Eat Out Eat Well

Slow Down Your Eating And Feel Fuller – Really!

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slow-down-eat-lessDo you wolf your food down so quickly that it’s gone before you realize you’ve eaten it all – and you’re left still hungry and staring at an empty plate?

Slow down when you eat!

People who eat quickly eat more calories than they would if they ate a bit more slowly. People who eat more slowly also feel fuller.

Why Does Slow Eating Make A Difference?

A recent study showed that hormones that give you feelings of fullness, or satiety, are more pronounced when people eat slowly. Subjects given identical servings of ice cream released more of these hormones when they ate it in 30 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

It leads to eating less, too. People who ate at a slow pace compared to when they chowed down very quickly said they were fuller and ending up eating about 10 percent fewer calories.

Twenty Minutes Or Less

Americans start and finish their meals — and clear the table — in less than 20 minutes.  A study published in the journal Appetite, found that people eating lunch by themselves in a fast food restaurant finish in 11 minutes. They finish in13 minutes in a workplace cafeteria and in 28 minutes at a moderately priced restaurant.  Eating with three other people takes about twice as long – which can still end up being a really short chunk of time.

Once again, Moms around the world are right – slow down when you eat. (Doesn’t that often go with don’t grab?) Slowing down allows you and your brain to register a feeling of fullness and may even mean that you eat fewer calories. You might even have time to really taste and enjoy your food, too.

This is the last week of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge.  How are you doing?  Let us know on Facebook — and give Eat Out Eat Well a “like” while you’re there.

7 Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

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Save-Pizza-CaloriesHave you had “a slice” recently?  If you did, consider it one of the 46 slices that American men, women, and children eat, on average, in a year.

We eat a lot of pizza:

  • 94% of Americans eat pizza regularly
  • Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants and pizza accounts for more than 10% of all food service sales
  • Kids 3 to 11 prefer pizza over other food groups for both lunch and dinner
  • In the US, 61% prefer regular thin crust, 14% prefer deep-dish, and 11% prefer extra thin crust
  • 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings; 38% prefer vegetables
  • 36% order pizza topped with pepperoni

What’s Good, What’s Not-So-Good?

It’s difficult to estimate the number of calories and fat grams in a slice of pizza because the size and depth of the pies and the amount of cheese, meat, or other toppings vary enormously.

Here’s the good news: pizza can be a healthy food choice filled with complex carbs, B-vitamins, calcium, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C and calorically okay if you choose wisely and don’t eat more than your fair share.

The not so good news:  fat and calories. If your mouth starts to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer: that luscious pizza can be a fat and calorie nightmare.

Mall Pizza Can Be Okay — And Not Okay

  • Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat.
  • Sbarro’s Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza has 560 calories and 35 grams of fat.
  • A slice of Sbarro’s Fresh Tomato Pizza clocks in at 450 calories with 14 grams of fat.
  • Any of Sbarro’s “Gourmet” pizzas have between 610 and 780 calories a slice and more than 20 grams of fat.
  • “Stuffed” pizzas are even worse—790 calories minimum and over 33 grams of fat per slice.

The membership warehouse club Costco has 416 domestic locations, and most of them have a food court that sells pizza, making Costco the 15th largest pizza chain in the US. They serve a whole lot of pizza and a whole lot of calories.

A single slice of Costco pizza is estimated to have 804 calories, 342 of them from fat.

Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Although we all have our own pizza preferences, the next time you order try some of these tricks to keep your choice on the healthy side:

  1. Order thin crust rather than a thick doughy or deep dish crust.
  2. Resist the urge to ask for double cheese  — better yet, go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese (if they have it).
  3. Ask for a pizza without cheese but topped with veggies and a little olive oil. You can always sprinkle on a little grated parmesan – 1 tablespoon has 22 calories — for flavor.
  4. Instead of cheese go for big flavors:  onion, garlic, olives (use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil but they’re a whole lot better than meat).  And don’t forget anchovies  — a lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
  5. Choose vegetable toppings instead of meat (think about the fat content in sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs) and you might shave 100 calories from your meal. Pile on veggies like mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, spinach, and asparagus. Some places have salad pizza – great if it’s not loaded with oil.
  6. Order a salad (careful with the dressing) on the side and cut down on the amount of pizza.  Salad takes longer to eat, too.
  7. If you’re willing (and not embarrassed or grossed out), try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice. Blotting (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm) can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

This is the fifth week of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge.  How are you doing?  Let us know on Facebook — and remember to “Like” Eat Out Eat Well when you’re there! Visit Eat Out Eat Well’s boards on Pinterest, too.

 

Want To Avoid Seconds? Keep The Serving Dishes Off Of The Table

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No Seconds EOEW-graphicDo you skimp on putting food onto your plate thinking that it will keep your calorie count down?

What happens?  You eat the skimpy portion – decide you’re still hungry – and then go back, maybe two or three times, for more.

And if you keep the serving dishes on the table right in front of you, it’s way too easy to keep refilling your plate – or just stick your fork out and eat from the platter.

Get Those Serving Dishes Off The Table

If you want to make it a little easier for yourself to save on calories, one thing you can do is to get those serving dishes off of the table.  When serving dishes are left on the table men eat 29% more and women 10% more than when those serving dishes stay on the counter.

Why?

It’s harder to grab seconds if you have to get up to get them. Sticking out your fork and shoveling more onto your plate while your butt remains firmly planted in your chair makes it far too easy to refill your plate without much thought about the quantity of food that’s going into your mouth.

Men chow down on more servings than women because they tend to eat fast  – impatiently gobbling food while they wait for everyone else in the family to finish. As a result, they end up eating seconds and thirds while other people are still on firsts.  Women usually eat more slowly so they’re not as likely to get to the seconds and thirds.

To help avoid the temptation of going back for seconds:

  • Let this be your mantra:  no seconds.  Figure out a reasonable portion of food that is within reason but not so skimpy that you’re nowhere near satisfied when you’re finished.
  • Keep the serving dishes off of the table.
  • Choose your food, fill your plate from the stove or from the serving dishes on the counter, and that’s it.  No seconds.

Eat More: Add In Healthy Food To “Crowd Out” The Less Healthy Food

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crowd-out-graphicEat more food.  But make it the healthy kind.  Think about adding vegetables, fruit, and some whole grains into your diet rather that focusing on what you shouldn’t eat and what you should take out.

We’ve all had the kind of day when it seems that your stomach is a bottomless pit and you can’t stop eating everything in sight.  But the amount of food your body can take in is not infinite. At some point you simply have to stop eating.

When you load up on  fruit, veggies, and whole intact grains that are rich in fiber and nutrients you help to displace — or “crowd out” — some of the foods in your diet that are higher in fat, sugar, and calories.  And, as a bonus, you get the incredible benefits of all of the antioxidants and phytochemicals in the rainbow of produce that you add, plus the additional fiber to help keep you full.

Some Crowding Out Tips

  • If you fill your body with healthy, nutrient-dense food, you’ll find that your cravings for unhealthy foods will naturally decrease.
  • Try drinking a lot of water and eating whole food that’s naturally stocked with nutrients earlier in the day.  It will help crowd out potential cravings later on in the day.
  • Think outside the box, too.  You don’t have to focus on adding side dishes of vegetables or fruit salad for dessert.  Add veggies into your main dish – plump up burgers, meatloaf, or meatballs with chopped vegetables and/or some whole grains.  Add cauliflower to mac and cheese.  Mix fruit into your yogurt or oatmeal or use it as a topping for chicken or fish.  Get creative!

15 Pretty Easy Ways To Burn 100 Calories

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burn-100-calories-a-day-graphic

Want to burn some extra calories?  Try fitting in a couple of these activities in every day.

A 150 pound person would burn around 100 calories by:

  1. Casually biking for 23 minutes
  2. Using the elliptical for 8 minutes
  3. Walking stairs for 11 minutes
  4. Doing yoga for 20 minutes
  5. Doing zumba for 11 minutes
  6. Doing pilates for 24 minutes
  7. Dancing around the kitchen for 20 minutes
  8. Washing the car for 20 minutes
  9. Pushing a stroller for 35 minutes
  10. Walking the dog for 26 minutes
  11. Cooking for 34 minutes
  12. Cleaning the house for 26 minutes
  13. Carrying five grocery bags from the car to the kitchen, putting the food away, taking out the trash, washing the dishes, and wiping down the kitchen counter
  14. Leisurely walking in the park for 51 minutes
  15. Chewing sugar free gum for nine hours

This is the end of the fourth week of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge.  How have you been doing?  Let us know on Facebook.