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Are
you addicted to restaurants? What used to be a "treat," going out for
dinner, has become more common that cooking at home, and we think
we're better off? Think again. Restaurant eating, fast foods and
highly processed foods are turning us into an overweight nation. It's
time to take back control of our waistlines.
You
choose where you eat, and you choose what you eat. Here are some
suggestions to begin to make better choices.
Restaurants Exist to Make a Profit
The
bottom line is restaurants exist to make a profit. They pile on the extra
butter and rich cream sauces, caramelized sugar toppings, cheese sauce,
double-deluxe, new improved, and whatever they can do to make the food so
enticing, so delicious, we just cannot resist. Fine for an occasional
splurge, but not everyday fare, and herein lies the problem.
The True
Cost of Extra Value Meals
McDonalds
started the trend by offering slightly larger portions for a bit more
money, and every other food establishment quickly followed suit. Extra
value they called it. Who wouldn't order a bit more for only pennies?
Today nearly every restaurant, fast food or sit down dining, serves
gigantic quantities that boggle the mind. There is usually enough food
served for two, sometimes three meals.
Reading
in Restaurant Confidential (get a copy of this book and read it until it
sinks in), the calorie count in the typical restaurant meal is so
staggering it ends the surprise of why obesity is rampant and on the rise.
Cheese fries with Ranch dressing are listed at having over 3,000 calories
and 217 grams of fat (91 of them saturated). That's an entire day's worth
of food, and it's considered an appetizer. Most people don't just eat the
cheese fries either, so add in the rest of your day's calories and you end
up with far more than you may realize.
Anyone
who eats out regularly (at least once a day) is likely consuming closer to
5,000 calories a day, which easily explains their being overweight.
Getting
the Calories Out of Restaurant Food
Unless
you mentally make it okay to pay good money for very plain foods, you're
not likely to solve this puzzle. Here are a couple of painless ideas you
can put into action at restaurants:
1.
Just say NO to super sizing. The size you ordered is already too big.
Stop super sizing and you'll save money (see How to Save Money and Lose
Weight).
2.
Skip the bread and rolls served with most meals (unless it's
excellent, then you make an exception). Most family restaurants still
serve a bread basket with your meal. Unless it's a fresh baked loaf, or
some special bread, just skip it. You don't need to fill up on ordinary
bread when you're paying good money for a meal - just push it away - it's
not that good. You can do it, if you want to - it's not that hard to
simply choose not to put a roll on your plate. Try it, just once and see
if you don't walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.
If you
can't skip the rolls, at least skip the butter. That's right. Eat it
plain. Bread all by itself is good enough.
3.
Stop ordering drinks with your meals. I stopped buying the soft drinks
many years ago when I realized they are a huge cash cow for the fast food
restaurants. For pennies, they sell you a squirt of syrup and soda water
and act like they're doing you a big favor by only charging you $1.29 for
a giant 64 oz. soda. Start saving those dollars. If you take the meal
home, just don't get a drink, and if you're eating it there, ask for
water, or at least switch to diet drinks. Never drink "fat pop."
5.
Trim visible fat and skin. You really love the skin - of course it
tastes good, it should, it's pure fat. Do you want to get leaner, or do
you want to eat fat? You choose. I never eat chicken skin, and never eat
the visible fat hanging off a steak, good taste or no. You have to decide
what you want more, the second's worth of pleasure of a yummy taste, or a
lifetime of carrying around an extra 40 lbs?
6. Ask
for a doggie bag at the beginning of the meal. When the food is
served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow. Some
restaurants always serve too much. Do this at those establishments to get
used to the idea.
7. Get
a copy of Restaurant Confidential and start checking out how much you're
eating. Yes, I mentioned this twice. It's important. If you think
eating out isn't causing part of the problem, I say, you're fooling
yourself. This little book can help you realize what's been going on, and
then you may find it easier to choose other dishes, split the meal into
two, or skip some extras.
8.
Order one dinner and ask for an extra plate. Many restaurants will do
this for $1.00 or $1.50 extra and it's well worth it. Then share the meal
with your friend and you split the cost straight down the middle.
Turn
Eating Out at Restaurants Back into a Treat
If you
really want to get a handle on your weight problem, then first look at
where you eat, second what you eat, and third how much you eat. If you
absolutely cannot give up going to restaurants or fast food places every
day, then you must start ordering plain, unadorned foods. I you can't do
that (which I can't) then just go out less often. Turn it back into a
treat, a special occasion type thing, and then eat whatever you want. Find
what works for you, and then do it.
Train
your Eye to Accept Less Food
Start
training your eye to accept less food on the plate. We've taught ourselves
to expect heaps of food, but your body doesn't need such huge quantities.
Frankly, it takes a very tiny amount of food to supply our needed
nutrients.
If they
developed a pill which contained all the calories and nutrients our bodies
required, no one would want to take it. We like to eat. Eating is
pleasurable, it's part of the makeup and experience of being human. Take
back control of that most basic of human needs. Cook at home for friends
and bring joy back into your life through food.
If I Ate
Out More Often I'd Gain Weight -- it's That Simple
I know I
maintain my weight with an average of about 2,200 calories a day. That's
more than most dieters strive for, so how do I get away with eating that
much -- I make better choices.
If I
started eating out at restaurants more often, I'd suddenly be eating
nearly double what I eat now (calorie wise), without even trying. Double
the calories and guess what? Weight gain won't be far behind.
Trying to
radically change your approach to food or exercise is rarely successful.
More people that are successful at losing weight and keeping it off do so
by making changes and incorporating them into their lifestyle. Start now.
Choose one habit (such as eating out every day) or regular food you eat,
and decide to cut back on how often, or the quantity. Set a plan, and do
it.
Make a
deal with yourself and keep it. If you find you cannot - that you set
yourself too strict a cutback, then modify it and do it again. Keep at it
and you'll be successful.
If you
eat out every day during the week for lunch, here's a plan to make a small
change. Carry your lunch one day a week, or save the extra from dinner out
on Sunday night for lunch on Monday. Get together with your coworkers for
a walking lunch every Wednesday. If there's a gym of fitness club in the
vicinity of your work, join along with your coworkers and make an
agreement to work out together three days a week, at lunch time. Take
brown bag foods you can eat at your desk those days.
These
small changes add up to big results. Try a couple in your daily life and
see what happens.
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