6 Tips on Eating Healthy While Dining Out
We’ve all been there: you’re out eating with friends and someone orders the fried stack of onion rings for the table. Someone else gets that double-stacked burger with three different kinds of cheese. Looming at the end of the meal is the ever present temptation of dessert. It all looks so good!
How is it possible to maintain a diet when going out to eat presents so many opportunities to cheat on your diet? What can you do to better your chances of making it through to the other side while continuing to eat healthy? Here are some helpful healthy tips to keep in mind!
Make a Plan Ahead of Time
Most restaurants offer their menus online, so if you can, look ahead and try to find a healthy option that appeals to you. It’s easier to make these kinds of decisions at home and away from the influence of the “I’m hungry now” thoughts. If you pick your meal before you even get to the restaurant, not only will you probably save time once you get there, you’re more likely to stick to your decision.
Pass on the Pasta
While pastas are definitely delicious, they’re usually empty carbs and can lead to you feeling bloated and hungry later. Look for high protein options like leaner cuts of meat to offer a satisfying and filling choice. Chicken, especially chicken breast, is a solid choice when looking for lower fat protein selections, as are leaner cuts of steak. Make sure you pay attention to how the meat is prepared though. Restaurants often use excessive amounts of butter and salt to enhance flavors, which can eliminate the positive aspect of these lean options.
Avoid the Sugar Water
When going out, it’s common to splurge on yourself and get a sweet drink like a soda or sugary mixed cocktail with dinner. While it may not seem like it, these drinks are full of calories that stick with you long after the meal is done. Water or low sugar options like a dry glass of wine or beer are fine choices to accompany any meal.
Pre-Game Your Meal
Before heading out, maybe indulge in a light snack beforehand. This can help you avoid making hungry decisions at the restaurant. Some fresh-cut vegetables and dip, olives for the salty craving, or even some unsalted nuts to stay your appetite. Here are some other options!
Read the Menu Carefully
Menu writers know how to draw in the hungry consumer. By using words like “pan-fried,” “dipped,” “battered,” and “crispy,” menus are able to give you a clear idea about what you’ll probably be getting. While these words may be enticing, remember that they’re also indicators that those foods are probably not the best option. They all reference fatty food-prep practices that are a sure way to break your diet. Looking for words like “grilled,” “roasted,” or “steamed” for a better direction to go in.
You Don’t Have To Eat It All
Once you feel full, don’t force it! Restaurants have boxes for a reason; their portions are usually too large for a single meal anyway. Don’t let your food linger on the plate in front of you, or you might start thinking that you can finish it all at once. By letting the food you’ve already eaten sit for a bit in your stomach, you’ll realize how full you actually are without the extra portion on top. Plus, you’ll have a meal for later by saving leftovers now!
These are just a few steps that can go a long way towards maintaining healthy eating habits while eating out. Remember, just because you’re eating out, doesn’t mean you can’t stick to your diet plan! By following these helpful tips, you’re that much more likely to stick to your plan!
Stress isn’t something you should just have to deal with. Stress is serious, and it can have very harmful effects on your health and happiness. Stress can happen at any age, but it becomes more of a problem the older we get. Knowing how maximize your relaxation can help you get those stress level down to a minimum. Below you will find a list of tips that will help you stop stress in the moment and in the long term.
Tips For Dealing With Stress
Avoid extra caffeine. Sure we all need our coffee in the morning, but did you know that stimulants like caffeine can increase your stress level. Maybe you’re feeling extra tired in the morning and think that the extra cup will pick you up. Skip it, because it will make you more stressed out later in the day.
Instead of all that coffee throughout the day, maybe try drinking more water. If you need something more exciting try herbal teas or diluted fruit juices. These options will take the stress caused by caffeine out of your life and bring in a ton of hydration. Being properly hydrated will will help your body cope better with stress!
Get Active! Our bodies use stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol when our “fight or flight” system is active, but, unfortunately, nowadays we don’t get enough physical exercise to manage those hormones. Hormones can really affect your overall mood. Getting active will help metabolize those excess stress hormones and bring you back to a state of calm.
You don’t have to go to the gym, everything helps. Maybe take a relaxing walk through the park or neighborhood. Getting active doesn’t mean overdoing it!
Use relaxation techniques. Take time to breathe throughout the day. One of the best tips I ever got for stress relief was to relax my shoulders. Do it right now, doesn’t that feel good? We carry our stress in a physical way, and we don’t even realize the toll it takes on our bodies. Some other tips: try meditation, create a self-affirming mantra, get a massage, etc.
You don’t realize how much taking some time to yourself will help.
Get Plenty of Sleep! Adults are meant to get around seven to nine hours of sleep, but according to a report from Gallup, almost half of American adults are getting less than seven hours. Here’s the problem, we are stressed because we don’t get enough sleep, and because we’re stressed we lay awake with thoughts preventing us from falling asleep. It’s a catch-22, but you can beat it.
If you incorporate the some of the tips from above you won’t have to rely on medication. Ensure that you haven’t had any caffeine near bedtime and try to get enough exercise throughout the day. Make a routine. One of the most important things you can do is make your bedroom a tranquil place. Sure, watching TV in bed is one of the finer things in life, but turning off the screen and dedicating your bedroom to sleep will train your body to know when you go there it’s time to rest.
Manage your time. A routine isn’t just important for nighttime; a daily routine will help you keep track of everything you need to do. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by everything we have to do, but a priority list will help you focus on one thing a time. Trying to take on everything at once is far too stressful. Schedule as much as you can, a schedule will take out the guesswork of your day. Of course leave time for spontaneity, but try to make your workflow streamlined. You will thank yourself.
Don’t forget to limit your caffeine, get active, get plenty of rest, try your best to relax, and make a routine. With these tips you can start to kick stress out of your life in no time, but if nothing seems to be working you could have a hormone imbalance. If you’re running out of options and the stress is getting to be too much, please contact us for a consultation!
It’s Normal But Don’t Settle
As we get older our sex drives do have a tendency to diminish a little. This is nothing to be ashamed of, we’re not the young, energetic, sex driven 20-somethings we used to be.
It’s normal to see some drop in your sex drive, but if it seems like getting in the mood is just impossible now, it could be a sign of something more than just typical aging effects. You could be effected by a number of serious issues including hormone imbalance.
Below are some of the potential causes of lowered libido, and keep in mind a lot of these issues can be fixed or helped!
Interpersonal Issues
While your libido is a very personal thing, it can actually be connected to your interactions with others. If your partner is experiencing performance problems, this could cause your libido to fall. This is no fault of theirs or yours, so you should feel no shame. There are options to help with sexual performance, and it could be something you two could do together to help things out in the bedroom.
Another interpersonal issue could be the birth of a child. Child birth while obviously caused by sexual activity can unfortunately lead to less of it. This can be because of stress and worry, hormonal changes, a lack of sleep, postpartum blues, or body image issues. These are all temporary issues that you have the power to work through, but if you need to don’t ever feel ashamed of seeking help.
It’s important to remember that your libido is linked to so many factors in your life, and that it’s never something you should be ashamed of no matter what’s causing it to fall.
Medical Problems
illnesses both mental and physical can cause problems with your sex dive. Depression can destroy your drive, and anyone suffering knows that fighting depression is a very hard battle. Depression, while caused by a myriad of things, could be caused by a hormone imbalance. Fixing the root cause is the best way to get every aspect of your life back, including your sex life.
Something physical that can cause sexual drive drops are thyroid issues. If your having hormonal issues with your thyroid you could experience weight gain, fatigue, depression, and a lowered sex drive. If your having issues with your libido the first place to look is the thyroid.
Low Testosterone
It may seem odd, but testosterone is actually important to the sex drives in both men and women, and low testosterone could cause a lowered sex drive. Women’s testosterone levels peak around the mid-20s and then steadily decline until menopause where they drop dramatically.
We don’t really think of testosterone as a feminine thing, but a having the right levels of testosterone in your body could make you feel like a 20-year-old all over again. Well, that or just make you feel much more like yourself.
Medications
Our medications are important to our health, but sometimes they can also be detrimental to it. It’s important that we know the interactions that our medications have with every aspect of our bodies, and that we know how we can counteract some of the undesirable effects.
For example, some antidepressants can actually lower your sex drive, which might be completely counter intuitive. And, blood pressure lowering drugs are almost certainly going to lower your libido. It’s important that your consult with your healthcare provider to find the best way to protect everything aspect of your emotional and physical well being.
Getting Back Your Desire
Your sex drive isn’t gone for good. There are number of treatment options available, and hormone treatment might be the best for you. With testosterone and/or estrogen treatment you could see results that will make you feel like you did pre-menopause.
You don’t have to settle for the “inevitable.”
Talk to your healthcare provider about options for getting your libido back!
SP weight loss might sound like some scary science experiment that will leave you somehow thinner, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. SP weight loss, the Serotonin-Plus weight loss program is a medically managed program that will help you feel happier and healthier.
No More Yo-Yo Dieting
Maintaining a healthy weight is always a challenge, especially in our modern world filled with temptations no matter where you turn. And, sometimes it seems like no matter what you do losing weight is impossible. Taking on weight loss alone is a difficult task, and that’s where Renewed Vitality’s Serotonin-Plus Weight Loss Program comes in.
The Serotonin-Plus Weight Loss Program gives you the support you need to ditch bad habits once and for all. Our approach incorporates diet, behavioral changes, and professionally administered medication to boost your metabolism.
Happy and Healthy
Serotonin is the “feel-good” chemical that our brains produce whenever we do something that makes us happy. Unfortunately for all of us that means whenever we give into temptations and eat foods high in sugar and carbohydrates our brain is rewarding us with a little dose of serotonin.
With the Serotonin-Plus program, serotonin is used to our advantage in weight loss. You will get a custom diet that is packed with healthy foods and proper portions. The diet will help you make better choices when you get those cravings and with the support of serotonin your brain will start to make happy associations with all those healthy foods your body needs.
Okay, But What’s the Plus?
Better Diet
The Plus starts with a better diet and when you enroll in the program you will receive an entirely custom made diet plan that removes any guesswork from what you should be eating. Our emphasis is on education, we want to make dieting second nature, something you can do without anyone’s help. You will learn to balance food groups, plan out proper portions, and learn how to apply everything you’ve learned into real life.
Lifestyle Changes
Trained professionals at Renewed Vitality will teach you to become more aware of what you’re eating and how you eat it. You will learn how to eat healthy without interrupting your lifestyle; it will become a part of your lifestyle. Whether you’re eating out, celebrating the holidays with friends and family, or just cooking for yourself at home, you will know how to make the right choices! And, with monthly check-in appointments for a full year you will have the support you need to ensure lifelong changes!
Medical Supplements
Along with all of the other support, you will be administered a small dose of phentermine which is a stimulant that suppresses your appetite and jump starts your metabolism. Phentermine has been used as a weight loss supplement since 1959. Phentermine helps you lower your cravings by stopping them dead in their tracks.
Is Serotonin-Plus Right for Me?
Serotonin-Plus has helped countless people, both men and women, defeat the difficulties of losing weight and breaking unhealthy habits. If you’ve tried every diet, every exercise regiment, and everything in between with no results, then Serotonin-Plus is probably the perfect option for you.
Renewed Vitality schedules a consultation with every single prospective weight loss patient before beginning the program. You will go over medical history, current medications, and other important personal details to determine whether or not Serotonin-Plus is a fit for your needs.
Don’t take on weight loss alone, let Renewed Vitality help you every step of the way!
