What Restaurants Hope You Don't Do Before Your Next Meal

I am working with a couple on my 30-Day Boot Camp program (view the program at www.keepyourbetterhalf.com), which means we kick their butt twice a day and carefully manage every morsel that goes into their body.  Last week my client couple wanted to go out on a date night.  With two youngs kids at home, a short time at the corner sit-down restaurant chain (Applebees, TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesdays, Houlihans, etc.) was the best that could be arranged for the night.

Before sending them off to the restaurant, we went online to check out the nutritional data from their menu...

Chicken Caesar Salad: 1020 calories, 98g fat, 786mg sodium

Lettuce Wraps: 586 calories, 71g carbs, 1865mg sodium

Prime 5 oz Sirloin Steak (with green beans and baked potato): 1054 calories,  53g fat, 93g carbs, 2516mg sodium

And so it went for everything on the menu.  Lots of calories, too much fat, terrible amounts of sodium.  If one person ordered an appetizer and entree or entree and dessert, it would be easy to clear 2000 calories...and all after 7pm.  Yikes!

Here are the weight loss reality checks that restaurants are hoping you don't make before dine with them.

Weight Loss Reality Check #1: Check the Nutritional Data for Your Intended Meal Beforehand

Don't be a casualty of the calorie.  Many restaurant foods will kill you in at least one category (calories, fat, carbs, sodium, cholesterol), if not more!  Go online and find the nutritional information for the restaurant's menu.  Deciding what to eat and how much of it is easy when you are looking at their awful nutritional data!

Weight Loss Reality Check #2: Budget Calorie Consumption by the Clock

In America, we tend to eat the most calories when our body is least equipped to handle them: dinner! Talk about a recipe for a weight gain!  If you want to give your body a fighting chance to handle your out-to-eat calories, be sure to eat lighter the later you eat.  If your out-to-eat meal is a 12pm lunch, you can go a little heavier than if your out-to-eat meal is an 8pm dinner.  In America, we would all be better off if we swapped lunch and dinner.  It is crucial to eat lighter at a restaurant, and very light if it's late.

Weight Loss Reality Check #3: Be Wary of Sodium the Day Before and Day After Eating Out

Most restaurants douse their foods in sodium.   They are shameless in their use of sodium.  With this in mind, prep your body the day before eating out by having a super low sodium day.  Also, give your body a light sodium day the day after eating out to allow it to recover!  In the US the RDA for sodium is 2400mg per day (which is a ton compared to the UK's 1600mg).  If you are interesting in keeping off of blood pressure medication, pay attention to sodium!

Wrapping It Up

Getting fit and losing weight are tough things to do on a restaurant diet, and almost impossible to do on an unorganized restaurant diet.  To increase your odds of fat loss and weight loss, check restaurant information online before you order, budget your caloric intake based on the clock, and go easy on the sodium before and after a restaurant visit.

Adam Erwin is a personal trainer (with a nutrition background) who travels the world working with people who want to experience fat loss and weight loss in record-time. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN and loves to train with people whose health does not match their lifestyle. Adam works closely in the Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Excelsior, Minnetonka, and Edina communities.  Visit www.keepyourbetterhalf.com to learn more about his work.

Top Ten Foods to Help You Lose Fat and Lose Weight

I just finished up with a six-week project with a client.  As we closed up our program today, he told me what a difference the food selections had made for him.  Rob had seen some specialists about his hypoglycemic tendencies and none of them provide him with solutions that made a difference.  We were able to pinpoint some ideas for him that proved to be difference makers.

Here are some of the best weight loss and fat loss foods(by food I mean consummable goods...not necessarily solids). 

Tenth Best Weight Loss Food: Whey Isolate Protein Powder

Protein can help conquer hunger.  Whey isolate protein powder (made into a shake) can really help the body reach a sense of fullness.  It can also feed muscle (which helps with fat burning), and is low in calories, carbs, and cholesterol.

Ninth Best Weight Loss Food: Pears

Pears are very nutrient dense, very filling, and are low in calories.   A great morning or afternoon snack!

Eighth Best Weight Loss Food: Chick Peas

Chick peas are a great item to put alongside a chicken or fish main course.  They are filling, have a good raiot of carbs/fats/proteins.  The only down side is they pack a little bit of sodium.

Seventh Best Weight loss Food: Lemons

Not only are they great to add to water (they have an alkalizing effect to water, which seems counter intuitive), lemons are very filling, are midly anti-inflammatory in nature, and contain a little bit of fiber. Add a lemon to your water, or add it to your chicken breast for flavoring and nutrition.

Sixth Best Weight Loss Food:Buffalo (top round steak)

The biggest thing about a source of protein is the cholesterol associated with it.  While buffalo has some cholesterol (82mg per 100 g of steak), it is also rich in protein (33g) and low in calories (146). It is typically leaner than venison and chicken, amongst others.

Adam Erwin is a personal trainer (with a nutrition background) who travels the world working with people who want to experience fat loss and weight loss in record-time. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN and loves to train with people whose health does not match their lifestyle. Adam works closely in the Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Excelsior, Minnetonka, and Edina communities.  Visit www.keepyourbetterhalf.com to learn more about his work.

Successful Weight Loss in 30 Days: Turning the Tide on Being Overweight, Diabetic, and on the Brink of Major Health Problems

Is your life upside down? If your energy is down and your cholesterol is up, if your new diagnosis of type II diabetes is supposed to be the tip of your pending medical iceburg, and if your waistline is growing faster than your company's bottom line...it's time for the 30-day weight loss program. What is the successful 30-day weight-loss program?

A Day in the Life of Successful Weight Loss in 30 Day

Day 11: Imagine you awoke at 6am to the sound of your favorite song. You roll out of bed, feeling pretty good. After all, you just lost 12 lbs in seven days, have enjoyed peaceful sleep, and notice that you are ready to get out of bed when you hear your daily anthem. Your new personal trainer was right, that cleanse last week was just what your body needed...and thank God he did it with you!

Morning Cardio with the Successful 30-Day Exerciser

You put on your workout clothes, head to the fridge and commence downing 12 ounces of water, the perfect first step for your day. You eat the perfect pre-cardio bite, which guarantees that you will burn fat for the next two hours.

You step outside and start your morning cardio. Your personal trainer (the one who set up your music, your water, your pre-workout nibble, and the current cardio session that is different from yesterday...and good thing because that one kicked your butt!) guides you through a quick warm up, a satisfying series of stretches, and then a fun little course he has set up on the beach of Lake Minnetonka.

After your cardio session, you return home and check email while your trainer makes you the perfect post-workout shake (a complete blend of the types of proteins your body needs at the moment). You sip it down and head off to shower.

Upon getting dressed and heading down to grab breakfast (a savory 300-calorie dish you had once last week and couldn't wait to eat again), you head to the office with your water in hand, mid-morning snack already in the car, and confident you have already conquered more of the world in your first two hours than anyone else will accomplish all day.

At the Office with the Successful 30-Day Dieter

Before you know it noon arrives. The mid-morning almond and fruit mix went down two hours ago and it's time to refuel. You walk out of your downtown Minneapolis office and find your hot lunch already in the lunch room, waiting for you. Your personal trainer IS GOOD! Another right-sized dish, a tender piece of tilapia, grilled to perfection with some basmati rice and a fresh salad. Accompanying your lunch is your afternoon nutrition: a protein shake, which awaits you in the breakroom refrigerator....compliments of your trainer.

The Workout Routine of Successful 30-Day Weight Loss

The workday breezes by and you head home, change clothes, eat a pre-workout bar (which must have been stolen from the Thin Mint cookie formula the Girl Scouts use), and begin your evening exercises with your personal trainer. Sweating, challenged, and invigorated, you churn through the workout, stretch, and relax as your trainer prepares your post-workout protein shake. You down the shake, shower, and prepare for dinner out on the town.

The Restaurant Experience of a Successful 30-Day Dieter

Before you leave for the restaurant for your business meeting, you get a note from your trainer with the perfect order at the restaurant tonight...he's already analyzed the menu and picked out the meal that will provide the best nutrients (considering the carbs, protein, fat, cholesterol, and calories he's already logged for you today from your meals, snacks and shakes) during this evening hour.

Dinner is flawless. You feel satisfied but know you haven't overeaten. You return home to find a note from your personal trainer, tomorrow's agenda, and a delicous and healthy midnight snack...should you have a late-hour need.

Wrapping Up the Day of the Successful 30-Day Program

As you retire to your bedroom, you think about what your day used to look like: waking up groggy and fighting with the snooze button, skipping breakfast, eating treats or vending machine junk until lunch, a gotta-grab-something-quick-because-I'm-too-busy-to-eat-right lunch, four diet sodas, an embarassingly huge dinner, and the guilty feeling of driving by the gym on the way home...knowing you have yet to visit there this month.

You contrast THAT day with the life you lead now: up early and feeling great, swift cardio, breakfast while overlooking Lake Minnetonka, a power day at the office, meals that are thought about for you so you don't have to think about them, the right snack at the right time, an invigorating late afternoon workout, a dinner out that actually serves your body, and the satisfaction of a well-executed day.

As you drift off to sleep, you think about your 19 remaining days of having your very own in-home personal trainer (and his comprehensive 30-day plan to teach you how to eat right without thinking about it, get more from your exercise in less time, and build a day of successful health and fitness habits), how he has helped turn around your life, and how your doctor, co-workers, family, and friends will not believe how much progress you have made in 30 days. Oh wait, you think, I forgot to take some of my diabetes medication today...and I still felt great. Hmmmm.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Adam Erwin is an in-home personal trainer who travels the world helping people turn around their health in 30 days or less. Follow his work at www.keepyourbetterhalf.com. If you believe you are a candidate for his comprehensive body-change boot camp, email him at adam@keepyourbetterhalf.com to learn more.

Worst Diet Plan Ever: Diet Soda

"You look amazing! Have you lost weight?" I overheard a gentleman ask a lady acquaintance of his at the local coffee shop.

"Yes," she said, "Ever since I started drinking diet soda, the pounds have just fallen off me." Then he invited her to sit down and chat over a Diet Coke, and they fell in love. And that was the day Diet Coke put match.com to shame.

Okay, I admit, the scene above did not transpire. Seriously, when was the last time you heard someone tout diet soda as their weight loss solution? Never. Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, and Diet Mountain Dew do not have a Jared like Subway does. When I think of the stereotypical diet soda drinker (or pop, as they call it in Minnesota....dummies), they are an overweight person who appear overjoyed to drink such a tasty beverage that is also conducive to being on a diet.

As a personal trainer with a nutrition background, I cannot stress enough how bad diet soda is for people trying to lose weight. It is bad for all of us, but it is an emergency brake to momentum for the weight-loss minded. I have three major problems with diet soda.

Diet Soda Slows Down Metabolism

Our bodies have a positive natural metabolic response to sugar. When we consume sugar, be it in fruits or in candy, our body picks up on the presence of sugar and says, "I pity the fool who ate sugar. It's time to turn on the metabolism because an energy rush is coming!" (Yes friends, we all sound like Mr. T on the inside). Every single time we eat sugar, our metabolism kicks on in anticipation of the pending energy rush.

Enter the artificial sweeteners in diet soda. When we consume them, our metabolism turns on because it anticipates the energy rush that usually follows the consumption of a sweet taste. Artificial sweeteners, however, do not increase the blood sugar like real sugar does. As we drink more and more diet soda with artificial sweeteners, and all of them have artificial sweeteners, our body begins to adapt to the idea that a sweet taste does not result in an energy rush (as sugar has taught it).

The end result is that our metabolism is taught over time not to respond to sweet tastes, even when it should. Artificial sweeteners, in fact, teach our body's metabolism not to respond properly to sugar. Diet soda is a dagger to the metabolism!

Diet Soda Makes Us Eat More

Quite simply, the artificial sweeteners in diet soda confuse the digestive and metabolic system. Studies have proven that humans who consume diet sodas are more likely to be obese and havemetabolic syndrome (discussed above).

In a Purdue University study (see it for yourself here), rats who were given calorie-free and artificially-sweetened yogurt ate more over time than rats who consumed yogurt sweetened with glucose. The rats fed artificial sweeteners gained significantly more weight and more fat, and showed no ability to cut back on their intake later. These results are consistent with what scientists have seen in diet soda drinkers among humans.

The ingredients in diet soda confuse our system, which results in weight gain and fat gain. Yikes!

Diet Soda Makes Cardio More Difficult

Some might be thinking, "Okay, I'll keep my diet soda and just do more cardio to keep my metabolism in gear." Fat chance.

If you have ever been off soda for awhile and then you have one, it burns your lungs for a second. That is your lungs saying, "I pity the fool who just made my lungs cringe!" (Again, we all sound like Mr. T on the inside). The carbonation in soda is a killer to lung capacity. That's right, the diet soda you had at 3pm is going to reak havoc on your 6pm cardio session. You won't be able to intake as much oxygen. Proven.

The negative effects carbonation has on your lung capacity goes away over time, but why compromise your workouts and favorite athletic activities?

If you want a premium metabolism, a better chance at weight loss, and a better cardio session, stay away from diet soda!

Adam Erwin is a personal trainer who travels the world working with people who want to change their body now! Adam follows good weather, which means he is currently training clients in Minnesota…anywhere within a 10 mile radius of Wayzata, MN When fall and winter arrive, Adam will be headed toward Florida, Arizona, Australia, and other warm climates. Visit www.rapidresultsfitnessmn.com to learn more about his work and how he can help you lose fat, keep muscle, and keep your better half.