What Every Dieter Needs To Know About Restaurants

Eating out in a restaurant can be a dieters worst nightmare. There are so many scrumptious looking meals that can tickle our temptations. Unfortunately though, many of these are not good for the waistline. But luckily, with a bit or care and discipline, eating out can be lots of fun even if you are watching your figure.

Once you’ve got into the routine of eating healthily at home you’ll most likely be feeling the benefits. As you get used to it, you will probably realise that it is not that hard.

When you go out to dine though, it can hard to resist the temptation to tuck into a tasty looking high calorie meal. You need to be careful when dining; eating one high fat meal could undo a weeks worth or hard work and discipline.

 

When eating out, do a bit of research and take care. Before dining out, narrow down your local restaurants to only the ones that do not serve oily and greasy foods. Or, see if the restaurant offers lightly sautéed or grilled dishes rather than just frying them.

If you’ve gotten used to eating healthily at home and eating all the right things, eating responsibly in a restaurant will be as easy as ABC. Like when eating at home, be sure your intake of fresh veggies is high, whether this is in the form of salads or side dishes. If you are to eat a fatty meal like pizza, balance it out with fresh greens.

 

A wise way to dine out is to eat multiple small dishes rather than having one big dish. This makes eating out a lot of fun, and lets your taste lots of different fascinating flavours. Again, balance out whatever you eat with healthy salads, and stick to water and fruit juice rather than carbonated sodas.

If possible, don’t eat all of your meal in one go; ask if you can take some of it home to eat later.

If you are eating fast food, be responsible and only order a single burger with salad, and avoid topping it off with cheese and mayonnaise. Stick to just thin crust pizzas and go easy on the cheese.

Eating out does not have to become boring just because you are on a diet. In fact, it can be a lot of fun because it will make you realise that are lots of healthy meals out there that taste wonderful.

With a little bit of care a discipline, you can enjoy eating out whenever you like without having to worry about what it will do to you waist.

Once you’re back from eating out, a great diet to get stuck into is The Lunch Box Diet developed by acclaimed personal fitness expert Simon Lovell. Called ‘the best diet’ 5/5 by Elle Magazine, the diet is said to be ‘a way of life’. Click here to find out more.

All the best

Daryl

How To Combat Stress Through Healthy Eating

Stress can be one of your biggest challenges if you are trying to lose weight. Unfortunately, stress is virtually unavoidable in this day and age. When you’re feeling stressed out, the effort involved in sticking to a responsible eating plan can feel like something of a nuisance.

The big problem is that if stress leads to unhealthy eating, then the unhealthy eating will lead to more stress. And in reverse, healthy eating will result in a reduction of stress. I know it seems hard at times, but the times you when you feel most stressed are the times when eating healthily is most important.
Often, pressures in the workplace can lead to unhealthy eating.



Sometimes it’s just a lot easier to pop into the nearest fast food restaurant when you don’t have much time to eat. The harsh truth though is that this is simply being irresponsible if you are trying to lose weight.

There are plenty of healthy foods that you can buy that can be prepared quickly. A sandwich shop can easily whip you up a healthy sandwich with wholemeal bread and a piece of fruit just as quickly as McDonalds can crank out a greasy cheeseburger. Alternatively, make a healthy lunch at home and take it to work with you.

This way you won’t even have to leave the office at lunch time.
Now I understand that fast food can be very addictive and tasty, but they do a lot of harm to your body, and can even weaken your immune system.

Not to mention they will make you fat. Eating greasy and fatty foods will not help your concentration levels at all, so if you want to perform well at work, you should eat something better.

Remember this, the more stressed you are, the more healthy you need to eat. Be sure to start your day off well with a nutritional breakfast. A simple bowl of cereal and a glass of fruit juice can be prepared in seconds if you don’t have much time.

There’s so many healthy options available for lunch meals that you really have no excuse to go to McDonalds. A healthy lunch could consist of rice noodles or pastas with fresh boiled vegetables. Sandwiches with granary bread filled with egg white, meat or vegetables are another easy lunch to make.

Try to go easy on adding butter and cheese to your sandwiches, as you want to keep your calories under control. In addition, a piece of fruit or two is a great snack to eat along side it.

Eating healthily and reducing stress involves eating healthy meals and eating at appropriate intervals. It’s a good idea to eat healthy snacks in between your meals. You could keep some canned fruit, cereal bars and whole wheat crackers in your store or office to keep you going throughout the day.

So remember, when you are stressed you have two cycles to chose from:
Stress > Unhealthy Eating > More stress > Health problems
or…
Stress > Healthy Eating > Reduced Stress Levels > Stronger Immune system

Which would you prefer? The Lunch Box Diet is a great option as a healthy diet plan because as well as helping you lose weight, it is also a great stress busting diet due to all of its health properties. Click here to find out more.

All the best
Daryl

How to Avoid A Yo-Yo Diet In Simple To Follow Steps

There are certain characteristics that differentiate healthy diets and unhealthy diets. The less effective diets are the usually the ones that promise rapid weight loss and only last for a month or so.

The healthier diet programs give more of a focus on losing weight over a longer period. These diet plans are tailored for the individual so are easier to stick to for a long time.

Something that is common with people looking for a weight loss solution is that they don’t have the right knowledge about what healthy eating really consists of. Many people are attracted to fad diets that promise them fast results.

These diets are usually temporary solutions. Many people have good success with such diets, but being as they don’t know what a healthy diet really consists of, they return to their old eating patterns soon after and start piling all that weight back on.

There is nothing wrong with trying out a fad diet, and they may well work. The problem is that many people don’t have a plan B for when the diet finishes. There’s no real use in eating healthily for 30 days and then returning to your usual unhealthy diet.



These diets are sometimes referred to as ‘yo-yo’ diets. Sometimes the dieter will regain twice as much weight as they lost after returning to their old eating habits. This is because of the effects that these eating changes have on their metabolism.

Here are some of the characteristics that fad diets often possess. If you spot things like this then you know that they are most likely not a diet with sustainable long term benefits:

• They focus on just one or two nutrientsThere are several dieting plans around that focus on drastically reducing carbohydrates. These once popular diets have begun fading away, which hopefully reflects the new awareness people are gaining regarding long term healthy eating practices. For long term health benefits, your body needs a good variety of nutrients, including carbohydrates and fats. Balance is the key.

• They promise fast weight loss resultsWhile they may make you lose weight quickly, they are just temporary diets. This means that when the diet is over there’s a good chance you’ll pile that weight back on. You could even put on more weight than you lost.

• They focus on magic foodsA big trend with diets these days is claiming that a certain food like lemon, grapefruit, cinnamon, celery etc. will burn fat fast. While certain can foods can have a positive effect on the metabolism, they should not be considered the solution to long term weight loss.

• They come in supplement formThere’s all sorts of magic diet pills and supplements doing the rounds. Remember, they are called a ‘supplement’ for a reason. They are intended to supplement an overall healthy eating plan. There’s nothing wrong with taking supplements, but they should not be solely relied on in order to lose weight.

• There is no exercise involvedYes some fad diets even claim that no exercise is required and that the special diet alone will make you lose weight. Exercise is a vital practice regardless of your diet. If a dieting product attempts to sell you on the fact you don’t need to exercise, stay well away.

As you may have noticed after reading the above, fad diets are unbalanced and focus on miraculous and rapid changes. Truly healthy diet plans a like a reality check. The best way to be healthy and lose weight is to eat well consistently in the longer term.

There are many healthy diet programs out there that promote long term health in order to lose weight. While they don’t promise success in just a few weeks, they give the groundwork for eating healthily in the long term. Stick to a sustainable plan like this and you body will naturally form its optimum weight over time.

Because a true healthy diet is stuck to for the long term, there is no danger of sudden weight gain as the diet does not end. So the way to spot a healthy diet among all the unhealthy diets out there is to focus more on long term health, rather than overnight weight loss.

In addition, a healthy diet plan focuses on proper eating practices. This includes the frequency and size of meals, which is an important factor which many dieters overlook.

Here are the common features of a healthy diet plan:



Ensure You Consume Enough Calories

Many fad diets can contain a drastically low amount of calories. Starving your body of calories is not the best way to lose weight – you need to reduce calories gradually.

A healthy plan will be tailored the your current calorie intake. Seeing a nutritionist can be helpful to calculate your average weekly calorie intake. A major decrease in your average intake will not serve you well if trying to lose weight properly.

Allowing Snacking Between Meals

Rather than just eating your 3 main meals a day, it is better to have a slightly smaller breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then eat some small healthy snacks in between. This increases metabolism and fills your body with energy. It also settles your appetite and prevents overeating.

Contains a Wide Selection of Foods
You shouldn’t be confined to eating just one kind of food. A healthy diet plan will contain a good mixture of vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans and lean meat.

Sustainable & Flexible
A healthy diet is designed to last for a long time. This is why the best diet plans can be tailored to your own eating habits and your lifestyle.

An effective eating plan will include all your favourite foods to some extent – as long as you don’t overindulge. This makes the diet more effective as you will have more will-power to stick to it.

When you search for a healthy diet plan, evaluate the plans you see and try to identify the above elements. Doing this can help you separate the genuinely healthy diet plans for the fads.

Look for a sustainable diet plan that you know you will be able to stick to for a long time. Find a suitable plan and it will make achieving your health goals a lot easier. The Lunch Box Diet by Simon Lovell reached acclaim because it’s one of the few diets that causes yo-yo dieting as it’s more of a healthy lifestyle plan. Voted ‘the best diet’ by Elle Magazine they said it became ‘a way of life’ – very few diets offer that kind of benefit. Click here to find out more…

All the best for now

Daryl

How Can A Healthy Diet Give You A Healthy Heart?

We live in a world where people are seduced by fat food every day. So many people choose the taste of greasy and fatty sausages or burgers over the nutritional value of healthy fresh salad. It is pure madness, but it shows how addicted people have become to the taste of junk. These people have a total disregard for what it is doing to their hearts.

Alarmingly, more and more medical related deaths have been recorded in the last few decades that are related to heart related problems and cardiac arrests. It is no secret that fast food has played a big part in this.

Studies have shown us that around 80% of heart disease can be prevented through healthy eating. A staggering figure I’m sure you’ll agree. To have a healthy heart, all it takes is the willingness to learn new habits.

While learning new eating habits may seem like a massive step, don’t worry, you don’t have to make 100 drastic changes all at once. You won’t need to turn into a rabbit and only eat vegetables and nothing else for the rest of your life.

If you want a healthy heart, you can start by changing how you cook your favourite non-vegetarian foods. Adding spice to non-veg foods like sage, dry mustard, dill, tarragon, marjoram or oregano can reduce fat saturation and cholesterol. If you like to eat lots of meat, stick to lean red meat and white meat.

Pure vegetarian foods however need to become a large part of your diet. Start gradually eating more and more fresh vegetables. Veggies still contain fats,but not as much.

Foods like cucumber, tomatoes, carrots and leafy vegetables are very healthy and don’t add cholesterol to your body. The Lunch Box Diet is a great healthy diet based on the popular grazing principle that boosts your metabolism through eating small regular meals.

Red and green fruits, low fat milk, olive oil and wholegrain foods are also good vegetarian foods you should have a lot of in your diet if you want a healthy heart.

When you buy foods from the supermarkets, be careful and don’t always trust the labels when they say the product is low cholesterol. Always avoid Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) – this is bad cholesterol, which can cause heart complexities. In contrast, High Density Lipoprotein is good cholesterol – this can help to protect against cardio-vascular risks.

Unhealthy non-food related habits are also important to eradicate. If you smoke or drink lots of caffeine and alcohol, this is something you should cut back on. Exercise is also good for strengthening you cardio-vascular system. So if you’re a bit of a couch potato, now is the time to hit the gym.


All the best for now and speak soon,


Daryl

A Useful Article On Healthy Travel Food

If you go travelling a lot you might be horrified by the lack of nutritional food on offer. Most companies that dish food out to travellers are more interested in profit than nutrition.

Going travelling can often force us to eat lots of unhealthy meals. It’s hard to have control over your calorie intake as your food options will be so limited.

Don’t be worried though, you can still enjoy delicacies on your travels without turning into a pig! With a little care, you can enjoy yourself without being over-indulgent.

If you want to try various delicacies, try to share them with a partner and use your common sense to pick out snacks and meals that are most likely to have the most nutritional value.

If you’re on the road and eating breakfast at service stations, avoid eating deep fried eggs and bacon. Stick to cereals and sandwiches. If you’re going to have eggs, stick to boiled eggs or an omelette.

Take plenty of healthy snacks with you from home to ensure that you and your kids are guaranteed to get some nutrition. You never know what your food options are going to be when you travel, so at a bare minimum you can make sure you have a few healthy snacks in your bag. Take things like protein bars, whole wheat bread sandwiches, fruit and juices. Don’t take high fat and salty snacks like crisps and chocolate bars. Alternatively a great diet for on the move is The Lunch Box Diet which you can combine with a simple cool bag to keep everything fresh.

When food is offered to you during your journey, be it on a plane, a train or a ship, use you head to analyse the negative and positive aspects of the meals before tucking in. If possible, stick only to boiled, roasted or baked dishes rather than fried meals. Make sure you have adequate salads or vegetables to accompany your meal. These should always be provided as standard. You can check what food will be served before you arrange your journey.

Long distance travelling can be quite boring so it’s hard not to stuff yourself along the way. This is why you should take only healthy snacks in case you get this urge. If you are serious about dieting or losing weight, then you should have a natural eye for filtering out healthy food from junk. When travelling, its time to put this instinct in to use and stay disciplined and eat as healthily as you can.


All the best, see you soon

Daryl

Top Seven Most Popular Antioxidant Fruits

Aside from veggies and herbs, fruits are known to be naturally healthy. Fresh fruits are rich in vitamins and minerals and most importantly fiber and enzymes. Enzymes and fibers help our body to function properly in the process of absorption of nutrients. Enzymes help decrease the ill effects of free radicals in the body while fiber aids in proper elimination of body waste. So basically, what makes fresh fruits the best antioxidant is the presence of fiber and enzymes.

Then again, the amount of enzymes and fibers present varies in each fruit. Some fruits contain more of one particular enzyme yet lack dietary fibers while another is the opposite. Nevertheless, we need to eat a variety of fresh fruits regularly in order to get the most benefits of what they can provide. Listed in this article are few of the most popular fruits that are rich in antioxidant properties.

Prunes – This fruit is rich in potassium and iron. Other natural chemicals and fibers present in prunes aids in digestion and keep a regular bowel movement.

 

Pomegranate – An exotic fruit that originated in Middle East and Asia, pomegranate is has become popular nowadays because it is found to be rich in antioxidants that keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing. It is also beneficial in keeping the blood from unwanted clotting. Other researchers also claim that it improves the amount of oxygen entering into the heart muscles thus can be beneficial to people suffering from coronary heart disease.

Blueberries - It helps prevent aging. Aside from high dietary fibers, vitamins and minerals, it contains anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, flavonols, and tannins that inhibits cancer cell development.

Grapes/Raisins – Raisins are often processed through sun drying or oven cooking. Despite the process of drying, raisin still contains flavonols but less phenols compared to fresh grapes. It is rich in boron, a mineral that provides protection from osteoporosis especially among women of advancing age. Like other fruits, grape or raisin is rich in vitamins as well as dietary fibers.

 

Cranberries – Cranberry juice is popularly known to prevent urinary tract infection (UTI). It is also rich in phytochemicals which act as antioxidants by neutralizing the harmful free radicals in the body, thus protects the cells that help fight against heart disease, cancer and metabolic syndrome. Regular consumption of cranberry juice can also prevent stomach cancer and ulcer by killing H.pylori bacteria. A regular consumption of 6 ounce per day will provide optimum health benefits, yet fresh, naturally processed cranberry juice is always highly recommended.

Mangosteen – Rich in xanthones, a class of phytonutrients that help boost the immune system. Mangosteen has been known to prevent Alzheimer disease, heart disease, lowers blood sugar, helps prevent the loss of bone mass, and other host of health benefits not found in other fruits. The benefits of mangosteen are available in specially processed fruit juice or through consumption of fresh fruit.

Apple – This is the most famous among all antioxidant fruits. From cancer to heart ailments, to a simple indigestion and weight management, nothing beats the old proverb, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”

Not only do fruits provide essential nutrients and help strengthen the immune system, but they also stimulate other bodily functions to keep us well nourished. Nevertheless, aside from regular consumption of a variety of fruits, a healthy lifestyle is as important in order to maintain good health.

Vemma juice was developed by a physician with a background in both eastern and western medicine. Be on top of your of your health and get yourself vemma juice today.