I commit to it and then I am on my way to the next thing. Two weeks later, that _______ comes up again and we still haven't talked about it. So what I have realized is that I need to structure and plan my time accordingly. If I commit to something, I need to write it down so I don't have to remember, but rather my planner will remember for me.

My method of problem solving at home is similar to most people's eating and exercise plan. There is the verbal portion, but then the ACTION NEVER COMES!

A structured eating plan and a structured exercise plan is necessary. But it does not have to be complicated or extreme.

Take small steps. Like Richard Dreyfus in the movie, "What About Bob?" - Baby Steps.

So here are 5 snack idea's to make sure you are taking small steps to change your eating habits. (After all, you are already exercising at least 4 times a week in the Hi-5 FitCamp!)

1. Sunday afternoon, take 5 sandwich bags and put 1/3 cup of almonds in each one. You now have a low calorie, slow digesting snack to help keep your blood sugar stead through each afternoon. Just make sure you take them to work with you!
2. Buy 5 banana's and 5 apples or pears and put them in a large bowl in your office. Then make sure that you eat every piece of fruit in the bowl by Friday. The bonus is your co-workers will know that you are taking your eating seriously and set a great example for the office.
3. Buy 5 yogurts and stick them in the fridge at work. Again, you know have a low cal, high protein snack to get you through the afternoon's.
4. Buy a package of beef jerky for those desperate times when you are driving, and are so hungry that your thumb is starting to look tasty. You will probably have to reload each week!
5. Buy yourself an aluminum, 1-L water bottle. First off it looks cool, especially when it gets banged up (scratches add character) but also it's a reminder that you should be going through that bottle AT LEAST once a day, if not TWICE. Water helps your kidney's function. If your kidneys aren't functioning optimally, they rely on your liver. Your helps to mobilize fat. If your liver is helping the kidney's how is it going to get that fat moving?

So there you go. 5 ways to TAKE ACTION today to improve your eating habits!

Do your eating habits match your exercise habits?

Granted most of the group is doing well and changing their eating habits. As a result we are losing weight and getting MUCH stronger. The changes you made in your eating habits to lose weight 10 weeks ago at the beginning of December will not yield the same results now as they did then.

As a result, you're going to have to modify your caloric intake if you want to keep losing fat. Just keep in mind that whatever your goal weight, your caloric intake must be enough to maintain that weight.

So here are 2 things you need to remember when putting together a weekly menu (YOU are doing that, aren't you?):

1. Make sure you are not dooming yourself on the weekends! On the days you exercise, you will need a few more calories. Not much, but about a 5% increase from your total is good. Likewise on the days you don't exercise, you need to decrease your caloric intake by about 5-10%.
2. The time at which you eat is important. Eating late at night is not a good idea because you don't need that much energy later in the day. Instead, make breakfast and lunch your largest meals. These are the times you NEED energy to sustain work performance and mental clarity. At night when your body is about to be restored, you need quality foods, not quantity. A protein (chicken) vegetable (asparagus) a whole grain (basmati rice) and then fruit for desert (strawberry/blueberry mix).
   

Remember that you cannot out exercise a bad diet. This means too many calories as well as not enough.

If you don't know how many calories you need then head over to www.calorie-count.com and FIND OUT!! You won't know how many to eat to lose weight if you don't know how many you need to keep your weight!

Enjoy your day and get ready for another blasting tomorrow!!

Are you eating like a 300-lb lineman?

As I was watching football this past weekend, I noticed how big the offensive lineman were. At some point a reference was made to how much these athletes need to eat to maintain their girth and weight.

And it dawned on me that many times we eat like the person we are, not like the person we want to be. Now I'm not saying we all need to run to our refrigerators and throw everything away except for carrots, lettuce and cabbage to look like a runway model.

But when estimating how many calories we need, do we base it off of our current weight, or the weight we want to be? This goes both ways. If we want to lose weight (fat) or gain weight (muscle), we need to take in the appropriate amount of calories.

For example, if a person currently weighs 160 pounds and has a final goal of weighing 130, then the person needs to tune their diet to that of someone who weighs 130 pounds. According to www.calorie-count.com, a 45-year old woman who is 5'5" needs 1900 calories a day to stay where she is at. A woman of the same age and height but weighs 130 pounds needs only 1700 calories a day.

The next step is figuring out a meal plan for staying within these caloric requirements. That is confusing and can be a headache!!

But wait... there is a solution. Diane Campbell has set-up meal plans based on caloric needs. If you need only 1500 calories a day, she has a meal plan for that. Need 1200? She's got one for that. need 2400? She's got one for that.

So how about getting yourself or someone you care about, a nutritional consultation for Christmas? Start them off this year on the right foot. Let them know you support them and YOU want them to succeed!! Click on Diane's picture to get her contact information. Trust me, this is one of the best things you can do for yours or a loved ones health!!

Are you afraid of these?

There are many foods that many people are deathly afraid of.

Not in the sense that this food will instantly harm them, but because statistics and information has been misguided and taken to an extreme.

Foods such as eggs, red meat and, dare I say.....chocolate.... are looked at as foods that are high in fat, cholesterol and are seen as flat out bad for you.

Here is an article from Core Performance that will hopefully help you shelve some of those bad thoughts and show you how to incorporate them into a healthy diet (by diet I mean your standard eating habits).

So head over to core performance, dig around the site and see what else you can learn about foods that so many people think are bad, but can actually help you to your healthy fitness goals!!

Moving the stone

DP. We all know what it stands for, right?

Dr. Pepper....

Double Play.....

Dual Purpose....

How about Discipline and perseverance?

These are the two things necessary for successful weight loss. But the great thing is that when, and I say WHEN, you change your eating habits you will not have as strong of a desire to go out and eat those foods you know are not good for you.

The hardest part is getting started. Just like exercise, the hardest part is getting off the couch. Once you get on a role of 2 meals, or 2 days or 1 week of great eating habits a few things will happen.

You will physically FEEL different. You will have more energy, you won't find yourself dragging so much. and you'll start to feel a little more density where there used to be a bit more jelly filling.

But the BEST part?

You will be on a streak that you'll do just about ANYTHING to keep going!!

Compare it to moving a stone. The hardest part is to get the thing moving. But once it's moving you won't want it to stop and you'll find it rolls a little easier.

So get the STREAK started!!

How I eat to keep my belly full but my waist trim.

A few weeks ago I was thinking about different ways to change my eating habits. I've been eating the same way for about 5 years now and it comes as no surprise that as a result not much has changed in the way I look. Nobody likes squishyness on them, right?

However, one thing my wife and I started was to cut back on eating grains after lunch. Why?

Grains provide plenty of carbohydrates for energy. High quality grains are like a high quality racing gasoline. The stuff can really improve your bodies performance!!

But as the day wears on and we get closer and closer to sleep we don't need as much fuel. As the evening draws closer we don't need as many grains to provide energy. After all, I am usually asleep by 9-9:30.

So to eat a huge pasta dish for dinner when I will be going to bed 3 hours afterwards doesn't make much sense. Rather at that point in the day our bodies need protein, minerals and vitamins to aid in our recovery during sleep.

If I were to eat that huge bowl of pasta, I would have lots of fuel and no use for it. So what would my body do with it? Most likely store it. And when things get stored, they are stored as fat. Sure at night I still use calories, but i've got enough fuel in the form of fat that I don't need to "carb up" for a long nights sleep. When we eat grains at night, this is essentially what we are doing.

So try it for a few weeks and see if you notice a difference. Remember, I DID NOT SAY NO CARBS. ONLY NO GRAINS. YOU STILL NEED LOTS AND LOTS OF VEGGIES AND FRUIT TO GET VITAMINS AND MINERALS.

Then in the morning feel free to have a grain filled breakfast to give you fuel to get through the day. Let me know how it goes!!

What YOU can't do...but WE can.

I know a lot of you are struggling with your eating habits. Changing a routine that has been around for 20 years is not an easy thing to do.

But most of the good things in life take work. Weight loss is something that nobody can do for you.

YOU have to want it...

YOU have to work for it...

YOU have to learn to eat properly.

But WE can all be the ones to help and encourage each other if one of us falls of the band wagon. Lack of accountability and social support are two of the top reasons for not succeeding with weight loss goals.

So you have to ask yourself the following question:

Who is in my support group?

What I need you to do today is write down 3 people that you have already told about your weight loss goals. Make sure you talk to these people on a regular basis.

Because odds are your brother in-laws mother isn't going to remember that you are trying to change your shape and she certainly isn't going to ask you how it's going.

These people need to be people you see on a daily basis who can encourage you and support you.

Another option would be to join an online support group like the ones at www.calorie-count.com. Follow this link to see what I am talking about. --> CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Eating to live, or living to eat?

As a culture, we eat for a variety of reasons. We eat when we are bored, when we are busy, when we are depressed, when we are happy, when we are celebrating and when we are mourning. Our culture seems to center around food. This is causing us to be overweight, over-fat, under-muscled and flat out dragging tail.

So what are these reasons and what can you do about it? First off, reflect on why you are eating. One of the most disastrous things we do as a country relates to our inactivity: WE EAT BECAUSE WE ARE BORED. Which in turn makes us lethargic, unmotivated and less likely to move. And in return eat even more. It is a vicious cycle.

There are two ways of looking at food and life. Ask yourself this question and be as honest as you can be: Do I eat to live, or do I live to eat? Enjoying the food you eat is certainly not a bad thing. But can you control how much of it you eat/drink?

Just some food for thought.

Remember, we start a new round of our Hi-5 FitCamp on Monday Aug. 31 so be there and bring a friend. For more information visit our website www.pairmarotta.com/fitness or email me, Aaron@pairmarotta.com

See you on Monday!

Interview with Nutrition Expert Diane Campbell, RD

Our first interview with Diane Campbell, RD was great!! She is willing to share tons of the information that makes her an expert in her field.

Now although she is sharing a lot of information, we are all individuals and there will come a time when general nutrition information may not be enough to get you where you want to be. At that point, you'll need to make a serious effort to get in and see her for a private consultation.

Look at it this way, you can spend your money on getting better when you are sick, or you can spend your money taking care of your body and doing your best to reduce the frequency of illness.

At any rate, here is the most recent interview of our with Diane Campbell, RD.

Many people are just about clueless when it comes to nutrition and eating. What would
be the most important first step for somebody who is ready to change the way they eat?
The first thing most dietitians do for those who want to lose weight is to ask the individual to keep a food journal. Write it all down. It’s amazing how much we actually drink and eat!! Most people underestimate how much they eat by 500 calories or more.

Your food journal should be detailed and include the time you ate, what you ate and how much of it you consumed. Your food journal will help you identify areas of your diet you can improve on.

Maybe you didn’t realize you were overeating at 3:00pm or that you were eating most of your calories after dinner time. Or maybe it’s just you have not been eating enough protein and way too many carbohydrates. Identifying the problems in your diet is the first step in achieving weight loss.

We've heard over and over that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Is that true? If so, why is breakfast so important?
Breakfast is so important because it breaks the fast from the night before. Breakfast jump starts
our metabolisms. A boost in metabolism in the morning helps burn calories. Skipping breakfast is often a common strategy for losing weight, but is not one that works. Many people believe skipping breakfast will help them lose weight, but that just isn't true; the body wants and needs to be feed regularly -- starting with breakfast.

Studies have shown eating habits of adults who successfully maintain weight loss include eating
breakfast almost every day.

Many people eat cereal for breakfast and it can be a good choice. Here are 3 things to help you
choose a healthy cereal.
1) The first ingredient should be whole grains.
2) There should be at least 3 grams of fiber per serving.
3) Sugar (or high fructose corn syrup) should not be listed in the first 3 ingredients (less than 6 –
8 grams of sugar per serving)

We hear over and over that whole grains are better. But what is the difference between
refined grains and whole grains and how do I tell the difference at the grocery store?
Grains are divided into 2 subgroups, whole grains and refined grains.
Refined grains have been milled, a process that removes the bran and germ. The refining
process removes dietary fiber, iron and many B vitamins. These products are often enriched which means some of the B vitamins have been added back. However fiber is not added back. Examples of refined grains are white flour, white bread, white rice.

Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel -- the bran, germ, and endosperm. Whole grains
provide us with fiber, vitamins, trace minerals, antioxidants and more. Examples include: whole
wheat flour, bulgur, oatmeal, whole cornmeal and brown rice.

When at the grocery store don’t be fooled into buying bread because of its brown color. Often
refined white flours are used and molasses is added to give it its color. Foods that claim to be
“multi-grain” or “100% whole wheat” are not necessarily whole grain.

At the grocery store, you must read the ingredient label. Look for the word whole grain near the top of the ingredient list.

Also you know you are getting a whole grain product by seeing the whole grain counsel stamp.
The latest recommendations from U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend at least 3 servings (48
grams of whole grain foods daily. 9 out 10 Americans do not get enough… Are you?
For more information on whole grains go to www.mypyramid.gov

Why has America gotten so overweight? What about our eating habits has changed so
much to cause such an epidemic?
66 percent of adult Americans (2 out of 3) weigh too much, and 17 percent of American children
and teens are overweight or obese. “Overweight” is defined as having a body mass index (BMI)
of between 25 and 29.9, and “obese” as having a BMI of 30 or higher. NHANES [2001-2004], NCHS. Health, United States, 2006.)

Obesity doesn't just make people feel uncomfortable about their appearance. It increases the risk of chronic and deadly conditions such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart
disease.

There are many theories as to why obesity has become an epidemic. One of the big reasons is
because people are so busy and are no longer meal planning. Instead they are consuming highly
processed, refined foods that are generally high in calories, fat, sugar and salt. Even in this
economy fast food restaurants are thriving.

People need to slow down and start meal planning. If you plan a dinner, and have the ingredients at home, you will be less likely to stop for that pepperoni pizza on the way home from work.