A Guide for Dining Out

Choose Your Restaurant Wisely
The best restaurants to choose are those that offer a "light" or "healthy" menu and those that are willing to accommodate special requests. Whenever possible select a restaurant that has the nutritional information available to its customers. Many chain restaurants post nutrition info online. For a better idea of what to expect when considering a new restaurant, try to view the menu online and call ahead if the menu and nutrition info is not available.

Have it Prepared the Way You Want
Before ordering, ask the server about the details of the meal. This is especially important if a detailed description is not provided on the menu. this will help you to make more informed choices. Some questions to ask include:

• How is this dish prepared?
• What ingredients are used?
• Do you have any low-fat or low-calorie options?
• Can I make substitutions?
• How large are the portions?

Don't be afraid to make special requests. For example, as that foods are prepared and served with minimal butter, margarine, or oil. Ask if a particular dish can be broiled or baked rather than fried. If you're concerned about sodium intake, ask that no additional salt be added to your food. Ask for dressings, sauces, and other condiments be served on the side so you can decide how much is used. Measure out a small amount of sauce or dressing with your spoon, or use the fork-dipping method for thicker salad dressings (dip the tip of your fork into the dressing before you spear each bite).

You also may be able to make substitutions, especially for side dishes. If the ingredients are on the menu, the chef should be able to accommodate your requests. Substitute a baked potato or steamed vegetables for fries, or double your serving of vegetables instead of potatoes or rice. If your dish doesn't arrive at your table the way you ordered it, don't be afraid to send it back to the kitchen. After all, you are the one paying the bill so your food should be prepared the way you want it.

Make a Meal Out of Appetizers
Certain appetizers can be excellent choices for an entree. The portion size of appetizers is often more appropriate than the huge portions provided in entrees. You might also choose to combine the appetizer with a salad to help you feel full without adding a ton of calories. Watch out for appetizers that are fried or covered in cheeses, oils, and cream sauces. These all add unnecessary calories and fat.

Choose Low-Fat Preparation Methods
The way your entree is prepared will influence the calorie and fat content. Opt for meats that are grilled, baked, or broiled and vegetables that are steamed.

Practice Portion Control
Most restaurants serve way too much food, at least 2 to 3 times the quantity that you should eat in one meal. Consider sharing a meal or taking a portion of your meal home to eat the next day. Request that a leftover container be brought to the table when your meal is served so that you don't accidentally over indulge. As you are eating, listen to your internal hunger signals and stop when you have had enough. Eating slowly will help you to recognize these cues.

Tips for Specific Types of Restaurants
Restaurants for Breakfast

• Order scrambled egg whites or scrambled egg substitutes (ie. Egg Beaters)
• For carbs, you best choices are oatmeal or oat bran with skim milk. Another good choice is whole wheat or rye toast.
• Fresh fruits are excellent choices to round out your breakfast.

Asian Restaurants

• Select entrees made with lean proteins (such as chicken or fish) and vegetables. Some good suggestions are moo goo gai pan, Szechwan shrimp or chicken, and sushi.
• Request that the sauce be served on the side or avoid it altogether.
• Asian restaurants usually serve generous portions. Consider ordering one entree and splitting it with a friend, or take the leftovers home.

Italian Restaurants

• For an appetizer, try vegetable antipasto with the dressing on the side.
• Look for entrees such as grilled chicken and fish, as well as Italian dishes that are marked as low in fat.
• Avoid entrees prepared in cream sauce or Alfredo sauce.
• Substitute with whole wheat pasta when available.
• Skip the bread basket.

Mexican Restaurants

• Limit your consumption of the complimentary chips and salsa.
• Avoid fried dishes like chimichangas.

Steakhouses

• Order grilled lean meat, chicken, salmon, or other fish.
• Select steamed vegetables for side dishes.
• At the salad bar, stick to vegetables and low-fat dressings. Avoid topping such as cheese, croutons, and bacon. Scope out fresh fruits on the salad bar as well. Be cautious of fruits served in heavy syrups.

Homestyle or Cafeteria Restaurants

• Choose grilled or lemon chicken, turkey break without the gravy, or white fish prepared without sauce or oil.
• Select steamed vegetables, salad with low-fat dressing, or a vegetable medley prepared without butter or margarine.

Delis

• Select turkey or chicken breast for your protein source.
• Request whole grain bread.
• Choose fruit or vegetables instead of fries or chips.
• Avoid high calorie condiments such as mayonnaise. Mustard or no dressing at all are your best options.

Fast-Food Restaurants

• Choose salads with grilled chicken, vegetables, and low-fat dressing.
• Order grilled chicken or fish and pass on the bun or eat your sandwich open-faced.

Tips to Improve Your Sleep

Sleep is a critical factor in weight maintenance and weight loss. Many college students do not get enough sleep for various reasons. If you find that you can't fall asleep at night or have trouble sleeping through the night, the things you do in the hours before you climb in to bed may be to blame. Having a good evening routine is important for falling asleep and staying asleep through the night.


What You Can Do During the Day
Eat Dinner Early
Avoid fatty foods late at night as they will take longer for your stomach to digest, which may make sleeping difficult. Try not to eat fatty foods at least 3 hours before going to sleep. If you get hunger late at night avoid heavy foods that cannot digest quickly. Some good choices for a late night snack include Chamomile tea, walk milk (keep it skim or 1%), a few slices of turkey, bananas, honey, oatmeal, flax seed, and whole wheat bread.
Move Around After Dinner
Avoid post-meal drowsiness by doing some type of activity after dinner. You don't have to go to the gym or run miles, that would actually be counter-productive. Do some household chores such as washing the dishes, folding laundry, or taking out the trash.
Skip the Afternoon Nap
You may think that taking an afternoon nap may recharge you for the rest of the day, but the opposite is often true. Napping often leaves your groggy and can make it more difficult for you to fall asleep at night.
Get Regular Exercise
Engaging in regular exercise can help you sleep better at night. Logging your exercise minutes in the afternoon is most beneficial for better shuteye at night. Be cautious of vigorous activity at night as it may negatively affect your sleep.

Your Evening Routine
Leave your Work at Work
This may be difficult during college, but try to complete your school work as early in the day as possible.
Find Yor Perfect Bedtime
To get the best sleep, get on the same schedule every day. Yes, even on the weekend! You will get the most benefit from sleeping for 7-8 hours each night, and this amount of sleep has been shown to be most beneficial for weight maintenance.

Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol
You drink caffeine to stay awake and boost your energy so consuming caffeine in the evening and even throughout the day can affect the way you sleep at night. If you feel that you must consume caffeine, try to do so before 3 pm. On to alcohol...Even though you may feel that you fall asleep faster and sleep better when you consume alcohol, you are not getting quality sleep. Alcohol throws off your normal sleep cycle causing you to wake up tired and not re-energized.
Avoid Screen-time Before Bed
Computer screens and TVs emit blue light which has been found to suppress melatonin, the hormone that encourages your body to sleep. Try reading a book before bed or writing in a journal. If you find that you are studying at night, try to complete assignments that involve computer use first and save reading for before going to sleep.

For more information on this topic you can view the complete article here.

Soup Recipes for a Fall Day

Who doesn't love a bowl of hot soup on a cold fall day? These recipes are easy to make and will leave you with leftovers for the upcoming week. You can even freeze your leftover soup to have a quick meal ready to go in a couple of weeks.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 pound of chicken (cut into bite size pieces)
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 20 ounces cream of chicken soup (I use campbell's healthy request)
• 8 ounces water
• 2 cups salsa
• 16 ounces low-sodium chicken broth

Directions:
In a large pot, heat olive oil over low-medium heat. Add the chicken and cayenne pepper, and cook 5 minutes. Add garlic, stir and cook 2 more minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Serve with a pinch of cheddar cheese if desired.

Turbo Fire Chili
Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
• 8oz whole kernel corn, canned
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves
• 8oz black beans, canned
• 8oz pinto, chili, or kidney beans, canned
• 1tbsp tomato paste
• 1 pkg Lawrey's Chili seasoning
• 4 oz low-fat shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions:
Brown turkey. Drain and discard any fat. Place all ingredients except cheese into a slow cooker. Cook for 4 hours on low, or 2 hours on high. Top with 1 oz. cheese, if desired. *If you don't have a slow cooker, you can cook it on the stovetop at a simmer for 2 hours.*

  

Managing Your Hunger

Listen to Your Body
About 60 to 75% of your daily calories are expended just keeping up your bodily functions (refer to my post of calculating calories for more info). They're used to maintain your body's temperature, for regulating your nerves, for breathing, and to keep your heart beating. Calories are also important for nourishing and repairing your muscles and cells. A simple rule to keep in mind is to eat when you're hungry and stop when you're not.

Don't skip meals
Avoid slowing down your metabolism by eating 5-6 small meals a day. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and snack on healthy choices throughout the day. Skipping meals doesn't help you to cut calories. People who skip meals actually end up overindulging at the next meal. Smaller portion sizes and choosing healthy foods will help you to cut calories, not skipping meals.

Water helps the burn
A majority of people don't drink enough water. Without enough water in your system, your metabolism slows down and you end up burning fewer calories. Always drink at least 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water each day. Not sure if you're drinking enough water? When you're awake, you should be taking a bathroom break at least every 4 hours. If you're not, it's time to hydrate.

Catch more Zzzzzs
Getting too little sleep triggers hormonal changes that lead to an increased appetite. Also, sleep deprivation will cause your body to have more cravings for foods high in sugar and fat. If you're tired, you often won't have enough energy to workout to your full potential. Your body will thank you for getting enough sleep each night, 7 to 8 hours is best.

Don't Let Your Hunger Manage You
When you're hungry, it's easy to let your stomach to the talking. Make sure you take control over your hunger before it gets out of control. Here are a few tips to help you manage your appetite:

Drink water 30 minutes before every meal

• Sometimes the effects of thirst are disguised as hunger pangs. Water will not only ease the hunger temporarily, it will also help you to reduce the amount that you eat at your next meal. Drink water instead of soda, fruit juice, or  sugary drinks during your meals and you won't be adding empty calories.

End your membership to the clean plate club

• Avoid overeating just because it's there. Yes there are starving children in Africa, but that doesn't mean that you have to overeat. Pack leftovers and eat the next day. When eating out, ask the server to brink a take-home container with your meal and pack half of the meal before you even start eating. That way you can enjoy the same delicious meal twice and get more bang for your buck.

Hold the dessert

• Don't eat dessert right after finishing your main course. Wait at least 20 minutes and then if you're still hunger choose a healthy dessert like fresh fruit or sorbet.

Eat slowly

• Your taste buds can savor the flavors longer and you'll avoid filling up quickly. Thoroughly chewing your food will also help your body to digest it properly. Try to chew eat bite 20 times before you swallow.

Roughen up your diet with Fiber

Dietary fiber is a group of complex carbohydrates that add no calories (energy) to your diet and cannot be converted to glucose like other carbohydrates. Dietary fiber is mainly found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, and includes all parts of the plant that your body can't digest or absorb. The human digestive system cannot break the bonds of a fiber's sugar unit; therefore, dietary fiber passes relatively intact throughout your digestive system. Just because your can't digest dietary fiber doesn't mean it isn't a valuable part of your diet. Actually, the opposite is true. Dietary fiber is a valuable component of your diet because you can't digest it!

Types of Dietary Fiber
Insoluble Fiber

• Does not dissolve in water
• Keeps the digestive system running smoothly, reducing constipation, hemorrhoids, and other digestive problems
• Promotes the movement of material through you digestive system and increases stool bulk
• Beneficial dietary component for those who struggle with constipation or irregular stools
• Helps you to feel full after eating
• Stimulates your intestinal walls to contract and relax, moving solid materials through you digestive tract
• Sources: whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts, skins of fruits and vegetables, and leafy greens

Soluble Fiber

• Mixes with water to form a gummy substance that lines the intestinal walls
• Can help to lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels
• Protects against heart disease
• Sources: oats, seeds, beans, barley, peas, lentils, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, plums, and squash

Benefits of a High Fiber Diet
A diet that is high in fiber has many benefits, which include:

• Normalizes bowel movements
• Helps maintain bowel integrity and health
• Lower blood cholesterol levels
• Helps control blood sugar levels
• Aids in weight loss
• Possible decreases risk of colorectal cancer
• Reduces the risk of heart disease
• Lowers High Blood Pressure
• Reduces constipation, hemorrhoids, and Divirticulitis

Adding Fiber into your Diet
The recommended Dietary Fiber intake (insoluble and soluble) is as follows:

• Adult males, under age 50     38 grams/day
• Adult males, over age 50       30 grams/day
• Adult females, under age 50  25 grams/day
• Adult females, over age 50    21 grams/day
• Adult pregnant females          25-35 grams/day

Tips for increasing Fiber intake

• Eat whole fruits instead of drinking fruit juices.
• Replace white rice, bread, and pasta with brown rice and whole grain products.
• Choose whole grain cereals for breakfast.
• Snack on raw vegetables instead of chips, crackers, or chocolate bars.
• Substitute legumes for meat two to three times per week in chili and soups.
• Experiment with international dishes (such as Indian or Middle Eastern) that use whole grains and legumes as part of the main meal (as in Indian dahls) or in salads (for example, tabbouleh).

A word of caution when increasing Fiber intake

• Adding too much fiber into your diet too quickly may cause constipation and/or stomach discomfort. Increase your fiber intake by a few grams per week to slowly get to your recommended intake value.
• Increase your intake slowly and be sure to drink lots of water (at least 8-8 oz. glasses each day)

Information adapted from Nutrition for Dummies, 4th edition, Sparkpeople, and Mayo Clinic

Get more out of your workout with HIIT

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and may be your solution to squeezing a workout into your busy life! HIIT has the potential to allow you to burn more calories, lose more fat, and improve your cardiovascular fitness all while spending less time in the gym. High Intensity Interval Training however is not for everyone.
This type of training is very physically demanding and should only be practiced by intermediate or advanced exercisers. HIIT workouts will improve both the aerobic and anaerobic energy release in your body by exercising at your maximum in short intervals. As a result, your body cranks up your metabolism and shifts it into calorie-burner mode. When you do a HIIT workout you not only burn more calories during the session, but you will continue to burn more calories even after you have left the gym. HIIT workouts are structured with period of steep peaks and deep valleys. this interval pattern drastically improves both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems, which increases the body's ability to burn fat.

HIIT is different from other forms of interval training in that the high intensity intervals are done at your maximum effort. Other forms of interval training often have you push just to 85% of your maximum heart rate. During HIIT workouts you are going all out, putting every ounce of effort into your workout for a very short amount of time (usually 1-2 minutes).

Is HIIT for you?
Answer these questions with "yes" or "no":

• Can you currently exercise for at least 20 minutes at 70-85% of your estimated maximum heart rate (220-your age)?
• Can you do a full month of 30 minutes of intense cardio workouts 3 times a week?
• Do you have a healthy heart?
• Do you have strong knees and joints?

If you answered "yes" to all of the questions that's great! You are ready to add HIIT into your workouts. If you answered "no" to 1 or more of the questions, then HIIT may not be for you - at least not for now.

You're Ready to Try HIIT -Now What??

HIIT can be used with many different types of cardio workout including running, swimming, biking, etc. As I said earlier, HIIT workouts will allow you to cut your workout time and provide you with 9x the calorie and fat burning potential of a traditional cardio workout. For more HIIT guidelines to keep yourself safe, read through the General HIIT Guidelines from Sparkpeople.
Here's some sample workouts to get you started!

Train Smart with HIIT
HIIT is both tough and tiring. Make sure you fuel your body with proper nutrition, lots of water, and plenty of rest. Make HIIT part of a structured plan. To get the most out of HIIT, you can't just push your body indefinitely. When training with HIIT, results and physical improvements only occur for short periods of time, so make sure to change up your workouts every 3-4 weeks. Also, to avoid doing damage to muscle tissue never do HIIT workouts two days in a row. You'll burn plenty of calories by including HIIT workouts just 2-3 times a week.

The Skinny on Fats

In order for you to stay healthy, your body needs fat. Fat is used in your body to make tissues and hormones. Fat cells are also carriers for Vitamins A, D, E, K (fat-soluble vitamins). Visible body fat provides a source of stored energy, gives shape to your body, acts as a cushion, and helps to reduce heat loss by acting like an insulation blanket. Fat also plays multiple roles in the body that you can't see. Fat is a part of every cell membrane, a component in the protective covering of nerve cells, and it acts as a shock absorber to protect your organs if you should fall or get injured.

All fats, regardless of type, contain 9 calories per gram. This is more than twice as many calories as protein and carbohydrates pack per gram, but fat doesn't provide twice as much energy. Your body has a hard time digesting fatty foods and pulling out the energy. To get the energy that your body needs it is recommended that you consume only 25-35% of your daily calories from fat.
Types of Fat
Saturated Fats

• typically comes from animal sources, such as meats, butter, and other dairy products
• many baked goods are high in saturated fat
• solid at room temperature
• main culprit in raising "bad" cholesterol
• increase your risk of heart disease
• limit your intake to less than 7% of daily calories

Monounsaturated Fats

• typically come from oils (olive, canola, peanut)
• liquid at rom temperature
• work to decrease "bad " cholesterol
• the most heart healthy fat
• consumption may reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke

Polyunsaturated Fats

• also come from oils (safflower, sunflower, soybean) and fish
• either liquid or soft at room temperature
• work to decrease total cholesterol
• include omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids

How to Include Healthy Fats in Your Diet
Limit your fat intake to 25-355 of your daily caloric intake, with less than 7% coming from saturated fat. Trans fats should account for no more than 1% of your calories. Most of your intake of fats should come from good plant and fish oils with less fat coming from animal sources and processed foods. Many processed foods are made with hydrogenated vegetable oils, coconut oil, and palm oil which are all high in saturated fats. Foods with healthy fats are usually high in calories (remember fats have 9 calories per gram) so be sure to consume these foods in moderation!

Foods Containing Healthy Fats

• Almonds
• Avocados
• Cashews
• Cold-water fish
• Flaxseed
• Hazelnut oil
• Nut butters
• Olive oil
• Pecans
• Pumpkinseed oil
• Safflower oil
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts