Eating Out at Restaurants and Staying Healthy
Restaurants are notorious for sneaking in unhealthy ingredients. Some people think that the only way to remain truly healthy is to avoid eating out at most restaurants altogether. Or perhaps you can only eat at restaurants that are geared solely towards maintaining health. This simply isn’t true!
The truth is that with a little research and smart thinking, you can enjoy most restaurants from fast food joints up to four-star establishments and still maintain a balanced diet.
Here are some important tips to keep in mind as you continue to enjoy eating out:
1. Look for the light menu. Every restaurant won’t have a light menu, but a growing number of chain restaurants are promoting light alternatives without much searching. You may even find light menus up on the fast food board. You’ll soon find that light doesn’t always mean you’ll be giving up flavor.
2. Take half your dinner home. Dinner is served in larger and larger portions all the time. Sometimes your meal won’t be unhealthy, but your portion size will be. To avoid overeating, you can simply ask your waiter to serve you half the meal and box up the other half for you to eat for lunch tomorrow.
3. Go grilled. One way to eat smart is to opt for grilled instead of fried items. Fried foods have gobs of additional calories and fat. Grilled chicken or fish make great choices because they’re lean proteins as well.
4. Avoid drinking extra calories. If you’re watching those calories, don’t forget to count the calories that you drink. Drinking soda products or alcoholic beverages while you’re out can add calories quite quickly.
- Choose water as an alternative and then you’ll only need to worry about the calorie content of your meal.
5. Be salad smart. You can choose a salad as your main dish as a way to eat smart. You’ll probably find that there are bigger salads on the menu beyond the house or side salad. Many of them contain a bigger vegetable variety or meat such as chicken.
- Ask them to serve your salad dressing on the side rather than on the salad. Then the amount of dressing you put on the salad is up to you. When it comes to dressing, a little bit can go a long way. Here’s a tip: avoid the creamy dressings. That’s the fatty stuff!
6. Appetizers can make the meal. If the restaurant serves tasty appetizers, you can order an appetizer as your main dish. If that’s not enough food, you might want to order two appetizers. Many times two appetizers will still be less food than a main course selection.
7. Choose healthy sauce. Be aware of how the sauce is made in the dish of your choosing. If you’re eating Italian, for example, choose an option with a tomato-based sauce. This will provide you with a bigger benefit than a cream based alternative. This is also the case when it comes to choosing your soups; avoid the cream based ones if possible.
8. Include fruits and veggies. You know that fruits and veggies are an important part of your diet at home, so you should continue to seek them out when you’re making your selections at a restaurant. Steamed vegetables can be a great side dish, and fruits can likely be ordered in place of a dessert item.
Keep in the mind the same healthy information you use when building your home meals while you’re out. Don’t be afraid to indulge yourself from time to time, but maintain an awareness of your eating habits and portions and you can’t go wrong.
Sustaining Life Balance
Stress that comes with the daily demands of a buzzling career and a domesticated life can make the concept of “balance” a myth for many people. Everybody’s natural reaction is to get overwhelmed by both expected and unexpected eventualities.
Balance in life can be achieved and sustained. Here are a few starting points to get there:
1. Synchronized Scheduling
Families, officemates and groups of friends can help sustain balance in their life by syncing their schedules. Often, this requires little investment such as putting up a shared calendar where members can scribble their appointments, activities and needs. A group calendar adds ease and organization into group activity planning.
Attempts to synchronize schedules can teach members of a group valuable lessons on reaching compromises and give-and-take arrangements.
2. Priority Sorting
It pays to review daily routines and omit the unnecessary. People are so caught up with the thought that there’s so much to do in so little time that they fail to evaluate the activities that comprise the routine. In deciding which activity to keep or cut, asking the following screening questions should help:
• Is the activity indispensable?
• Can the activity evoke positive feelings or can it compound stress instead?
• Does the activity foster well-being?
• Who benefits from the activity: one’s self or other people?
• How does the activity relate to one’s life goals?
By sticking to their priorities, individuals can have more doable schedules that allow a healthy interplay of work duties, family obligations and recreational treats.
3. Routine and Agenda Planning
Everybody loves excitement, but having an established routine helps keep individuals from procrastinating. Routines give people a sense of direction and order in their lives. The best planned routine is one that helps individuals stay on track with their life goals.
Today, the need for routine and agenda planning is more urgent for people who work from home than for those with regular 9 to 5 jobs. Work-from-home professionals enjoy a great degree of flexibility with their schedules, but sometimes this freedom can often lead to chaotic living.
4. Vision Setting
People need more than a fixed schedule to reach their goals. They must possess the drive to want to make their dreams a reality. Vision setting is crucial in this respect. It is possible for individuals to set different visions for themselves, their career and their loved ones.
Without at least one vision to anchor their existence on, people can wander through life aimlessly and invite mishaps after mishaps. Some common visions are:
• Acquiring a new vehicle
• Authoring a piece of work
• Earning a promotion
• Getting a pay raise
• Honing a newly discovered talent or skill
• Maintaining an ideal body figure or weight
• Sticking to a set budget
• Succeeding in a business venture
• Transferring to a new home
Visions foster a can-do attitude that enable people to seek out and actually work to achieve balance in their lives.
So, is it possible to lead a well-balanced life in today’s busy world? The answer is yes. People just need to work at it.
Tis The Season to Be Tense: Five Tips for Reducing Holiday Stress
Many people don’t realize that they really are in control of many of the factors driving their stress levels, even during the holidays when these factors become magnified. The first step is to take care of yourself first, then you’ll be able to meet the demands of others.
This year, is figuring to be a particularly stressful holiday season. Between the normal challenges of the holidays, this year’s economic environment will add even more stress than usual.
As if arranging and attending parties, deciding on the perfect gifts, dealing with family obligations, holiday travel through crowded airports and roads weren’t enough, this year we are going to do it all with fewer resources and even more pressure to do more with less.
Here are some tips to help get through this year’s holiday season with minimal stress:
- Don’t over-commit to engagements – the holidays can be filled with invitations to parties, gatherings, performances, etc. There are a limited number of weekend for the season, carefully plan your outings and make sure to leave room for downtime.
- Allow yourself to depart from traditions – sometimes family traditions such as extensive decorations and huge meals can put undue pressure on you to overdo it. Start your own traditions that fit more into your current lifestyle and are manageable.
- Make alternative plans for gift-giving – The pressure to buy the perfect gift can be exhausting. Consider alternate types of gifts – such as one day of yard work or some other service. This can save money and time. Also, shop online – this can help you avoid long lines in the stores or spending your already busy weekend pushing your way through the crowds.
- Make extra attempt to eat nutritiously – You will have many opportunities to have sugary, high-fat meals which can worsen stress. Take every opportunity to fit a fruit snack into your day or add an extra vegetable to your meal.
- Carve out 20 minutes each day to sit quietly and meditate – the stress of a busy day and schedule can overload the mind and lead to mental and physical exhaustion. If you slow down and quiet your mind each day, especially at the end of your day, you can sleep better and have more energy to get you through the busy season.
Stress Fighting Foods
10 Stress Fighting Foods
Stress and Your Diet
How do your eating habits affect the way you handle stress? How does stress affect your dietary preferences? Whichever angle you focus on, food and stress are interrelated. Food doesn’t necessarily have to be your only coping mechanism for stress however. You can manage daily pressures in a variety of other ways.
Three Ways that Food and Stress Connect
• Your over-eating or under-eating tendencies surface when you are under stress. Your blood sugar level takes the toll either way. Severe mood swings result, and you end up compounding the present problem as well as your stress level. Like many people, maybe you haven’t realized yet how food can harm you! Stress management begins with awareness. You must know precisely what you need to change in your food preferences or dietary habits.
• Food is not the cure, but it can help you manage your stress. Supply your body with nutritious food. Proper dieting can sustain your body with the energy required to overcome stressful experiences. Consuming fatty food and sugar-filled treats alone doesn’t really help you much. In fact, you’ll end up feeling more exhausted, more anxious and grouchier than ever. You need more than those to combat stress.
• The right foods fortify the immune system. Stressful situations weaken it. A weak immune system is more prone to contacting diseases, bacteria and viruses. Studies prove that with proper food intake, you can make your immune system healthy and strong. It isn’t difficult to see what the studies are driving at: You have to eat right in order to feel great!
Stress and Diet
The connection between food and stress is so obvious and hard to miss. The kind of foods you consume directly affects the way you feel, think and react. Poor food choices and either over-eating or under-eating subject both your body and mind to more strain. If you want to manage your stress, try starting with your diet. Evaluate what you eat, how much you eat and how often you eat. Then, gradually introduce changes to your lifestyle.
Beyond Dieting
While the right food allows you to cope with stressful experiences more effectively, it isn’t enough. Try pairing a good diet with the following strategies:
• Get enough sleep. Seven to eight hours is ideal.
• Find time to relax.
• Establish a support group.
• Accept your limitations.
• Work and live life with a plan in mind.
• Learn to say “No” from time to time.
Healthy dieting coupled with the above steps can empower you to manage daily pressures well and take better control of your life. Say goodbye to stressed out days. Say hello to a lighter, happier you.
Loosen the Grip of Workaholic Ways
If the bulk of your waking hours goes to your job, you’re in for some trouble: Life will eventually grow unfulfilling for you. Sure, you love your work, but pouring long hours over it can transform love into addiction. It’s time that you break away from your workaholic tendencies.
Identifying Underlying Problems
Underlying problems are often responsible for fueling your workaholic tendencies. While work pressures and deadlines do push you to your limits, there is a greater possibility that you’re using work as your defense mechanism against other problems and insecurities.
Examine yourself. Assess your schedule. Then answer these questions:
• Do you work so hard for the money?
• Do you work so hard so you can minimize social interactions at home?
• Do you work so hard so you can elude some issues?
Working too hard to grab financial rewards is not something you can sustain for a long time. This habit will take a toll on your mental health and physical well-being. Work hard but strive to contain it within a definite timeframe. If you can’t live with this arrangement, then maybe you should aim for a new job that pays better than your present company.
It’s crucial that you address problems plaguing your home as well. Although work can give you temporary relief, it won’t solve anything. In fact, problems don’t get resolved by themselves. You have to face them and act on them. The power to improve your situation at home lies with you.
Restoring Balance
After targeting the underlying problems responsible for your unhealthy work habits, do your best to reintegrate balance into your life. Several strategies can help you with this area.
Make room for the following:
1. Personal Time. Use this concept to place yourself (and your health) above your job. You are entitled to your own time, so when you are in the middle of a well-deserved personal vacation, do not allow deadlines to interrupt you.
2. Bedtime Ritual. Unwind and treat yourself to enough hours of sleep. Set a specific hour when you’re switching the lights off. Spend half an hour before your designated bedtime to do something relaxing. Make sure the activity doesn’t remind you of work.
3. Movement and Physical Exercises. Include exercise routines in your weekly schedule. The frequency need not be daily. You can do it once in every 2 or 3 days if you want. Physical movement helps you to de-stress from work. Exercise is good for both your body and mind.
4. Breaks. You need time away from work. It’s a given. Regular jobs usually designate weekends as rest days. Make an effort to spend your weekends not working. Don’t even try to remember or talk about your job. Just free your mind and enjoy your break.
Starting Out Slow
Breaking away from your workaholic tendencies need not be drastic. Distance yourself from the unhealthy habit one step at a time. Remember that your work doesn’t define your life. There are plenty of activities that you can enjoy, and none of them have to remind you of deadlines, quotas or reports.
Restore balance into your life today with a strategy or two. In no time, you’ll get the idea: Life outside work does exist!
How Moms Can Cope with Stress
No doubt, motherhood is one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs around.When you’re a mom, you tend to neglect yourself because you allow your domestic duties to take precedence over personal care. Both working moms and stay-at-home moms go through the same stressful situations actually. Whichever type of mom you are, know that you can cope with stress.
The Tips
Establish a routine for dealing with your kids. The scheduling will greatly benefit the entire household. Sticking to a routine eases your experience in making meals, monitoring naps and setting bed times. If you fail to establish one, you will quickly become disoriented, overwhelmed and stressed out. Kids can get unpredictable at times. However, the simplest routine can create a semblance of predictability into your life and can help preserve your sanity as you manage your household.
Take breaks. A lot of moms just push themselves to their limit when they should be taking a time out. Your frequent exposure to stressful experiences entitles you to many breaks. Your kids even take breaks, and so should you! When you are in the verge of losing your cool, rush to a room and pace your breathing. Imagine how you wish to react, and then temper your thoughts with one reminder: You should model good behavior for your kids. Your short time outs can spare your entire family’s mood and day!
Mind your diet. Eighty-five out of 100 moms don’t seem to mind their diets anymore. You just tend to eat whatever food you can grab at random times of the day. Although you’re always on the go, make healthy dieting a priority. You need the nourishment to help you cope with stress and match your kids’ energy levels.
Team up with other moms. A support group composed of moms like you is great. True, you cannot afford to meet everyday, but you’ll rest easier knowing that there are people you can count on when you need empathy, comfort and some attention. All moms get stressed, so choose carefully who gets to be part of your support group. Invite only those who are truly into the idea of moms mutually supporting each other.
Enjoy your personal time. With tons of roles to fill and tasks to accomplish, you sometimes fail to give yourself some credit. You should definitely set aside time for yourself on a daily basis. Occasionally get some help with the household chores. While your kids are sleeping or attending school, read a few chapters of your favorite novel. Get a manicure or a pedicure. Treat yourself to a cup of tea, a body massage or a long bath. You need not spend money to enjoy your personal time. Just make sure your “me” time is included in your regular scheduling. Fifteen minutes of the day to yourself can work wonders for you!
Is Sexual Equality Taking an Unequal Toll on Women?
In the last half century, tremendous strides have been made in sexual equality between men and women, but the battle is far from over. For every small gain, women seem to be paying a higher price than men. According to a Time magazine Special Report on The State of the American Woman (Oct. 26, 2009), women today earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. While that’s a tremendous improvement over the 58 cents women earned in 1972, it’s still a huge discrepancy; especially considering that today women are the primary breadwinners in 40% of American homes.
The economy has accelerated the shift in earning power. More traditionally male jobs than female jobs have been lost, particularly in manufacturing. Unfortunately, women’s earnings fell 2% last year, twice as much as men’s. American families that were comfortable with two salaries are struggling to live on one, especially when that salary is brought home by an underpaid woman. Women are feeling the financial strain much more acutely than men.
Not only are women often shouldering the sole burden of providing for their families, but they feel they carry greater responsibility than men for child rearing and home care. The feeling of inequality at home remains despite the fact that 84% of couples recently surveyed said they negotiate responsibilities, rules and relationship issues.
Perhaps most disturbing is the revelation that despite the achievement of greater freedom, education and financial power, women are less happy. Puzzled social scientists say increased female stress and unhappiness are universal across all socio-economic levels. Theories include basic changes in American society and the American family that are felt more keenly by women than men or perhaps gains in workplace equality are now forcing women to battle the same pressures that have long contributed to male unhappiness or it may be that women have finally gained the self-c0nfidence to be honest about what they want and don’t want from life.
Carrying a constant burden of increased stress can eat away at a woman’s physical and mental health. Stress can cause irritability, lack of energy, sleep problems and even lead to serious depression. If taking a mental health day isn’t enough to get you back on track, you may need professional help to learn to cope with stress and re-balance your life.
