Slim for Life (16 page)
Authors: Jillian Michaels
The number-one way most of us sabotage our slim is by eating out. That’s not to say you can’t do it—before I had the kids, I did it seven nights a week. (I’m a terrible cook.) As in everything else, the key
to success in eating out is
how
you do it. The following straightforward, easy-to-follow guidelines will ensure that your hot body remains that way.
SIDESTEP IT • • • 3 POINTS
EZ CALORIE CUT
Instead of 5 ounces of alfredo sauce, have 7 ounces of marinara sauce.
CUT: 129 CALORIES
Get all
sauces and dressings on the side so you can control the amount you put on top. Some salad dressings and condiments can add 100 or more calories in just a tablespoon. That’s crazy. Try dipping your fork into the dressing and then into your salad for each bite. Or put a thin spread of the Thousand Island on your burger. You get the idea.
This one is so important. Sides can be a killer. A cheeseburger from a place like Johnny Rockets has around 500 calories, but when you add the fries and the drink, it gets up into the 1,000-calorie range.
Insane!
Or let’s say you’re being good about watching your calorie intake and order the halibut steak, but it comes with roasted potatoes on the side. You start off just eating one but end up eating all. Your light dinner has just turned into 700-plus calories. Instead, always swap a starch for greens. Side salads (with dressing on the side, of course) and
steamed
veggies are the way to go.
Prevent temptation by telling the waiter in advance that you want no bread or chips, before they hit the table. People say willpower
is like a muscle. It’s true—if you constantly expose it to temptation, it gets fatigued. Don’t needlessly put yourself in harm’s way. Safeguard your health by removing trouble before it comes near you.
SLIM MYTH:
Raw vegetables are healthier than cooked.
FAST FACT:
Raw food fanatics constantly claim that vegetables lose critical nutrients when they’re cooked. The truth is that while cooking veggies can potentially destroy some of their vitamin C content, it can have the opposite effect on many other vitamins. For example, cooking tomatoes boosts their amount of
lycopene. (Cook them with a little olive oil, and your body’s ability to absorb the lycopene just went up, too.) According to
Scientific American,
cooked carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers, and other vegetables also contain more antioxidants, like carotenoids and ferulic acid, than their raw equivalents.
Some argue that raw veggies have more enzymes than cooked, but registered dietitians tell us that while heating food above 118 degrees can deactivate certain plant enzymes, those enzymes are made to support the survival of plants; they’re not essential to human health. Our bodies are actually very efficient in producing enzymes. Plus, plant enzymes are generally inactive by the time they reach our digestive tract, regardless of whether we’ve eaten the veggie raw or cooked.
Last, many people have a hard time breaking down raw vegetables in their gastrointestinal tract; hence Beano was created and has become so successful. Lightly cooking vegetables helps to break down the plants’ cell walls (fibers called cellulose), making them easier to digest. Regardless of whether you eat them raw or cooked, there is one indisputable fact: we should all get more veggies in our diets.
Customize your order to avoid excess calories. Ask the waiter to tell the kitchen to grill the fish, not sauté it, or to put the burger on lettuce leaves instead of a bun, or to scrape the excess bread out of the inside of your bagel. I know many of you will have issues with
doing this. You feel bad asking a chef to go out of his or her way, or you think you’re inconveniencing the waiter. Nonsense. It’s your money, and you have every right to get what you want and need. Trust me when I tell you that restaurants are used to it and will think nothing of it. Plus, they know there are thousands of eateries where you could have gone to spend your hard-earned cash, so it’s truly a privilege that you chose their establishment over another place to eat. Ultimately, even if I’m wrong (which I’m not), the worst that can happen is they say no. Then you leave or make a note not to go back there.
I hate giving you this tip because I always want you to be decent and live in truth, but learning how to assert yourself doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re still embarrassed to ask for special treatment, or too uncomfortable to ask for what you need, tell a white lie: say you’re
allergic. I know it’s controversial to suggest this, but women in particular can really have trouble standing up for their own needs and wants. So if you want the broccoli soup puréed without cream, tell the waiter you’re lactose intolerant. You can do this with just about anything you don’t want on or in your food. If you don’t want croutons or a bun on your burger, tell them you have a gluten intolerance. I know it’s a crazy thing to say, but it doesn’t hurt anyone. And if it saves your health and prevents you from developing a muffin top, who really cares?
Order without looking at the menu. Almost every restaurant in the world has the basics—veggies, grains, and protein. If you go in knowing what you want, I guarantee you’ll be able to make a meal. Even at some of the most fattening food chains, I’ve been able to stay on my regimen by ordering fish, chicken, or steak grilled, baked,
or broiled with a side salad, or veggies and steamed brown rice. In a way this goes back to the “Be high-maintenance” tip. Tell the waiter what you want to eat and how you want to eat it. You’re a paying customer. The restaurant should be happy to oblige.
EZ CALORIE CUT
Order a chicken breast without the skin.
CUT: 45 CALORIES
Find a group of restaurants you like, and make them your go- to spots. This way you build an arsenal of places where you know there’ll be healthy things to eat. I have five places I rotate out for lunch, and maybe five places for when we bring food in. I know I can trust them all to provide healthy dishes that’ll keep me on the slim path. Look for places that list the
calorie info on the
menu—most states these days actually require it. Le Pain Quotidien does this, as does Chipotle, Applebee’s, Chili’s, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster. I hope you don’t end up at some of these obscenely fattening restaurant chains, but if you live in a place with limited options, at least you’ll know how to make the slimmest choice by looking at the calorie counts on the menu. And make the restaurants you choose accommodate you, so that you can be high-maintenance, as previously discussed.
EZ CALORIE CUT
Instead of 1 cup of egg drop soup, have 1 cup of hot and sour soup.
CUT: 330 CALORIES
You’re always going to need to make choices, and some are smarter than others. If you’re a soup person, be sure to opt for broth-based
soups like purées, minestrone, and chicken soup instead of cream-based ones like clam chowder or cream of anything. If you’re
confused about whether the soup has cream in it, just ask. Many veggie soups can go both ways. Some are purées, which are great options, but some have cream, oil, or butter added to them. When in doubt, ask your server.
Always ask for your
food to be cooked dry. This simply means using little or no butter or oil. You want your eggs scrambled dry. You want your toast, waffles, or pancakes dry, meaning no butter on top. Pretty much anything that’s cooked in oil or butter can be made with minimal “grease.” You just have to ask.
God bless America and her massive
portions. You might think you’re getting your money’s worth, as the waiter sets that Italian dinner plate down in front of you, but what you’ve really bought yourself is a vat of pasta with a side of cellulite, saddlebags, and maybe even a heart attack. Yay? If you’re like me, you might have issues about “wasting” food when you don’t clean your plate. Instead of trying to talk you out of this backward psychology, I’m going to tell you about a really easy way to work with it: before your waiter brings the dish to the table, ask him or her to wrap half of it up in a to-go box. This way you’ll have two meals for the price of one, and only half the calories, and you won’t feel like you’re cheating the kids that are starving in Africa. Hate to say it, but I still feel that way. Oy.
Another option to manage the massive portion dilemma is to share your
entrée with your dining buddy. This idea rocks for two reasons: you not only will save on your calories, but you’ll also save some cash by not purchasing that second entrée.
EZ CALORIE CUT
For an order of fried calamari, substitute 3 ounces of grilled calamari.
CUT: 812 CALORIES
We get caught up in
food rituals. Who says you have to order an appetizer plus an entrée and a dessert? Who really needs three courses of food? It’s nuts. Skip the appetizer and go straight to the entrée. Again, you’ll save some dough, and you’ll save your physique. If it’s a tradition you just must uphold, then ask for salad as your appetizer, without all the rich embellishments, and dressing on the side. Or have two appetizers for your main dish. If you feel the need to order courses, just choose smartly.
This tip applies to everything in life, but for the purpose of this book, I want you to specifically avoid foods that are described by what I call “danger words”:
smothered, loaded, tender, deep-fried,
and
creamy
. These words scream “I’m loaded with ridiculous amounts of calories. I’ll wreck your diet. I’ll make you feel sluggish and gross.” When you see these words, avoid the dish at all costs. Unless, of course, you apply my “Be high-maintenance” tip and have them make it to your healthy specifics. If you do that, the dish will be a lot healthier and often unrecognizable to its original form. Danger removed.
Have you ever gotten an omelet or a piece of pizza where the grease is pooling on top of it? Should you end up eating such an item from time to time, ahem, it’s easy to dab off the excess oil with a paper napkin to avoid adding insult to injury. You’d be amazed how many calories you can save by doing this, anywhere from 100 to 200 per pat-down.
SLIM MYTH:
Fat makes you fat.
FAST FACT:
By this point in the book, I’m sure you’ve started to get it: fat doesn’t make you fat; excess calories make you fat. Fats, just like healthy carbs and proteins, are
essential for health. They support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. They also help with maintaining a lean body and assist with consistent fat burning. That’s right—eating fat burns fat! The chief function of essential fatty acids is the production of prostaglandins, which control functions like blood clotting, fertility, heart rate, and blood pressure. They also help immune function by regulating inflammation, thus assisting the body to fight infection. The only fly in this ointment is trans fats. They should be avoided at all costs.
When eating
ethnic cuisine, look for the healthiest, slimmest options possible. Here are my top suggestions:
EZ CALORIE CUT
Eating Mexican? Eliminate one tortilla from each soft taco—they usually come prepared with two, sometimes three.
CUT: 100 CALORIES EACH TACO
• Mexican. Choose grilled tacos in corn tortillas (only one tortilla per taco, please), or better yet, ask for a taco or burrito bowl (with salad instead of rice and no tortilla). Try carne asada, fajitas (ask for them dry or using little oil), and tostadas (don’t eat the fried shell). For sides, have black beans (provided they aren’t refried with lard).
• Greek. Pick souvlaki, kebabs, Greek salad, tabbouleh, hummus, yogurt, or pita bread.
• Asian. Try sashimi; seaweed salad; a chicken, shrimp, or beef satay (go easy on the peanut sauce); and brown rice. Get dishes steamed instead of sautéed, like shrimp with vegetables, paper-wrapped chicken, or moo goo gai pan.
• Indian. Enjoy tandoori, lentil-based soups, vindaloos, or vegetable dishes like
saag
prepared with little oil.
•
Italian. Eat any grilled chicken or seafood selection, pasta primavera (without cream), or minestrone soup.
Work
Another area of common concern and confusion that can sabotage your sexy, slim body is what to eat—and how to fit in exercise—when you’re at work or struggling with a crazy work schedule. So many people are slaves to the nine-to-five grind. They’re either chained to their desks or constantly on the run or on the road for work. All are murder to a healthy lifestyle. I understand this, believe me, and I’ve suffered from it personally. That’s why I developed my own strategies to acquire and maintain slimness, while still achieving professional success. If your work has ever interfered with your workouts or your healthy
eating habits, never fear. The advice that follows will help you find balance and get you as close as possible to “having it all.”
AT THE OFFICE
KEEP A PRIVATE STASH • • • 3 POINTS
I had a desk job for three years in my mid-twenties. I was a rat on a wheel working from eight to eight, trying to “keep up with the Joneses.” After months of eating chips and soda from the vending machine, leftover crap from office meetings, and takeout food like pizza from the delivery place where all the other assistants ordered, I gained 5 pounds. That may not sound like a lot to you, but honestly, for my frame it was. It was also enough to make me feel uncomfortable. I wised up. I got a small, used mini-fridge and tucked it under
my desk in my cubicle. That way I was able to stock up on my own healthy food. Guess what? The 5 extra pounds fell right off.