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80. If a restaurant won’t split a portion
in half for you, preparing half of it “to go,” request a doggie bag or box be delivered with your meal and split it yourself immediately before you begin to eat.
81. You can also carry a “survival kit.” Use a small plastic sandwich bag and carry packets of low fat dressings, herbal teas, spices or other essentials that may not be readily available at a restaurant.
82. Split a meal with a friend. Order soup or salad a’ la carte with one entrée and ask the waiter for an extra plate. It will save you money AND reduce the fat in each meal.
83. Visit pizzerias that offer salads and pizza by the slice. Don’t order pizza with meat. Stick with vegetable toppings and, if possible, a wheat crust. Some pizza places do offer that option.
84. Eliminate tartar sauce. If you order a fish fillet sandwich ask that the tartar sauce be left off the bun.
85. Bake with cocoa instead of chocolate. For each ounce of unsweetened chocolate called for in a recipe, substitute 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder.
86. Use evaporated skim milk for sauces and soups. It has the texture and the flavor of cream but without the fat. Each cup contains 80 grams less of fat and 600 few calories than heavy cream.
87. Plain nonfat or low fat yogurt is a great replacement for sour cream. Use it to make salad dressings. It’s also good as an add-on to breakfast cereals and desserts.
88. Low fat foods may seem less flavorful when you first try them because fat adds flavor to some foods and you are used to that. Add zip with lots of herbs and spices like basil, garlic, ginger, onion powder tarragon and oregano. Vary the spices and come up with your own combinations.
89. Yogurt can help you lose weight while protecting muscle. A recent study of overweight people who ate three servings of yogurt daily for 12 weeks lost 22% more weight, 61% more body fat and 81%more abdominal fat than people who ate a similar number of calories but no dairy products.
90. Spicy foods curb appetite as evidenced in a recent study. People who ate a sauce containing capsaicin (the compound that makes hot pepper spicy), consumed an average of 200 fewer calories over the next three hours than those who didn’t eat the sauce. Consider eating more spicy foods.
91. A 12 ounce cola has 150 calories, two tablespoons of full fat salad dressing 150, a glazed doughnut 250 and a four ounce bagel, 300. Just eliminating these items will help you to lose weight.
92. Another recent study shows that calcium from diary foods is more effective for weight loss than supplements. Why? Food is a complex mixture of known and unknown components. There is a co-operation among the components that can’t be reproduced in a nutritional supplement. Dairy contains calcium and a host of other biologically active components including the amino acid leucine. Recent research reveals that leucine may increase the ability of muscle to use fat. Have low-fat or skim milk before a meal.
Studies show that getting a liquid from dairy before eating helps you feel fuller sooner at that meal and eat less at the next meal. If you are lactose intolerant, try yogurt with live culture (it has very little lactose) or take a lactose supplement when consuming dairy.
93. Eat fish at least twice a week. The omega 3 fatty acids in fish have been shown to reduce heart attack and stroke risk in addition to helping you maintain a nutritional diet.
94. Sometimes you can go with fast food. Burger Kings BI Veggie Burger with reduced fat mayonnaise contains 340 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat. It’s better than just about any burger at any other food chain.
95. McDonald’s Fruit and Yogurt Parfait is low fat vanilla yogurt layered with berries and topped with granola. It’s a nutrient rich bargain at only 380 calories.
96. Subway’s 7 subs with 6 grams of fat or less include ham, roast beef, chicken and turkey and range from 200 to 300 calories for a six inch sub.
97. Wendy’s Mandarin Chicken Garden Sensation Salad is a creative salad alternative of mixed greens, with chicken and mandarin orange sections, roasted almonds and a half packet of Oriental sesame dressing. It is a great alternative at just 470 calories.
98. A veggie sandwich may not always be the ideal choice. The two ounces of cheese added to these popular lunchtime meals contain three quarters of a full day’s allowance for saturated fat. Tuna salad (because of the mayonnaise), has 720 calories and chicken salad is 550 calories. Stick with turkey, roast beef, chick breast or veggie sandwich without the cheese.
99. All salads are not created equal. A taco salad is served in a fried taco shell filled with ground beef, cheese, sour cream and guacamole. It contains 1,100 calories and a full day’s quota of saturated fat!
100. Not only is a single order of Fettucine Alfredo an artery clogger, it also weighs in at a whopping 1,500 calories! When eating Italian food, opt for pasta topped with marinara or meat sauce (skip the meatballs), red or white clam sauce or chicken Marsala.
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