Monday, November 24, 2008

Restaurant Dining For Healthy Lifestyles

By Ryan L. Freeman

Dining out is a big part of many people's lives. Maybe you're eating out more frequently because you entertain clients. Perhaps you don't like eating out. Either way, if you want to keep a nice trim body, restaurant meals will give you a huge obstacle to overcome. In fact, eating out is one of the biggest reasons why so many people fatten up while the road.

I'm going to give you some very simple tricks you can use to eat more healthy while dining out and stay lean.

The 3 most important things to avoid that are everywhere at restaurants are:

*** any sodas, juices and other sugary foods (except fresh fruits, which are great) *** deep fried foods (anything dropped in a scorching bath of trans fats) *** refined starchy foods

Skip these major culprits and you can eliminate the major food sources that do the worst damage to your body - trans fats, refined vegetable oils, refined starchy carbohydrates, and refined sugars.

Ok, so what do you need to do? Well, this means you should try to skip the cheap white bread, cut out the french fries that come with every single sandwich on every menu known to man, and wipe out all of the huge portions of pasta and rice that are often loaded on the plates as well.

Substitute a salad for the typical french fries, pasta, or rice, that most restaurant meals come with. And of course eat your meat and other vegetables as usual.

Almost all restaurants that I have been to will always let me substitute vegetables or a side salad for the french fries or chips that come with all burgers or sandwiches.

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 a better hobby!

Ironically, these same people are the first to complain that they are fat, overweight and have tried 'everything', yet can not lose their big guts. I am not sure why so many people think eating deep fried foods equals 'living it up'... I am for moderation with many things, but there are 2 things that should be totally removed from every diet because these foods are simply dangerous... it is sodas and fries!

Take a look at the typical difference this simple substitution makes between choosing smart and doing what most other 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 can save you around 400 - 900 calories every time you eat out (depending on drink refills and portion sizes)... AND you are cutting out the poison's and other 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 rice, pasta, 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 carbohydrates than usual to help replenish the muscle glycogen depleted during the intense exercise you had.

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 make smarter and healthier choices for a leaner body next time you eat out. - 16004

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