Eat Out Eat Well

Restaurants, Diners, Fast Food

The Easy Way To Lose 5 Pounds In 5 Weeks

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"The Five" Challenge
“The Five” Challenge

Did you wake up this morning feeling like an extra five pounds of fat attached itself to your body — and you have no idea how it got there? Maybe there’s only four pounds if you challenged yourself to eating a bit differently and moving a bit more during Week #1.

Take “The Five” Challenge and safely lose a pound a week the easy and healthy way – and in a manner that will help you to keep the weight off.

Why Five?

We take in energy through food (calories in) and expend energy through our bodies’ metabolic processes and through activity (calories out).

About 3500 calories equals one pound of body weight so you’d have to eat around 3500 calories less than your body needs to lose one pound. Since we’re all unique, each one of us gains, loses, and processes calories at our own unique rate.

Even with our unique variations, choosing 3500 calories as a weekly target when you’re trying to lose weight is reasonable and doable. Taking in 500 calories a day less than your body needs and/or using up more calories through activity will help you to lose approximately one pound in a week (7 days x 500 calories = 3500 calories or approximately one pound). Do this for 5 weeks and you will have lost around 5 pounds.

Remember – that’s 500 FEWER calories and/or MORE activity than what you normally would eat or do.

“The Five” Challenge In A Nutshell

It’s as simple as this:

  • decrease your energy intake by 500 calories a day

or

  •  expend 500 calories a day more than you usually do

or

  • use any combination of the two that adds up to 500 – for instance, eat 250 calories less and move around for 250 calories more than you usually do  – or you could eat 350 calories less and burn 150 calories through activity.

Do this seven days a week for five weeks and you should be around five pounds lighter.  Everyone is different – we all calculate calories and activity differently and everyone loses weight at a different rate.  But, if you hop on the challenge you certainly will see some results and you’ll be building great new habits.

The Specifics

  • Every day I’ll post a calorie saving tip on EatOutEatWell.com that focuses on eating behaviors, food selection, or ways to burn calories through activity.  I’ll also tweet and post the tip on Facebook, and Pinterest.
  • Everyone eats out — whether it’s for a snack or a meal — I want to encourage you to Eat Out and Eat Well. Many of the tips are geared toward helping you when you eat in restaurants, amusement parks, ballparks, barbecues, airports, at parties, on vacations, or at work.
  • When deciding which tip(s) to use, choose the ones you think will work for you and that will fit into your daily life without much difficulty or stress.
  • Do one thing for seven days, or for all 35 days (great for habit formation), or try something new everyday. The choice is yours, but take a chance and do something.  Those “a little too tight” clothes in your closet will fit much better.
  • Post what you choose to do on Facebook.  Also post if you’re struggling.  There’s a community out there to help.

 Week #1:

Tip #1:  What’s your coffee (or tea) pleasure? How many cups do you drink and are they small, tall, grande, vente or extra large? What else do you put in the cup along with the coffee or tea?

Here’s some facts – use them to decide how to moderate your coffee/tea calories. The calories below are for 1 tablespoon.  My guess is that most of us pour at least two to three tablespoons of milk or cream into our coffee, not just one. Add up the calories and multiply them by the number of cups of coffee or tea you have a day.  It’s not at all far fetched to be drinking 500 calories of coffee or tea when it’s made with extras.

  • Brewed coffee, grande (16 oz), black:  5 calories
  • Brewed tea, (16 oz):  4 calories
  • Heavy cream, 1tbs:  52 calories
  • Half-and-half, 1 tbs:  20 calories
  • Whole milk, 1 tbs:  9 calories
  • Fat-free milk, 1 tbs:  5 calories
  • Table sugar, 1tbs:  49 calories
  • Bailey’s Irish Cream, 1.3 ounces:  121 calories

Remember to post on Facebook and to share the challenge with family, friends, and coworkers.

Did You Eat Too Much? Blame The Other People At The Table!

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people around dinner tableWill you be going out to eat this weekend?  Who are you going with – just your partner, your family, or a bunch of fun loving friends?  It can make a big difference in how much you eat – no kidding!

It might be hard to believe, but if you have reservations for eight you might end up eating 96% more!

Think about it – don’t you usually eat for a longer period of time when you’re eating with others compared to when you eat alone?  Maybe it’s due to mindlessly nibbling while someone else talks, or the good manners you learned in fifth grade, or because you’re just having fun and enjoying great food.

Most of us tend to stay at the table longer when we’re with others and the longer you’re at the table, the more you’ll eat.

Losing Track

Friends and family also influence how much you eat. Sometimes you can get so involved in conversation that all the monitoring of what pops into your mouth goes out the window.  Have you ever looked down at your plate and wondered where all the cookies went or how you managed to work your way through the mile high dish of pasta or the four pieces of pizza?  How many tastes did you take of everyone else’s meal and dessert?  Those tastes aren’t like invisible ink.  Those calories count, too.

Who Sets the Pace?

You tend to mimic your table companions. They eat fast, you eat fast.  They eat a lot, you eat a lot.  Ever wonder why you look at some families or couples and they’re both either heavy or slender?  As Brian Wansink, PhD says in his book, Mindless Eating, “birds of a feather eat together.”

How Much More?

Research has shown how strong the tendency is to increase how much you eat when you eat with others.  Compared to eating alone you eat, on average:

  • 35% more if you eat with one other person
  • 75% more with four at the table
  • 96% more with a group of seven or more

Why?

The pattern of eating more when you’re in larger groups compared to  when you’re eating alone is common for adults. One reason is a phenomenon called “social facilitation,” or the actions that come from stimuli such as the sight and sound of other people doing the same that that you’re doing. When you’re eating in groups, social facilitation can help override your brain’s normal signals of satiety – allowing you to eat more even when you’re not hungry.

Calorie Savers:

  • Think about how many people you’re eating with, who they are, and why you’re out to dinner with them.  If you want to have a blast and don’t care about how much you eat – eat with a big group and chow down.
  • If you want to be careful about what and how much you eat, think about eating lunch with your salad (dressing on the side, please) friends rather than the pepperoni pizza group.
  • You tend to adjust your eating pace to that of your companions.  So, sit next to the slow eaters rather than the speed eaters if you’re trying to control how much goes into your mouth.

10 Tips For Making Menu Choices That Are Easy On Your Wallet

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A menu is targeted not just at your stomach, but also to your mind.

Smart restaurant owners and chefs use menu psychology to suggestively sell from their menu pages. They use design, placement, and words to direct your attention to key items on their menus so it’s more likely that you’ll notice, remember, and order what they’ve pointed you toward.

There’s nothing wrong with ordering something that’s going to make money for a restaurant, but wouldn’t you like to feel that the selection is purely your choice rather than the restaurant nudging you in the direction of certain choices?

Here are 10 tips to help you make sure the choice is yours:

(These tips are a summary of the tips given in the seven preceeding blog posts in this series.)

  1. A menu’s design should be in sync with the restaurant’s concept and image — the décor, service, food quality, and price range — and give you an idea about the overall dining experience you can expect.
  2. You’ll likely find a restaurant’s most profitable items or specials — the things they want you to order — on the top right of the front page of a two-page menu or the top half of the page on a single page menu.
  3. “Eye magnets” like colored boxes, larger fonts, and icons or symbols are used to help direct your gaze.
  4. Where a menu item is positioned in a list could shout “order me” or “I’m just a complacent placeholder.”
  5. High profile real estate is probably filled by high-margin items – the ones that make the most money – or signature dishes, specialty dishes that keep you coming back for more.
  6. Descriptive menu labels, especially those that evoke nostalgia, yank your chain – and can boost sales by as much as 27%.
  7. A menu can make you feel like you’d be crazy to pass up an item with a mouth-watering description by toning down the descriptions of competing choices. The competition still might be good — it just doesn’t sound as great as the dish the restaurant wants you to order.
  8. Really expensive items act as decoys when they’re put next to others that are more reasonably priced – pushing you to order what then looks reasonably priced — but still may be expensive.
  9. Don’t look for dollar signs on the menu. They’re not there because they act as a subconscious reminder that you’re about to part with your hard earned money. Restaurants don’t want you to think about money when you order.
  10. Prices are usually listed right after a dish’s description rather than lined up in straight right-adjusted column.  This keeps you from scanning down the list to find the least expensive items. Remember – restaurants don’t want you to think about your wallet – so a menu will use ways to eliminate easy price comparison.

 

Do you eat out?  This is the eighth article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

Please share if you know anyone who wants to Eat Out and Eat Well!

Remember to LIKE Eat Out Eat Well on Facebook (the LIKE button is under the five spoons).

How To Be Dollars And Cents Savvy When You Read A Menu

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Restaurants are savvy. They’re in business to take your bucks and don’t want you to think about spending them – especially when you’re looking at a menu.

That’s why – may restaurants, especially those at a higher price point — you won’t see a dollar sign next to the menu choices.  Dollar signs – or euro signs – or any money symbol — serves as a subconscious reminder that you’re about to part with your hard-earned money.

The “Pain Of Paying”

A study published by Cornell researchers found that customers spend less when prices are listed with dollar signs rather than without them. It seems that even the word or symbol for dollar can trigger “the pain of paying.”

The absence of dollar signs makes menu prices seem a bit friendlier, too — especially in higher-end restaurants. Many places will eliminate the numbers for cents, as well.

A shorter numerical price point is most appealing, so chicken that costs twelve dollars will mostly likely be shown as 12 instead of $12 or $12.00. Using a dash or period after the numbers is more of a design choice than a psychological one, but plain old numbers followed by nothing is most common.

Tip: Don’t look for dollar signs on the menu. They’re not there because they serve as a subconscious reminder that you’re about to part with your hard earned money. Restaurants don’t want you to think about money when you order.

The Numbers Aren’t In A Straight Line Either

On most menus the prices are usually right after the dish description rather than lined up like soldiers in a nice straight right-adjusted column. Why? So you won’t go looking for a cheaper dish.

When you see a chicken dish for $17 the restaurant doesn’t want you to easily scan a column of numbers and notice that the chicken tenders two lines down are $3 cheaper.

Amazingly, staggering prices rather that listing them in a nice straight column can lead to a 10% increase in sales for the restaurant.

Tip: Prices are usually listed right after a dish’s description rather than lined up in straight right-adjusted column.  This keeps you from scanning down the list to find the least expensive items. Remember – restaurants don’t want you to think about your wallet – so a menu will use ways to eliminate easy price comparison.

Decoys And Trickery

“Decoy pricing” is a favorite tactic of some restaurants, too. They’ll put really expensive dishes at the top of the list on the menu so the less expensive dishes that follow look more reasonably priced – even if they’re still expensive.

Some research has shown that people tend to order neither the most, nor the least expensive dishes. They go more for mid-zone pricing so tossing high-priced decoys into the equation makes everything else look a little more reasonable.

Tip: Really expensive menu items act as decoys when they’re put next to others that are more reasonably priced – pushing you to order what then looks reasonably priced — but still may be expensive.

 

Do you eat out?  This is the seventh article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

Please share if you know anyone who wants to Eat Out and Eat Well!

Remember to LIKE Eat Out Eat Well on Facebook (the LIKE button is under the five spoons).

Menu Descriptions That Make Your Mouth Water

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Have you ever been ready to order your usual meal when something on the menu seems to reach out and grab you? Those long tentacles aren’t a fluke, but a product of creative phrasing and mouth-watering  words. Bacon and eggs can turn into a “fluffy omelette made with farm fresh eggs, leafy spinach, and crisp applewood smoked bacon.”

Putting a dish with a really mouth-watering description — like the fluffy omelette — next to something that’s described in plain jane language — like bacon and eggs with hash browns – can make the omelette sound all the more appealing and a very attractive menu choice.

Menu Language

Menu language is an art unto itself. Descriptive menu labels, especially the ones that yank your nostalgia strings or offer clear explanations, might entice you to order something exotic or strange. For instance, you might take a leap and order branzino if you know it’s European sea bass or chanterelle if you know it’s a mushroom.

Artful adjectives, like “handcrafted, slow-cooked, or old-time flavor” can sway your choice and leave you more satisfied at the end of the meal. So can “crispy” rather than “fried” or “poached” instead of “boiled.”

For example, how could you not try the “Best Lemon Tart I Ever Had,” the next to the last selection shown above? The description grabs you and makes you feel as though you’d be a fool to pass it up. Once you taste it, If it proves to be as good as its description, it’s almost  guaranteed that a customer will order it again and again – and that the restaurant make a lot of money from selling their signature lemon tart.

Tip: Descriptive menu labels, especially those that evoke nostalgia, yank your chain – and can boost sales by as much as 27%.

Familiar Items Vs. Special Or Unique

As a general rule, restaurants leave familiar items alone. Roast beef is roast beef and a fancy description might be annoying. But elaborating on something special or unusual — like locally grown arugula with fresh garden herbs — makes a dish more intriguing and you won’t think you’re being ripped off for a bed of lettuce.

Restaurants can steer you toward high profit margin choices by making some descriptions more appealing than others. There’s a continuum of appeal — having everything sound equally delicious isn’t much different than having everything sound equally bland.

Tip: A menu can make you feel like you’d be crazy to pass up an item with a mouth-watering description by toning down the descriptions of competing choices. The competition still might be good — it just doesn’t sound as great as the dish the restaurant wants you to order.

 

Do you eat out?  This is the sixth article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

Please share if you know anyone who wants to Eat Out and Eat Well!