General Tips for Eating Out

• Substitute fried foods for steamed, grilled, baked, or broiled.
• Order side dishes that are free of butter and cream sauces. Be especially careful when ordering vegetables. Most restaurants will serve them drenched in butter unless otherwise noted.
• Ask for butter, sour cream, salad dressings, and any other unhealthy toppings to be served on the side. This way, you can control how much you put on.
• Ask the server what healthy choices he/she may suggest.
• Rather than ordering an appetizer, order a broth based soup. The reality is, there are very few healthy choices as an appetizer.
• Remove any skin or visible fat from meat.
• Chinese- Aim for steamed or stir-fried dishes. This includes the rice on the side. Also, egg drop soup, and hot and sour soup are good starters. Avoid the sweet and sour dishes, cashew chicken, and most egg rolls.
• Italian- Choose marinara sauces over white, cream sauces. Choose baked or grilled chicken and veal dishes. Try broiled calamari instead of fried. Avoid sausage, meatballs, most lasagnas, and buttery garlic bread.
• Mexican- Look for different salsas, ceviche, and picante, but avoid too much sour cream and cheese. Try corn tortillas over flour tortillas. Try fish tacos, and chicken fajitas. Avoid enchiladas and quesadillas that are loaded with cheese and refried beans.
• Sushi- Edamame is a great appetizer to start your meal with. Vegetable and tofu rolls are very healthy. Most fresh fish sushi and sashimi choices are healthy. Stay away from tempura, or rolls with cream cheese. Also, eel and spicy tuna are generally the fattiest fish available in a sushi restaurant. A sushi rolls average 200-300 calories, while most sashimi orders average about 150-200 calories. Be careful how much you eat. Most people can overdo it at a sushi restaurant.

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• Tip of the Month

  June 2010

  Abdominal Workouts: Frequency, Intensity, and Duration

  Over the past 15 years, there has been countless advice on how to “properly” train your abdominals, or core.  There isn’t a fitness magazine out there that doesn’t publish a different abdominal workout each and every issue.  Opinions and research may change over time, but there are a few things you should look at before you alter your workout with each Fitness Magazine you read!
  First of all, it is important to know what your overall fitness and health goal is before designing a strength program for any body part, especially the mid-section.  For overall fitness, it is smartest to treat your abdominal muscles as you would any other muscle group.  The tried and true guidelines for most exercise programs is to work specific muscles to fatigue within a 30-60 second set time limit (intensity and duration,) while giving the worked muscle group at least 24-48 hours of rest (frequency) before working it again.  The amount of sets you do in a given workout (frequency again) can vary from as little as 4 sets to up to 12 for the average workout.  The science behind these theories is sound.  While exercising, pushing your body significantly past the 60 second mark without fatigue generally incorporates aerobic energy, thereby not stressing the muscles most efficiently.  And rest is necessary so that your body can properly rebuild the muscle fibers that you have broken down.  Additionally, you want to be at 100% energy levels for your next workout!

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• Recipe of the Month

  June 2010

  Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

  This healthy update of a traditionally rich ham-and-cheese breakfast strata is made lighter primarily by losing a few egg yolks and using nonfat milk. Gruyère cheese has a delicious, nutty aroma and flavor, which means that with the relatively small amount in this recipe you still get a big impact. To finish the makeover use nutritious, fiber-rich, whole-grain bread instead of white. The results: plenty of flavor, half the calories and one-third the fat of the original.

  4 large eggs
  4 large egg whites
  1 cup nonfat milk
  2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
  1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  5 cups chopped spinach, wilted (see Tip)
  4 cups whole-grain bread, crusts removed if desired, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 1/2 pound, 4-6 slices)
  1 cup diced ham steak, (5 ounces)
  1/2 cup chopped jarred roasted red peppers
  3/4 cup shredded Gruyère, or Swiss cheese
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