Vending machines actually have a holy history. Around 215 BC the mathematician Hero invented a type of vending device that accepted bronze coins to dispense holy water. Vending eventually became economically viable In 1888 when the Adams Gum Company put gum machines on New York City’s elevated train platforms to dispense a piece of Tutti-Frutti gum for a penny.

Now they’re everywhere: around the corner from your hotel room, in train stations, and in just about ev- ery rest stop on road trips. They call your name when you’re especially vulnerable. You’re stressed, tired, bored, anxious, and your blood sugar is traveling south—all of which means the sugar, fat, and salt junk food allure is really hard to overcome.

When a vending machine calls your name, choose wisely. There are good, better, and best choices to be made.

Calorie Savers: No Choice Is Perfect; Make the Best Choice for You

• You can almost always find packages of nuts, or popcorn, or pretzels, or dried fruit.
• Be careful of things with too much sugar, especially if you’re driving. A big time sugar hit may give you energy from an initial blood sugar spike but more than likely it will be followed by a drop in your blood sugar levels possibly making you sleepy, grouchy, and hungry for more sweet and fatty food.
• Your choice depends on what you want: protein or sweet satisfaction, fill-you-up fiber or salty crunch. Here are some choices; just be aware of calories, carbs, protein, and fiber.

Crunchy

• Baked Lays Potato Chips: 130 calories, 2 grams of fat, 26 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

• Baked Doritos, Nacho Cheese: 170 calories, 5 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs, 3 grams of pro- tein

• Cheez-It Baked Snack Crackers: 180 calories, 9 grams of fat, 20 grams carbs, 4 grams of protein

• Ruffles Potato Chips: 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, 23 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

• Cheetos, Crunchy: 150 calories, 10 grams of fat, 13 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

• Sun Chips Original: 210 calories, 10 grams of fat, 28 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

• Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels: 160 calories, no fat, 35 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

• White Cheddar Cheese Popcorn, Smartfood: 120 calories, 8 grams of fat, 11 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Nuts/Seeds

• Planters Sunflower Kernels: 290 calories, 25 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbs, 11 grams of protein

• Planters Salted Peanuts: 290 calories, 25 grams of fat, 8 grams of carbs, 13 grams of protein

Cookies/Pastry/Bars

• Mini Chips Ahoy: 270 calories, 13 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

• Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts (2 pastries): 410 calories, 10 grams of fat, 75 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

• Hostess Fruit Pie, apple: 470 calories, 20 grams of fat, 70 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

• Fig Newtons: 200 calories, 4 grams of fat, 40 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

• Quaker Chewy Low-Fat Granola Bar, Chocolate Chunk: 90 calories, 2 grams of fat, 19 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein

• Nature Valley Granola Bar, Crunchy Oats and Honey (2 bars): 190 calories, 6 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Candy

• Skittles: 240 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 56 grams of carbs, no protein

• Twix (2 cookies): 250 calories, 12 grams of fat, 34 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

• 3 Musketeers, king size: 200 calories, 6 grams of fat, 36 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein

• Peanut M&Ms: 250 calories, 13 grams of fat, 30 grams of carbs, 5 grams of protein

• Snickers, regular size: 250 calories, 12 grams of fat, 33 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

For more tips on making calorie-conscious choices, get a FREE download for your Kindle or Kindle reader from Amazon through Tuesday, August 6th!

The post Vending Machines: What’s Your Favorite Number/Letter Combination? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

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.

The post 15 Pretty Easy Ways To Burn 100 Calories appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Snacks account for more than 25% of Americans’ daily calorie intake; since the 1970s, snacks have accounted for around 580 calories a day — which basically turns them into “a full eating event,” or a fourth meal.

When And Where Do We Snack?

• Americans average 2.3 snacks per day, snacking most frequently in the afternoon, evening and late at night.
• Most people snack at home, 12% say they snack at work, 7% eat snacks while they travel from place to place
• 27% of Americans snack on impulse, 28% snack because they want a treat, and 14% eat snacks when they’re stressed or anxious
• 57% of people say it’s important that food and beverage snacks be healthy, the food and beverages mentioned the most were chips and soda.

How Many Calories?

Maybe we snack so much because multi-tasking has increased – think about how often you eat and drink while you’re doing something else.

Between 2006 and 2008, it took around 70 minutes to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Secondary eating, the kind you do while you’re working on the computer, driving, or walking down the street, doubled from 15 minutes in 2006 to nearly 30 minutes a day in 2008.

The time spent on secondary drinking jumped nearly 90% — from 45 to 85 minutes — which explains why beverages account for 50% of the calories we take in through snacking. (Ever wonder why Starbuck’s and Dunkin’ Donuts are so crowded?)

Are All Snacks Bad For You?

No.  Research doesn’t support the idea that snacking is the main cause of obesity; for some people — like young children and older adults – snacks can be an important source of nutrients and calories.

Trying to go more than four hours without something to eat can make you so hungry that you’ll eat quantities of just about anything in sight. Eating a small meal or snack every 3 to 4 hours helps keep your metabolism revved up so you burn more calories over the course of a day and will help ward off mid-morning and afternoon slumps.

Thoughtful, planned snacking can keep you from feeling outrageously hungry, really grouchy, and can put the brakes on raiding the refrigerator or going on a buying spree at the nearest bakery.

What’s A Snack?

Almost 100% of Americans snack every day, but there isn’t a standard definition of what a snack is or what motivates us to snack. We “self-define,” leaving plenty of wiggle room to blur the line between what’s a snack and what’s a meal.

A snack shouldn’t be a fourth meal.  An individual snack, like the one so many of us have mid-morning or mid-afternoon, is recommended to be between 150 and 200 calories, have at least 8 grams of protein for satiety and to keep your blood sugar stable, and at least 3 grams of fiber to fill you up. Keep the fat and sugar grams low.

Beware health halo foods – the so-called “healthy” snacks that are really a bunch of sugar and/or fat in disguise.  These include a selection of (but not all) cereals, breakfast and protein bars, yogurt-covered anything (like raisins and pretzels), sports and energy drinks, smoothies, and frozen yogurt. Check labels.  Most baked goods, chips, candy, and sugary drinks are occasional treats and not daily snacks.

If you’re not hungry, don’t snack. Ask yourself if you’re snacking because of hunger, habit, or some other reason – like boredom or anger.

Some Snack Choices

Pick snacks that taste good and you look forward to eating.

Some good choices:

• Baby carrots (or other vegetables) and hummus.

• Half a cup of cottage cheese with fruit or whole grain crackers.

• An apple, orange, pear, peach, or grapes with ¼ cup of almonds or reduced-fat cheese or a low-fat cheese stick.

• Whole-grain crackers, a slice of whole grain bread, or a banana with peanut butter.

• Trail mix or a combination of nuts, seeds, raisins, and whole grain cereal. Be careful of portions, though – although they’re healthy, nuts are a higher calorie food.

• A whole wheat or multi-grain English muffin with a small amount of nut or seed butter.

• Low-fat or non-fat yogurt with raisins, a banana, or a small amount of whole grain cereal.

• A 12 ounce skim latte or cappuccino.

This is the first post of week 4 of the lose a pound a week challenge.  How are you doing? Let us know on Facebook.

The post Are Your Snacks The Equivalent Of Another Meal? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Listen to lunchtime orders and you hear salad, salad, salad – and an occasional sandwich. Sometimes the sandwich is the clear winner in terms of calories and fat.  For instance, a ham and cheese sandwich ranges from 350 to 450 calories depending upon how much ham and cheese there really is – and whether it comes with mustard or mayo (and, of course, not fries or chips). And sometimes the salad is a better choice — depending on what goes into it.  Check out the following nutritional facts for salads.

The Green Base

The green stuff that’s the base for most salads isn’t the problem.  Most greens are very low in calories and pretty nutritious.

• 1 cup shredded Romaine: 8 calories, 1 gram fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 gram fat
• 1 cup of Arugula:  6 calories, 1 gram fiber, 1 gram protein, 0 gram fat
• 1 cup raw spinach:  7 calories, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram protein
• 1 cup chopped kale:  32 calories, 1 gram of fiber, 2 grams of protein, 0 gram fat

Where’s The Problem?

Answer:  Hidden in high calorie add-ons and dressings.

• Generally, at least ¼ of a cup (frequently more) of dressing is added to a tossed salad. A ladle of creamy dressing has about 360 calories and 38g of fat (a cheeseburger’s worth).
• Tuna, macaroni, and chicken salads, the holy grail of delis and salad bars, are loaded with mayonnaise, which is loaded with fat.  ½ cup of chicken salad has around 208 calories, 16g of fat; tuna salad has 192 calories, 9g fat; tuna pasta salad has 397 calories, 9g fat; macaroni salad has 170 calories, 9g fat. (Remember, ½ cup is pretty small.)
• Then there’s cheese. A ¼ cup (a ¼ cup serving is really small) serving of shredded cheddar has 114 calories, 9g fat;  blue cheese has 80 calories, 6g fat;  feta has 75 calories, 6g fat.
• Croutons and Crispy Noodles: ¼ cup of plain croutons has 31 calories, 0g fat; 1 serving of McDonald’s Butter Garlic Croutons has 60 calories, 1g fat; ¼ cup of crispy noodles has 74 calories, 4g fat
• Dried cranberries: ¼ cup has 98 calories, 0g fat
• Nuts and seeds: ¼ cup sunflower seeds: 210 calories, 19g fat; chopped walnuts:  193 calories, 18g fat
• Avocado, ¼ cup: 58 calories, 5g fat
• Bacon bits, 1 tablespoon: 25 calories, 2g fat
• Bread (often used to sop up leftover dressing): 1 piece of French bread, 82 calories, 1g fat; 1 dinner roll, 78 calories, 2g fat. Dressing sopped up by the bread or roll:  lots of extra fat calories!

This tip is part of the “lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks” challenge.  Read more about the challenge here and post how you’re doing on Eat Out Eat Well’s Facebook page.

The post Can You Save Calories Eating A Ham And Cheese Sandwich Instead Of A Salad? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

We Feed Our Stomachs And Our Eyes

We eat most of what’s on our plate regardless of the size of the plate.

Six ounces of cooked rice with a little chili looks like a good-sized portion on an 8 inch plate. The same amount on a 12 inch plate would look paltry and most of us add more — increasing both the portion size and the calories.

When you switch to a smaller plate you eat a smaller serving. You eat, on average, 22% less when you switch from a 12 inch plate to a 10 inch plate.

Go Small – But Not Too Small

It sounds too good to be true, but using smaller dishes can also help you feel full even when you’re eating less. Studies show that people are more satisfied with less food when they’re served on 8 inch salad plates instead of on 12 inch dinner plates.

But — be careful not to go too small with your plate.  With too little food you might end up going back for seconds. A plate 2 inches smaller than the one you normally use is probably about right.

The post Want To Decrease Your Dinner Calories? Change The Size Of Your Plate appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Portion size is critical to managing your weight.  One helpful idea is to use familiar objects as visual guides to “guesstimate” portion sizes.

One Cup Is About The Size Of A Baseball

The suggested serving size for many food items, particularly produce, is a cup. The suggested portion size for many denser items, like pasta, rice, or ice cream is a half a cup, so two servings – which is, at minimum, what most of us eat, would equal a cup.

 A Baseball, Not A Softball

A cup is about the size of a baseball – a baseball, not a softball.  So a cup of cooked greens, a cup of yogurt, a cup of beans, or a cup of cantaloupe should all look like the size of a baseball – but with obviously different calorie counts.

Here are some of the CDC’s examples of one-cup servings:

• 1 small apple
• 1 medium grapefruit
• 1 large orange
• 1 medium pear
• 8 large strawberries
• 1 large bell pepper
• 1 medium potato
• 2 large stalks of celery
• 12 baby carrots or 2 medium carrot
• 1 large ear of corn

It’s easy to visualize a small apple or a medium potato as about the size of a baseball.  It’s more difficult with an ear of corn!  But, for most food products it is possible to think “baseball” and pour or cut or pick (as in the case of fruit) a similarly sized portion.

This is Tip #3 for Week 3 of the “lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge.”  Let everyone know how you’re doing! Post your results and/or struggles and suggestions on Eat Out Eat Well’s page on Facebook.

The post Let A Baseball Be Your Guide For A One Cup Serving Of Food appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Any menu item will have tons of added calories if it is:

• smothered in sauce
• covered or layered with cheese
• loaded with butter, oil, cream, mayonnaise, or dressing
• “sugared-up” even if it doesn’t taste sweet
  • made from a fatty cut of meat
  • made with hidden sugar or flour and/or some type of fat for thickening
  • a huge portion size

Green Light (Probably A Good Choice) words or phrases:

• Barbequed
• Blanched
• Boiled
• Grilled/Broiled/Charbroiled
• Fat free
• Garden fresh
• Poached
• Primavera
• Red sauce/ Marinara
• Roasted
• Seasoned
• Steamed

Quick hint:  Words ending in the letter “d” are frequently on the okay list, for instance: poached, boiled, grilled, and steamed.  Some notable exceptions are:  fried, and the “b-d” words:  buttered, battered, and breaded.

Yellow Light “Caution” Foods (Maybe Yes, Maybe No)

Words frequently used on menus to describe “yellow light foods,” should be chosen cautiously because they may or may not be healthy choices.

Yellow Light words or phrases:

• Baked
• BastedStir-Fried/Sauteed
• Vegetarian
• Vinaigrette
• High Fiber
• Light/Lite
• Reduced
• Marinated
• Stewed
• Panini
• Almandine/Almondine

Red Light (Once In A While) Foods

Really think hard before eating food described with these words and phrases:

• Au gratin/Cheesy/Parmigiana
• Aioli
• Alfredo
• Battered/Encrusted/Crusted
• Bearnaise/Hollandaise
• Bet you can’t finish it/ Bottomless/Value/Giant/Jumbo/Loaded
• Bisque
• Breaded
• Buttery / Buttered
• Carbonara
• Casserole
• Chicken fried/Pan fried
• Covered/Smothered
• Creamed/Creamy/White Sauce/Bechamel
• Crispy/Crunchy
• Deluxe
• Escalloped/Scalloped
• Fried/Deep fried
• Pesto
• Stroganoff
• Stuffed
• Twice baked

Quick hint:  Words ending in the letter “y” should usually send up red alerts, for instance:  cheesy, crispy, crunchy.

This post is part of the 500 calorie challenge:  lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks the healthy way.

The post Traffic Light Food Choices: Red (Once In A While), Yellow (Maybe Yes, Maybe No), And Green (Probably Good) appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Do you mindlessly chow down on bread and butter or oil before a meal either because you’re hungry or because it’s there for easy nibbling?

Butter, Oil, And Bread Can Add A Big Caloric Punch

• A tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories, a tablespoon of butter has 102 calories, one pat of butter has around 36 calories.

• Butter and oil are all fat; olive oil is loaded with heart healthy monounsaturated fat, butter is filled with heart unhealthy saturated fat.

• Bread varies significantly in calories depending on the type of bread and the size of the piece. Harder breads and breadsticks are often less caloric than softer doughy breads.

• Most white bread and a small piece
•  of French bread averages around 90 to 100 calories a slice. Dinner rolls average 85 calories each.
• If you’re eating Mexican food, bread may not appear, but a basket of chips adds around 500 calories.

Who Takes In More Calories – Butter Or Olive Oil Eaters?

In a study done by the food psychology laboratory at Cornell University found that people who put olive oil on a piece of bread consume more fat and calories than butter users even though they end up eating fewer pieces of bread.

The researchers found that olive oil users:

• used 26% more olive oil on each slice of bread compared to block butter users (40 vs. 33 calories)
• ate 23% less bread over the course of a meal than butter users taking in 17% fewer bread calories:  264 calories (oil users) vs. 319 calories (butter users).

Can you see how you can easily save close to 500 calories by nixing the bread or chip basket?

This post is a tip for the 500 calorie challenge:  lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks.

The post Do You Eat A Bread And Butter (or oil) Meal Before Your Meal? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Most of us sit too much.  Someone who sits at a desk takes about 5,000 to 6,000 steps a day .  On average, a man living in an Amish community who takes about 18,000 steps a day and a woman takes14,000 steps.

Our modern way of life has given us lots of NEAT-squelching tools:  smart phones , ipads, microwaves, remote controls, electric toothbrushes, even robotic vacuum cleaners.  As a result, we need to consciously devise ways to build back some activity into daily life.

Simple examples could be walking the dog a block more; walking to a deli a few blocks away to pick up lunch; having some walk-and-talk meetings during the day; pacing when you’re on the phone; getting off the bus a block earlier; and moving around the playground with your kids instead of sitting on the park bench.

If you incorporate some of these ideas into your day, you can burn hundreds of extra calories a day.

Fidgeting

Fidgeting doesn’t help much with calorie burn or weight loss. Research shows that the secret to burning fat is to get up, move around, and walk. Initially NEAT was labeled as a fidgeting phenomenon, but the NEAT researchers point out that you wouldn’t be able to fidget enough in a day to burn 800 calories.

The researchers believe that fidgeting is the body’s way of telling you to get up and move. Bodies want to move, but the environment and technology makes if very easy to not have to move around.

Some NEAT Examples To Burn An Additional 500 Calories

1. Taking an hours worth of phone calls while standing up and pacing burns 100 to 130 calories, while making phone calls for an hour while sitting at your desk burns 15 calories.
2. Walking for 30 minutes at lunch and then sitting and eating for 15 minutes burns 100-130 calories.  If you sat for 45 minutes while eating you’d burn 25 calories.
3. Having a one hour walking meeting burns 150-200 calories.  A seated one hour meeting burns 15.

The post NEAT: A Great Way To Burn Calories Without Intentionally Exercising appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

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 Do You Eat When There Are Others At The Table?

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?

Eating more when you’re in larger groups compared to when you eat alone is common for adults. One reason is a phenomenon called “social facilitation,” or actions that are stimulated by the sight and sound of other people doing the same that that you’re doing. When you’re eating in groups, social facilitation helps 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.

This is part of Week 2 of the lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks challenge.  How are you doing?  Post what you’re doing on Facebook and remember to “Like” EatOutEatWell while you’re there.  Follow us on Pinterest and Twitter, too.

The post Who Sets the Pace When You Eat With Others? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.