Don't Be Afraid!!!!

The hardest part about eating well is going out to eat. The portions are huge and there are alot of sneaky ingredients!

We recently went to Minnesota for a funeral. We felt the entire time....we just ate ate ate.....and ate ate ate alot of simple carbs. I am talking Dairy Queen people. Dairy Queen started in Minnesota. The ice cream is thicker and more creamy. Naturally, we had to sample each location we drove past (research purposes only). The dipped cones come in many flavors there...and I needed to try them all, many times.

After all this DQ and eating all the food we did, the night before we left...we were over eating. Just felt gross and full and bloated. We went to a restaurant because we knew we needed to eat but didn't really want to. Bryan and I spent a good 20 minutes looking over the menu for the most healthy thing.

Bryan wanted to order sushi to be healthy....but there is white rice.....simple simple carbos. Skip it. What we needed was some good lean protein and FIBER.....

We thought about the chicken....

roasted Half CHiCken
Tomato & basil salad, broccolini, whipped potato, lemon vinaigrette

However, they probably cooked it in the skin so there would be too much fat in it. The whipped potatoes are just starchy simple carbs...and I am sure the lemon vinaigrette has sugar in it.

We skipped it.

We thought oh salmon! Good protein.....

glazed grilled salmon
Lobster mashed potatoes, sweet chili buerre blanc, sautéed spinach

Too many bad things going on there! If you even skipped the mashed potatoes......GLAZED means SUGARS.....and buerre blanc sauce is fatty, rich and buttery....and sauteed usually means in mucho oil or butter.

SKIP.....

We thought about stir fry....

CHiCken stir-fry
Bell peppers, zucchini, squash, snow peas, broccoli, stir-fry sauce, and steamed white rice

We were just going to order it without the rice but the stir-fry sauce...who KNOWS what is in that! I bet butter and sugars! Plus the vegis in this were not the super healthy kind...squash is more starchy as well

and then I told Bryan ding ding ding....we need NOT to be afraid to ask them to make something healthy!

We saw this: grilled Pork CHoP
Sweet potato mash, spiced apple chutney, bacon jus

We realized that is all kinds of unhealthy....but asked the server if he could make us something more healthy.

We asked them to simply just GRILL the pork chop (the other white meat) and if he can just steam some vegis for us. And they did it! They grilled the pork...and brought out steamed broccoli that they lightly sauteed after in olive oil with red pepper flakes.

It was simple but tasted great. Just what we needed after a long week of eating bad. Sometimes that happens, you splurge and get tired of eating....but you must remember to FEED your body.

Moral of the story...don't just order something on the menu to eat. ASK the chef to prepare something good for you. Save your calories on bad things for something you want. Assume there are hidden ingredients that make things NOT healthy.

Don't be afraid to order something off the menu or ASK what is in the food. Its YOUR body and your stomach, don't just assume.

Bryan always says....assuming makes an ass out of you and an ass out of me....so don't assume!

Keep it simple.....its your dollar bills ya'll.....ask for something YOU want.

Is a Calorie Just a Calorie?

I was on the g (chat that is) with Lisa today talking about blog topics. She mentioned that there is so much stuff out there about calories being just a calorie or are they not created equal.

Its confusing. If you try to read anything about health and nutrition...there is SO much info on the googlio.

I am just going to tell you my thoughts. I believe a calorie is just a calorie but you want calories to WORK for you. Munch on this.....back in the olden days (channel the 50/60s...I reference this because I watch Mad Men)....people would eat 3 square meals a day and not worry about snacks to keep their metabolism up. They wouldn't make sure they got their daily allotment of almonds, etc. They didn't worry about low carb, etc. They just ate.

You see them eating bacon, eggs fried in oil and whole milk in the morning. WTF....we wouldn't eat that now. Dinners were rolls, potatoes, maybe a meatloaf (pretty sure they didn't have extra lean ground turkey then from Jeanie-O). Then dessert! Seems they were always eating pie and ice cream.

What gives? How can THEY eat butter, carbs and sugars and be skinny skinny. I think it boils down to TWO things...1. portion control. Americans now think every meal is a feast or celebration. It isn't people! Portions have gotten OUT of control....check out the Cheesecake Factory. RIDIC.....if you actually ordered a meal at a restaurant and portioned it out into the number of servings. You would be shocked. And onto number 2......activity level. People were more active!

Now a days people come home from work, stuff their face and watch the boob tube all night. Back in the olden days, people would eat, clean up, go play outside and get to bed early. They wouldn't plop down on the couch and do nothing all night.

Things were just not as processed back then either. Things didn't ship from all over the world and country to local grocery stores. I believe things were more pure from bacon to butter to anything else. Nothing super mass produced and over processed. Ingredients were more nutrient dense and not cheapened down to increase profits and lower cost to consumers.

Also, there wasn't fast food. Fast food is cheap and fast. If you watch Food Inc, you will realize that most fast food isn't even food. There is NO nutrition in fast food. Its fatty. That is about it. Not even the good chub chasing fat.

If you eat 200 calories worth of twinkies vs 200 calories vs almonds/apples and budget that caloric amount into your diet....is that okay? I believe so. However, the bloat you get from the Twinkie can't be avoided. Also, your body will process those sugars fast leaving you hungry more quickly.

Make calories work for you by eating foods that help your body, give you energy and keep you full. Fiber and nutrient dense foods refuel and recharge your body....giving you energy and a level of fullness that will sustain you to your next meal. Can a Twinkie do all that? I think not! (maybe Twinkies need to make fiber added Twinkies like a lot of processed foods do now!)

Back then, people didn't worry about low carb vs no carb diet. They just ate. However, their carb intake wasn't out of control. They didn't munch on chips, crackers, candy all day long from a vending machine. Right now we just carbo load all day. We are maxed out on carbs and when we eat them they just convert to sugars and store as fat.

Its okay to eat starches and rice for dinner, just keep in mind how many carbs you have had that day. Try to be more active at night. Don't just plop down. If you are a plopper, then eat a lower carb meal. Proteins have less calorie per gram than carbs...protein up!

Bottom line, I do believe a calorie is just a calorie BUT you want to make your calories work for you. You read about those Twinkie Diets or that Whiskey diet......limiting calories work. If a Whataburger hamburger is 660 calores and you have 3 of them...that is 1,980 calories a day. Can you just live in three hamburgers? You would probably be fine if you did but that won't fill you up all day. Plus there is no nutrition in them..when will you ever poo???

Calories are just a calorie....but they are not created equal. Make them work for you. I believe this entire topic is just like the question....what came first the chicken or the egg?