Photo by wEnDaLicious

In today’s culture, eating out has become more the norm than the exception. With two parents working, it is often very hard for either or both to come home and prepare a meal at home. Plus there are lots of folks out there whose job requires them to entertain clients at restaurants whether they like eating out or not.

Truth is that eating out in a restaurant is a huge obstacle to overcome if you want to achieve or maintain a nice, healthy, trim and fit body. Eating at restaurants is one of the biggest reasons why so many people gain weight when they travel.

So here are a few tips that you can use to eat healthier and stay lean even while dining out in restaurants.

Eating Out Survival Tips

The three most important things to avoid that are found in virtually every restaurant in the land are deep fried foods (anything battered that endured a scorching bath of trans fats), refined starchy foods, and finally any sodas, juices, or other sugary foods (with the exception of whole fruits which are a great choice).

To the extent that you can avoid these major culprits, you will save your body from the major food(?) sources that are known to cause the worst damage to our health — trans fats, refined vegetable oils, refined starchy carbohydrates, and processed sugars.

This also means that you should try to skip the bread that is usually served for you to munch on while waiting for your meal. You also need to reduce all the heaping portions of pasta and rice that are usually piled on your plates.

A Healthy Alternative for Restaurants

As an alternative, you should simply order meat with a side vegetable and/or a salad. Almost any restaurant will happily allow you to substitute veggies or a side salad for the fries or chips that almost always are served with burgers or sandwiches.

As an aside, it always amazes us how many people think we’re weird when we ask to substitute veggies for fries. Ironically, these are also the same people who complain that they are overweight and have “tried everything” to shed those pounds. If there are two things that should be totally removed from everyone’s diet due to the damage they cause, it is sodas and fries!

A Graphic Comparison

For a shocking view of the difference this simple substitution makes between choosing smart and following the crowd, consider the following comparison. Most people will eat out and order a meal consisting of a sandwich or burger, chips or fries, and a soda or other sweetened drink (and no, diet sodas are NOT healthy but that’s a whole different article).

An infinitely better alternative, if you care about your body and your health, is to order a sandwich or burger, side salad or veggies, and unsweetened iced tea or water (no diet drinks — unless you enjoy drinking poison!)

These two simple substitutions will save at least 400 – 900 calories every meal you eat out. (The wide variation is due to factors like drink refills and the portion sizes of the fries.) As an added bonus, you are eliminating the most harmful foods your body could ever ingest by simply avoiding those devilish trans fats and high fructose corn syrup inherent in the fries and soft drinks.

I hope these few, simple dining tips help you make better choices for a leaner and healthier body the next time you eat out.

To learn more tips like this go to facts you must understand about fats.

Fat Burning Food No. 1 — Avocados

This is one of those so-called “fattening” foods that has been given a bum rap. Avocados are one of the most beneficial foods you can eat because they actually burn fat! Not only that, but avocados make almost everything creamier in consistency and more delightful in taste. Additionally, they are absolutely loaded with good fat, fiber, and antioxidants, not to mention the abundance of vitamins and minerals. And we cannot forget that the healthy fat found in avocados also assists in appetite control and supplies fat burning hormones to your body.

We’d like to suggest that you think of innovative ways to incorporate avocado or guacamole into your diet each day. Be willing to experiment and try it in everything from your smoothies, eggs, salads, and sandwiches. For example, one of my favorites is Sharon’s Easy Chocolate Mousse (BTW, our recipe site is in drastic need of repair, so forgive the lack of indexing that works.) By following our suggestion, you will find that you will start to burn body fat faster! You should unquestionably think of avocados as one of the very best healthy super foods.

Fat Burning Food No. 2 — Egg Yolks

Yep, that’s right! Beautiful, yellow egg yolks complete with all of their fat and cholesterol will help you burn fat. Incidentally, you’ve been terribly mislead and frankly, lied to about the cholesterol in egg yolks. The cholesterol found in egg yokes in reality increases your GOOD cholesterol and helps balance the proper ratios of good vs. bad. Therefore, do not be fearful of the fat and cholesterol in these little nutritious, power packed treasures. Additionally, if you choose those “cage-free” eggs from chickens that were raised in a free-roaming environment, then the omega-3 content will be higher and with a more properly balanced fat profile.

Plus, egg yolks are considered one of the most nutrient dense foods known to man in terms of vitamins, minerals, and other trace nutrients. To list all of the life-sustaining nutrients in egg yolks would easily consume an entire page, so I promise not to even attempt that in this article. Just remember that egg yolks should NOT take a back seat to egg whites. Why, even the protein found in an egg is more bioavailable when the yolk is included!

And none of this addresses the issue of taste. Let’s face it — you can’t improve God’s perfect food by throwing half of it away. God didn’t make a mistake! So don’t be reluctant to eat those delicious and healthy eggs so you can start burning that fat around your middle even quicker.

Fat Burning Food #3 — Grass-fed beef

Did you realize that most beef you see at the supermarket is grain fed beef from cattle that were most likely in extremely poor health? Because of that, the beef has significantly reduced nutrition values and omega-6 to omega-3 fat ratios that are way out of balance. Fortunately, there is a better option — and that is beef from cattle that have been feed on grass!

Grass-fed beef is recognized as having significantly higher levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Then when you factor in the lower omega-6 fats (which most folks get way too much of anyway), you have a much preferred option. Grass-fed beef also boasts higher levels of many vitamins and minerals. To top all that off, beef from grass-fed animals contains higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is acknowledged as a healthy fat known to help build muscles and burn fat.

So feel free to go ahead and eat more beef. Just make sure you choose healthy, grass-fed beef instead of nutrition-poor, grain fed beef. And enjoy and start burning more body fat with these three misunderstood fatty foods!

If you want to lose body fat faster, check out these 5 tips to Burn Stomach Fat the smart and effective way.

Photo by CoachSharon

All of our readers have heard Sharon or I say how bad trans fats and high fructose corn syrup are for you, so rather than play that same old tune again, I’d like to mention a couple foods that will likely amaze you that they are responsible for packing on the fat.

Fattening Food #1
The first type of food that causes fat which amazes a lot people, is one that is thought to be “healthy” — fruit juice. Don’t misunderstand me, this is not a campaign for anti-carb per se…we truly believe that most fruits are extremely healthy for us. You see, our bodies just weren’t designed to separate the pulp and fiber from the juice, and then only drink the extremely high calorie sweet mixture that’s left, and not consume the fiber and other healthful portions of the fruit.

When you just drink the juice of fruits (apple and orange juice representing two of the greatest offenders in the SAD or Standard American Diet), you’re not getting the appetite gratification impact of the fiber naturally found in the fruit, and you’re left wanting to consume even more carbs. Plus, the fiber in whole fruit slows the blood glucose response which comes from eating whole fruit, in contrast to drinking just the fruit juice alone.

In a nutshell, drinking significant quantities of fruit juices actually causes you to store fat. But, eating whole fruits, including all of the fiber, actually assists you in maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet containing a high density of nutrients (assuming the rest of your diet is made up of whole unprocessed foods as well).

Fattening Food #2
The second type of food that’s usually incorrectly thought to be good for you is any product made from wheat…this includes almost all breads (bagels, muffins, et al.), cereals, pasta, crackers, etc. And yep, I’m including “whole” wheat in this family of these foods which can cause you to store fat. I include whole wheat because it’s only due to a technicality (loop hole?) that legally allows food manufacturers to label something “whole wheat” or “whole grain” even if it only contains a small amount of whole grains.

First, a great many people have some degree of problem with the gluten found in wheat as well as several other grains. Those who have been correctly diagnosed as having celiac disease are highly sensitive to gluten, but what most people don’t understand is that the human gastrointestinal system was not designed to consume the massive amounts of wheat found in today’s diets. Again, we have a fundamental design issue. The incorporation of large quantities of wheat into the human diet has only taken place within the last 80-100 years. This is a relatively small amount of time compared to the diet that the human digestive system acclimated to over the many years of eating a hunter-gatherer diet of meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

It is interesting to note that from our experience with many clients, that those who are willing to take us up on the suggestion of doing away with all forms of wheat from their diet for two to three weeks to see if they begin to slim down and feel better, nearly always come back to report amazing results. Often, they not only start to shed body fat, but they also notice that the headaches and indigestion that has troubled them for as long as they can remember also goes away. Occasionally even undesirable skin conditions disappear by simply eliminating wheat from their diet.

If you want the facts about eating strategically for lasting fat loss, read these five tips for Losing Body Fat the intelligent and effective way.

Photo by Mr TGT

How many servings of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and the like do you eat in an average day?

Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. (Acts 27:34; NKJ)

Friday, we were excited to announce our coming e-book and seven-part webinar series on one of our most impassioned topics — wellness! To review, Dr. Randy Peck, MD (we felt it good to have a doctor along for a wellness series), Sharon (who is a RN), and I have teamed up and will be conducting an interview-style weekly webinar to lead you through the six major factors that determine a person’s wellness. This first webinar will be an overview of the entire series and is open to all who can attend for no charge whatsoever. You simply need to be at your computer so you can participate in the roll out. The big day and time is today, April 1, at high noon EDT. Put it on your calendar and reserve the hour. To register for our free webinar, CLICK HERE.

The third major factor to wellness is to eat more superfoods. Superfoods? Food with a red cape and a big “S” emblazoned on it somewhere? No, no, no…superfood is simply nutrition-rich food. I bet you could name most of them with out even looking. And no, donuts are not on the list — but dark chocolate is, hallelujah!

My resident expert, Sharon, wrote a short article about superfoods titled “Five Simple Things” [http://thecoachingpair.com/blog/five-simple-things/] in May 2008. She even included a link to a list of superfoods. Sharon likes to call them “God-foods.” Whole books have been written on this topic. But again, for most of us, we need to keep it simple.

The simple bottom line is eat more superfoods this week than you did last. How many superfoods should you eat? How many more than last week? All up to you. If you only eat one a day on average (and believe it or not, there are some who don’t even eat one a week), then adding one or two superfoods a day is going to begin to make a big difference. The issue is simply “more,” not how many more.

Simple enough, right? So see…as I predicted, a little more complex than water and exercise, but with the help of a list, it’s just as easy. Be sure and join us today at noon to hear the rest of the factors to wellness. See you at high noon EDT.

Prayer Power
Father, the name God-foods says it all. If they’re God-foods, they must be good for us. We thank You for the God-foods that are so readily available to us. And we thank You for those who will be joining us later today for the wellness webinar.

Blessing of the Day
1) Registration link for free Wellness webinar at Noon EST on Wed April 1

Blessings on you as you purpose to add one superfood to your diet this very day — of course, after you register for today’s webinar!

Jerry and Sharon

The Coaching Pair
Jerry Graham, Ph.D., D.Min.
Sharon Graham, R.N.

Discover How To Set High Standards For
Life, Love, Creativity, And Wisdom

He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. (Psalm 103:3; NLT)

What value do you place on wellness?

Our WELLNESS coaching will transform your life!

Welcome! It’s no accident that YOU are here. Everything happens for a reason! Everything! There is no such thing as a coincidence. God has connected you to us to BLESS YOU — to really bless you to help you break through in many areas of your life. The gates of heaven are open. The questions is, “Will you choose to receive?”

This book will change your thinking. When you change your thinking, you change your life. You can download the first chapter of UNCOMMON Wellness Coaching for free, so that you can see for yourself. All you need to do is put your first name and email address in the box below and you will have the first chapter of our new e-book in minutes.

Wellness Coaching is a key to YOU
fulfilling your God-given destiny!

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What would you like your health to be like in six months?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. (Rom. 12:1; NIV)

Yesterday, we were excited to announce our coming e-book and seven-part webinar series on one of our most impassioned topics — wellness! We promised you additional details today that would allow you to register for the overview webinar to which you are invited to attend at no charge.

To review, Dr. Randy Peck, MD (we felt it good to have a doctor along for a wellness series), Sharon (who is a RN), and I have teamed up and will be conducting an interview-style weekly webinar to lead you through the six major factors that determine a person’s wellness. This first webinar will be an overview of the entire series and is open to all who can attend for no charge whatsoever. You simply need to be at your computer so you can participate in the roll out. The big day and time is next Wednesday, April 1, at high noon EDT. Put it on your calendar and reserve the hour. To register for the webinar, click Register Here.

Thinking about wellness is not something many people do…unless they are sick. Even then, they aren’t really focused on wellness. In fact, they are actually focusing on how to make their illness go away so that they can forget about their health once again. Begins to remind me of that oft quoted definition of insanity.

I suppose it’s human nature, but we don’t think much about our toes, unless one or more of them is sore. We don’t think about how much we need and use our thumb, unless it is sore. Then it sticks out like a…. So I guess it’s natural to not think about being healthy, until we’re not. That’s really tragic, though. It is really so simple to dramatically improve our health if we would just practice a few (six actually) simple steps. But more about that later.

Have you ever thought about the value (i.e., payback) of good health or wellness? Probably not…for all the same reasons as above. We’ve all got more important things to think about, right? Well, I would like to propose that health adds value or brings benefits to every moment of our lives. Beside to ourselves, health adds value to our families, to our friends, to our work, to our community, and to our country. Overstatement? Hype? To answer that, turn the thought over and ask what are the consequences of not having good health? How about the consequences to your family? To your friends. To your work? To your community? And finally, to your country? Something tells me that the consequences would feel far more significant if we were not so used to living with them on a daily basis.

First of all, what is wellness to you? It’s probably different for you than it is for me. A great coaching question is to ask yourself, “What would I like my health to be like in six months?” To be valid, your answer must describe what you want to be or do…not what you want to be free from. For some it might be to run a marathon. For someone else, it might be to be able to walk to the mailbox to get the mail without getting winded. There are probably as many short-term health goals as there are people to ask.

Then ask yourself, “What would I like my health to be 20 years down the road?” Think about how old you’ll be in 20 years and what would you like to be able to do when you’re that age. Here again, everybody’s answer is going to be different, although there is likely to be some commonality, such as energy, stamina, mental acuity, flexibility, etc.

Register for the webinar on April 1 at noon EDT and we’ll begin to discuss this and a lot more.

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You for the technology that will allow readers from all over the globe to be with us as we introduce our e-book and webinar series. It absolutely boggles the imagination to think about. Guide us to use this amazing gift in a responsible manner and in a way that glorifies You.

Link of the Day
Registration link for Wellness Webinar

Blessings on you as you adjust your schedule to be with us as we roll out our wellness e-book and webinar series.