How to LOSE WEIGHT, EATING OUT!
In this blog I am going to teach you how to LOSE HEALTHY WEIGHT while eating out at restaurants!
Well, if I am going to be totally honest with you about "eating out healthy" I would tell you that the smartest way to eat out healthy is to never eat out. Lol! Allow me to make more sense of this by asking you a simple question. Would you allow a person that you have never met to come into your kitchen, cook a meal for you and your loved ones, and serve it to you all without reviewing their skills, manners, character, hygiene, ingredients, cooking tactics, utensils, assistants & more? I sure as heck wouldn't. However, this is basically what we are doing whenever we choose to take the easy way of feeding ourselves and go to EAT OUT!
Even though I am HIGHLY germ, disease and health conscious when it comes to dealing with human beings and animals, I still am a big fan of eating out. BUT! Because I am a fan of eating out I put a lot of care into how I eat out. I don't just do it and expect a bunch of strangers to always assure that I am being served correctly and safely. I take steps to assure this myself including steps to LOSE HEALTHY WEIGHT and maintain it when eating out. As you can see I said LOSE HEALTHY WEIGHT not just "lose weight" because if you are familiar with me, you know what I have to say about simply "losing weight". You can lose weight smoking crack, meth or starving and it is not healthy for your body. Just because someone loses weight doesn't mean that they are healthy. BAD WEIGHT LOSSES can lead to organ damage, dehydration, malnourishment and other underlying complications that can't be seen in a swimsuit.
Well in this blog I am going to teach you how to LOSE HEALTHY WEIGHT and MAINTAIN HEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS when choosing to eat out. Here are 10 of my personal steps that can help you dodge and avoid contaminated kitchens, workers, FOOD, and UNWANTED, UNHEALTHY FAT!
STEP #1: DO NOT EAT AT CHEAP PLACES!
Cheap places hire cheap employees and use low quality ingredients that are full of fillers, pesticides, refined sugar, dyes and more. Management supervision is usually low and badly supervised employees can have bad hygiene with degraded training in the culinary arts if they receive any at all! Cross contamination occurs regularly in cheap restaurants. I know this to be true from personal experience. I worked cheap restaurants as a young teen and it wasn't until I got a job where I was actually schooled in the Culinary Arts, that I learned that what we were TRAINED to do at those cheap restaurants was actually deadly and criminal! Not to mention that bugs and rodents are probably residents who you can't see during open hours and they will make into some of your chopped up meals. A girlfriend of mine took a job at one of our favorite restaurants which immediately made it to our banned list when she learned as an employee that the owners took the left over rice from each table and reserved it to new guests! This was the restaurant's POLICY! Spend money on quality food that you put into your body. It could save your life!
STEP #2: ORDER A SIDE SALAD FIRST!
Order a healthy side salad full of greens with a non-creamy dressing ahead of ordering your meal. Eat this first and it will help to cleanse your system while delivering important healthy food qualities to your hungry body. Be sure to inform your server that you want it brought out to you BEFORE the meal and it will help you to avoid pigging out when your meal shows up!
STEP #3: NEVER DRINK SODA OR SWEET DRINKS BEFORE YOUR MEAL!
Soda and corn syrup based drinks are the MAIN ingredients at a meal that put unhealthy fat on us, AND they DO NOT quench thirst! They are intentionally designed to make us THIRSTIER so you will BUY and drink more of it. Drinking these unhealthy products while you're truly hungry for food and IN NEED of water will drive you to over drink them. You will put down 2-3 glasses before your food even arrives. One glass of these drinks has 150-200 calories! Order only water before your meal and drink only water while you're thirsty. The water will prepare your body to properly digest your food. Look at drinking soda and corn syrup based drinks like drinking sea water. It is KILLING YOU SLOWLY. If you want to drink one of these drinks for fun while you're eating, ask that it is brought to you only after your meal is served. You will see that you probably won't even finish 1 full drink.
STEP #4: SHARE 1 MEAL WITH PARTNER!
MOST meals are 3 servings for one human being. If you are eating with someone, order individual salads then share the main course. If you are alone, eat only half of your main course and save the rest for your next meal. This will cut your unhealthy calories in half and save you half of your money! This way you don't have to "eat cheap" because you are basically eating for 1/2 price! So feel free to go to high quality restaurants and eat high quality foods prepared by high quality people, because you truly are paying 1/2 price!
STEP #5: EAT THE HEALTHY STUFF FIRST!
We all want to dive right into the fries or great tasting healthy stuff as soon as it arrives but this is not a good way to eat. You are going to be hungry when your food arrives so get the healthy stuff out of the way first. It will taste good and by the time you're done with it, you will barely crave the junk. This makes it safe for you to nibble on as a small part of your meal instead of as the main part. If you're going to eat meat with your meal, try to make a spoon full or two of vegetables the last thing that you eat. It can aid in digesting the meat.
STEP #6: EAT SLOWLY.
Don't gobble your food down. Take time to chew, taste and enjoy your meal. The first part of our digestive system begins in our mouth with our teeth and saliva. Give them a chance to work before forcing it down into your gut where it can barely be digested properly. It takes the stomach approximately 10 minutes to tell the brain that it is full.
STEP #7: SKIP DESSERT!
Contrary to all of the advertisements that are shoved in your face about delicious desserts, you DO NOT have to eat everything that they tell you to eat. Desserts should be kept separate from meals. My rule says that I NEVER eat a dessert right after a meal because I am already so full that it will only bloat me, and RUIN THE DESSERT! If I am going to have a dessert that wrecks my health and figure, I want to enjoy it while I am hungry not when I'm bloated and already full. Don't fall for the hype. You DO NOT need dessert ever.
STEP #8: DRINK WATER AFTER EATING!
Drink 1/2 - a full glass of water after eating. Swish it around in your mouth to get some of the teeth rotting sugars out of your teeth and swallow it down. This will aid with digestion and even bad breath! Wash it all away at the end.
STEP #9: GO FOR A WALK!
Take a walk somewhere after eating. This will aid in digestion, boost your metabolism, clear your head, strengthen your lungs, and keep you from bloating. Gravity helps us to digest. Sitting and laying after a meal puts guts on us!
STEP #10: LEAVE A GOOD REVIEW FOR YOUR FAVORITE PLACE!
If you were treated well and provided with good food, make it known! This is only fair and it also becomes a part of the machine that helps your favorite eatery to gain more business and continue to provide the service to you and others that you enjoyed. This is your way of giving back to them and TRULY thanking them.
I hope my 7 tips can help you to eat healthier. Do it for a month and watch what happens. You should drop a couple of pants sizes and feel better. -Jermaine Andre'