Going out for a great dinner can be apart of a healthy lifestyle!

 

Dining out tips...

Eating out has a bad rap! It's so easy to choose wisely and feel good about your choices. If you plan for eating out and stop the negative food talk that we have going on in our head...you can easily go out this holiday season and not feel guilty. Start by calling the locally owned restaurants in your area and getting to know what they have to offer. Most restaurants are using fresh local ingredients and that is a great question to ask when enquiring about the menu! Plus just asking around your community if a restaurant is worth the money, you will find out quickly by word of mouth. Many restaurants located in the downtown core of most cities and towns will have local owners and likely are making all there own recipes. This is the best kind of food for staying healthy and on track. 

The local fair is abundant where I live and I am very fortunate to live where there are Farmers market almost everyday of the week, either down the street from my condo or in the next small town. The availability and convenience is amazing. Now that winter is coming and we won't have the markets for fresh salads and local meat for grilling, we are starting to think about eating more dinners in our homes and in restaurants for those holiday parties and getting together with friends.

I love the freedom of being able to go out for dinner and eat healthy and feeling great about my choices.... (if you tend to drink which can lead to some over indulgence on the extras, but be careful and aware of the alcohol intake and you should be able to manage a simple dinner out). Alcohol tends to put the bill higher so this is a great way of keeping the drinking to a minimum.

Here are some great tips to choosing a restaurant that will fill your nutritional needs and give your taste buds what it needs to feel satisfied.

• Choose locally owned restaurants that are using natural ingredients and preparing in house from scratch, nothing Pre-made.. this way the kitchen can customize your dinner to your liking and it is made fresh for you. Plus you are staying away from fast food which is nutrient deficient food. 
• Stay away from chain food restaurants. These restaurants don't have control over what food they are being shipped from the warehouse. Most of the products are frozen and pre-packaged foods, which will have preservatives and additives and most likely frozen. These foods and meats are from factory farms that are using growth hormones and antibiotics, and spraying the food for better yield of crops. Round up ready seeds only grow a chemically derived product that is killing our immune systems. This kind of food isn't really food, it has chemicals disguising the nutritional benefits. This is why when you eat at chain food restaurants your usually hungry within an hour of eating.
• Order appetizer's to share. If your ordering appetizer's then I suggest sharing, this way your not eating too much before your main meal, or start with a salad this will help get your vegetable intake for the day.
• Skip the Bread basket, or ask for the bread to come with main meal so that you won't fill up on fast burning Carbohydrates,which will fill you up but you then will feel hungry again before bed. Ask for multi-grain if possible.
• Dessert: if your not a regular dessert eater then I recommend ordering dessert, either to share or to enjoy fully on your own. Please enjoy fully, how often do you feel guilt when eating something delicious. How often do you at Dessert? If you feel guilt or shame while eating you put your body into fight or flight. This shuts your digestion down and then you have just wasted your dinner out.
• Listen to your body : if your listening then you should be in sync with your bodies needs and when you have eaten just enough.
• Eat slowly and take time to look at the presentation of the food. Most restaurants want the presentation to be as good as the food. They take time to plate it for you, you should take time to enjoy there handy work. 
• Keep eating out to a minimum it can be expensive, Plus preparing and eating your meals energetically is better for you. The time and energy that is used in buying and preparing your meals at home for your family is prove to be a natural weight stabilizer.

 So if maintaining your weight is a priority or just stabilizing your health, eating out is possible but not necessarily the worst thing you can do. Choosing wisely and doing your research on the local restaurants around you will prepare you for that night out to be successful.

• If Travelling- go off the highway. Going into the local town off of the busy highways, which are usually full of chain fast food. Going into the town you can support the local restaurants, and usually get a great meal with less additives and preservatives then on the highway.

Over the summer I have been studying more on the "mind/body" connection and focusing on listening to my body. If I just slow down and take a few minutes to hear what I am wanting with no judgement most of the time it will choose exactly what I need to sustain life. I was introduced to a wonderful program that really intrigued me, using meditation and the idea of listening to my body's needs. I don't think I had thought about giving myself the freedom to choose the food I eat. I wouldn't even consider eating what I wanted. I ate everything I am suppose to and always 2-3 hours apart and would be very regimental with my eating habits....Being someone who has struggled with weight loss in the past and I am in constant awareness of not let the "negative food talk" seep into my daily life..Just by listening to my body and using meditation to appreciate my body for where it is and how it is right now. I have noticed a change in my body, my clothes are fitting better and I am sleeping more soundly at night. Just a little change in my thinking has made subtle enough changes in my body to make a difference. More about this program in my next blog. One of the reasons I have been so successful in keeping my weight off is by being conscious of my eating habits and what I allow into my thought pattern about food.

I have the pleasure of being able to work in the food industry, I work at two local restaurants who focus on conscious choices of what they are serving their patrons. Eating out doesn't have to be on the bad list if you choose wisely. I tend to not go to the fast food joints but even with those places, if you are eating 80 percent of the time healthy and whole foods your body is going to be healthy enough to take the abuse of one or two meals of unhealthy fast food. Everything has its place in life and if we are off balance in anything, it will show up in our life one way or another.

The Restaurant industry has taken a change in direction, most are now focusing on natural whole foods and local. Eating seasonal is also important to remember, being in Canada we are needing foods that are warming for our bodies. Soups, stews and hearty meats for our bodies temperature to rise and keep us warm over the winter.  Eating root vegetables gives us different nutrients and minerals we didn't get over the summer months, Not to mention the Immune building properties of these precious veggies. 
So get out and eat in a Great locally owned restaurant and support your community.
Enjoy....
Happy Eating