Dining Out Without The Fuss

Although eating out is wonderful, many often shy away from fancy restaurants except for on special occasions. I personally think that relaxed eating is an important part of the enjoyment of food and keeping it simple is a big way to do that. For some people the occasion of dressing up for a multi-course meal at an upscale restaurant is a big part of their enjoyment of food.

But in order to enjoy regular eating out which is affordable; fancy and pricey restaurants are often not practical. Today you find that many casual eateries are making more and more provisions to deliver the high dining standards to their customers without the fuss and expense. The major chain restaurants I've been to and the things I like about them include:


Applebees:

Regularly updated menu choices
More menu choices and cheaper entrees
Ultimate Trio Appetizer combinations
Under 550 Calorie Choices
2 Entrees for $20 meals
Classic and Signature Steak meals
Carside-to-go take out service

Outback Steakhouse:

Excellent service referring to the waitstaff.
Bloomin' Onion (great to share with a small group)
Garlic Mashed Potato
Make-it-your-way "No Rules Parmesan Pasta" and "No Rules Burger"
Extensive drink menu
Curbside-take away service

Olive Garden:

Tuscan style restaurant decor
Regularly changing menu choices
Extensive menu
Budget unlimited salad, soup, and bread sticks meal
Unique Alcoholic cocktails

Cheesecake Factory

Stylish decor
Huge, comprehensive menu
Wonderful interactive website
Extensive fusion cuisine like "Cajan Jambalaya Pasta", "Thai Chicken Pasta", "Jamaican Black Pepper Shrimp", "Ahi Tartare" and much more
A Cheesecake royalty and lots of cheesecakes to choose from
Small plate menu
Endless cocktail,mojito, magarita, and wine menu
Some restaurants even have roasted stuffed dates and edamame on the menu
Pizza Menu

Ruby Tuesdays
Upscale restaurant decor with casual ambiance (at least the one in Times Square NYC)
Unique "handcrafted" burgers and steaks
Self-Serve salad bar
Brunch at participating locations
Reduced Calorie "Smart Eating Choices" with comprehensive Nutritional overview (not just calories)

Uno's
Off course their wonderful deep-dish pizza
Flatbread Pizza choices
Curbside Pickup
New International Menu choices


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

8 Ways to Cut the Fat Without The “Low Fat” Label

Low fat foods have been the rave for quite some time and for many concerned with weight management, including such foods in their daily meal plan has become essential. Whilst fat reduced or low fat substitutes for regular foods such as milk and cheese and normally decadent treats like cakes and cookies, may do the trick, this doesn’t come without a price.

Besides the obvious upside to low fat eating-losing weight -there are 2 main down sides.

1. There is the perception that eating low fat foods overrides the impact of other foods in the diet. We often feel that because a food is low fat, that is an automatic free pass to eat more of it than its regular counterpart. We forget that fats are not the only calorie contributors in our diet and that we have to look at the total carbohydrate, fat, and protein component of the food, not just the fat.

2. The taste of food can often be compromised with having less of its flavor enhancing fat component present


Although purchasing foods with the “low fat” label is valuable, there are some ways to cut the fat without necessitating this “label”. That means there is the sense of controlling the fat content without needing to mostly zap it out. There are several subtle ways you can manage the fat without needing the physical “low fat” label. Some useful food substitutions include:

1. Cheddar Cheese: Substitute with half the amount called for using Extra Sharp cheese and ½ tsp dry mustard for flavor.

2. Whipped Cream: Substitute with evaporated skimmed milk, chilled until almost frozen, then whip

3. ½ cup oil for baking: Substitute with ¼ oil plus 1/4 cup applesauce or ¼ cup oil + 1/8 cup applesauce and 1/8 cup buttermilk

4. Bacon: Substitute with turkey bacon

5. 1 Whole egg: Substitute with 2 egg whites

6. 1 cup Chocolate chips: Substitute with 2/3 cups chocolate chips

7. Nuts: Reduce amount by substituting with ½ or 1/3 of what is called for

8. Fudge sauce: Substitute with chocolate syrup

Substitution Tips adapted from Kingley Health



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Overcoming Emotional Eating-Your Main Weight Management Strategy

Diets inevitably lead to weight regain. This is a truth that can be explained not only by physiological factors (ie slowed metabolism), but by the fact that conventional diets do not address the underlying issues behind unwanted weight gain. One of these issues which many who find themselves constantly on diets face is emotional eating. Emotional eating is fueled by psychological hunger over physical hunger.

That is emotional eating is normally brought on by such things as emotional cues,stress, social situations, specific settings, smells, etc. These have nothing to do with a roaring stomach which is signally that you body is ready for food, which constitutes our inate ability to regulate our eating internally without any need for a diet plan. Emotional eating however causes us to no longer be attuned to these signals.

There are two instances of excessive consumption which can arise from emotional factors. The first is when we literally ignore hunger cues, not eating when we really should be or hardly eating enough (aka starvation or deprivation) and then later binging when we are overwhelmed with an insatiable yearning for food. Emotions of guilt and shame from binging will likely cause another such episode in the near future.

The second instance of emotional eating occurs when food is mainly used as a pacifier to make us feel better or allow us to think less about a problem or troubling issue. The ability to sense fullness suffers greatly as no attention is paid to when we've had enough. In both situations it is easy to get lost in eating for as long as we need the food to cope with the emotions.

To begin combating this cycle of emotional eating it is important to do several things:

1. Acknowledge and become aware if you are using food as a pacifier. True freedom begins with awareness. The hold emotional eating can have on you exists through mindless eating; it is almost as if you are in trance. To break the trance you will need to snap yourself out of it by becoming alert and totally conscious.

2. Find non-food related activities to deal with stress and negative emotions. Food is wonderful and should be enjoyed, but there are so many more enjoyable things in life as well. Many other things can relieve stress in the moment it comes about, meaning that you don’t have to leave your house or go through a long preparation to access non-food related pacifiers.

Examples of instant relievers are
• playing with a pet,
• turning the TV to a funny sitcom or uplifting program,
• playing your favorite CD
• or turning on you favorite radio station,
• playing a board game
• connecting with someone online through a social network, IM etc
• doing something else with your hands –whether it involves taking up something to read or observe, completing a task around the house or an errand, engaging in a hobby or opening the door to take a walk down the block if you feel able to.
• Have a cup of herbal tea. Yogi tea is one of the best brands, offering many flavors. And what is also great about the brand is that each box comes with an exercise to help you relax and refocus.

3. Slow down your life a bit. The more we rush, the less time we seem to have and the more exhausted we may feel. If you are an emotional eater, you may not realize it, but food has probably just become another chore on the "to do list" of your multi-tasked life. You may eat while on the phone, while driving to work, while shopping, while doing paperwork at work or at home etc.

Taking a pause during your hectic day and at meal time can go a long way to helping you become more aware.

4. Don’t skip physical activity. Exercise need not feel like a chore. There is such a thing as easy and effortless exercise when it is an element of everyday physical activity. Not only does daily physical engagement keep you fit, it also gives you something else to put your focus on besides food and it relieves stress.


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,


Next time I will providing a short list of resources which can help you to identify and combat emotional eating.

Effortless Physical Activity and Weight Loss-Dance

Here's a wonderful article from Daily Om on rediscovering dance as a natural source of effortless movement:

Rediscovering Dance: Healing with Movement


To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

What is Your Approach to Permanent Weight Loss?

We've already discussed at length some key principles of the having a Non-diet mindset. However here's a quick and fun way to get a general assessment of your approach to eating and weight management. It only takes a couple minutes and is quite revealing. You need not put in your name, just simply begin with the "start quiz" button.

What is Your Approach to Permanent Weight Los… » Quiz Question Maker

Hope this assessment tool gave you some greater insight.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Non-Diet Weight Loss with Effortless Physical Activity

In the previous article we spoke of differentiating between physical activity as a product of everyday natural activities vs. exercise which is much more regimented and planned. Now the question is how does that translate into your real everyday life? How can you make exercise effortless so that it fits into your lifestyle? Well here are a few suggestions to begin. Pick the ones most applicable to you.

• Have regular at-home dance parties. Put on the radio and according to the words of Lady Gaga "Just Dance". Involve the whole family or who ever you live with, or do it yourself. Dance as much as possible. Rhythm is not required. Dance while you are washing the dishes, if you are in front the bedroom mirror, etc. Use this most natural form of movement to your advantage. You could even try the new Just Dance game from Nintendo Wii if you need something more interactive.

• Take up a specific dance like salsa, belly dance, hip hop or any aerobic dance. The thing I like about dance is that it brings the element of good feelings and connection into the physical activity, and you are less likely to feel stressed by something which you have an emotional bond with. So other activities which can work include yoga, karate or kickboxing, tai chi, and alternative dances like the “journey dance”

• Pick up a sports activity or if you’re not so inclined, buy a Wii Activity system which simulates many fun activities including hula hooping, without requiring you to leave your home.

• Get a trampoline in the back yard or a mini-one in the bedroom and get on it as often as possible.

• Enjoy an outdoor swing (make sure it can accommodate you)

• Get a ping pong table or a “ice hockey” table in the game room, family room or in an extra room if you can.

• Roller blade in the backyard, in the park or at the skating ring.

• Go swimming-Water activities make for a wonderful fitness alternative

• Take a trip to a water park

• Walk in the neighborhood

• You’ve heard this one before, but take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. It really is fulfilling.

• If you’ve been thinking about it, adopt a dog. In some places, you can even foster a dog, so that you don't get into an unwanted long-term commitment if you are not ready.

I say a dog, because dogs are very high energy pets who force us to engage physically. We either play with them in the backyard or need to take them out on a walk. Either way both sides are enjoying physical activity.

• Take on a hobby. Although it would be good to adapt a hobby which allows for some physical exertion, it is absolutely not necessary. It could be anything from pottery making to painting. You're more concerned with the mental focus and stress reduction which hobbies often provide. This helps reduce stress-induced emotional eating and unwanted weight gain. If you are looking to lose weight, you won’t need to exercise as much. Also, a hobby is a wonderful way to combat emotional eating.

Often times, the activities we consider to be “child’s play” like the hula hooping and riding on a swing, roller blading and the trampoline, are often the most physically rewarding. Just think about it. Children who play often enjoy natural physically fitness. A sense of playfulness can go a long way towards us being able to naturally fit physical activity into our daily lives, aiding in our non-diet weight loss efforts as well as long-term weight management.

Free your physical health and weight management from restriction and strict, regimented control. Making physical activity more about what you already do than what you need to plan for, causes it be a more fun and sustained part of you life.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-free Food Experiences,

Evaluating Your Eating Style

Our eating style very much influences the way we relate to food. Identifying our specific eating style helps us to better understand what drives or motivates us to eat. Are we motivated by emotions, an insatiable need to limit or restrict our intake or are we purely responding to hunger and satiety cues?


Three (3) main eating styles can be identified. They are Attuned Eating, Deprivation Driven Eating (aka Dieting) and Emotional Eating. Attuned Eating basically means that you recognize and listen to your natural, internal hunger/fullness cues allowing them to guide your eating. Unlike the other eating styles, attuned eating has no other agenda. There is no using food to compensate for anything else, the pressure to label food as "good" or "bad", the need to try to surpress hunger etc.. You don't ignore hunger, you eat what you want, and stop when full without emotional pain, guilt or stress.

It is important to recognize that food is just one component of a healthy, fulfilling life. Healthy living is about body, mind and soul including everything from our relationships, how we care for ourselves, our level of self-confidence, our social interactions and recreational activities etc. Therefore, it is important that we become aware of what eating style we are practicing daily, so that we can better address the factors which may be negatively impacting our relationship with our food.

To better understand Attuned Eating and how all the three eating styles compare to each other please refer to this table from Nourishing Connections explaining everything in much more detail. Nourishing Connections is a non-diet intervention approach to weight management, nutrition and well being.



To Your Enjoyable and Guilt-Free Food Experiences,




NOTE: Next time I will discuss recognizing the difference between physical activity and regimented exercise aimed at achieving a defined weight, and also incorporating effortless activity into daily living. Also, remember to sign up for the 10-Part E-course on How Non-Diet Weight Management Can Work for You to gain more insight on making eating guilt free and enjoyable.