Working Woman's Diet Traps

The Business Meal

This is a definite calorie trap. You usually feel obliged to keep up with the other person and because the money isn’t out of your pocket, might be tempted to fill up on dishes you otherwise wouldn’t order. Keep these suggestions in mind:

  • Order a clear soup or tomato juice as an appetizer. Either will give you something to concentrate on while others are eating more fattening dishes. They’ll also help to keep you away from the bread and butter.
  • Avoid ordering casseroles or other mixed dishes. They almost always contain a lot of fattening carbohydrates, creamed soups, or sauces.
  • For your main dish, have grilled poultry, grilled fish “dry“, or a salad with a freshly squeezed lemon for dressing.
  • Have either potato or a roll, not both.
  • Speak up. Ask the waiter to bring the meat without the gravy or sauce, ask for salad dressing on the side, ask for unbuttered vegetables.
  • Stay away from fried foods, cream sauces, creamed soups.
  • Remember you don’t have to eat everything on your plate.
  • Limit yourself to a glass of wine or one drink. Or, better yet, order mineral water with a slice of lime or lemon.
  • If you are asked to choose the restaurant, pick a Chinese or seafood establishment rather than Italian or French. Another good choice is a restaurant that specializes in steak or grills because you won’t have to worry about rich sauces.
  • Order espresso coffee instead of having a rich dessert.
  • If you must succumb to a dessert, eat only half or have fresh fruit.

A Cut Lunch

Everyone takes a cut lunch at some time or other, but you’d probably do it more often if you could think of some interesting food to put in the lunch. Here are some good ones:

  • Pack a frozen prawn or crabmeat cocktail in the morning and by lunch it will be thawed, but still cool. Eat with plain savoury biscuits, rye crispbread or toast. Finish with fruit.
  • Plain cottage cheese gets boring, but add chunks of fresh pineapple and raisins, chopped onions, chives and green olives, or a few chopped radishes, walnuts, and black olives, and you’ve got an appetizing dish.
  • If you’re a sandwich freak, use two slices of diet or thin-sliced bread to save about 30 calories.
  • For a delicious lunch salad, do this the night before: place lettuce or spinach leaves on a foil pie plate and top with slices of chopped egg, mushrooms and cucumbers, shredded carrot, a cubed tomato, a few artichoke hearts, some crunchy bean sprouts. Wrap in foil, refrigerate overnight, and pack in the morning along with either a fresh lemon (to squeeze for dressing) or an aspirin bottle filled with diet dressing. You can also do a similar thing with fresh fruit, just cut up the fruit the night before, coat anything that might discolour with lemon juice, and use yoghurt flavoured with vanilla as dressing.
  • Try the un-sandwich: wrap cold slices of chicken, roast beef, or turkey in foil; put a tomato, hunk of cheese, and some sliced raw mushrooms into a plastic bag; add a pear for dessert.
  • By all means take a yogurt, but make it the plain variety. Freeze in its carton overnight. When lunchtime comes around, add your own fruit, berries, or instant coffee or vanilla extract.
  • A tomato stuffed with egg, tuna, or chicken salad is a good idea too, but make the salad with yogurt instead of mayonnaise, it saves calories.
  • Keep the following little extras in your desk: salt and a pepper mill, small jar of grated parmesan, small bottle of lemon juice, packages of melba toast, a few boxes of raisins, some pill bottles filled with freeze-dried chives, Oregano, paprika, and curry powder, and bags of dried fruits.

Eating On The Run

You probably run into this problem at least a few times a month; you’re very busy, have no time to grab a bite, but you’re famished and need the energy. What to do?

  • Buy snack packs of a mixture of nuts and dried fruits.
  • Pass up the fast-food burger and fried chicken chains, and have a slice of pizza instead. It’s a good source of protein, B vitamins, and Vitamin F, and comes in at around 200 calories. If you do stop at a burger chain, choose the cheapest burger. It’s not only the lowest in price but in fat and calories.
  • Buy a piece of cheese. Nibble on it and a box of raisins or an apple or some dried fruit.
  • Do not buy a chocolate or sweet bar. It will give you fast energy, yes, but the energy lift will only last a short time. What really happens is that the sugar in the bar will cause your blood sugar to rise (instant energy) for a couple of hours, but then it will drop and you will feel even more fatigued.
  • If you have time, stop at a coffee shop and order soup and a salad. Or have a sandwich, but eat only one slice of bread and use mustard instead of mayonnaise.
  • If you know you have an action-packed day ahead, do not skip having breakfast. You need it as a source of energy.

Dinner For One

Eating dinner alone can be a danger because you’re apt to snack on chips or biscuits instead of making a nutritious meal. Or, you’ll opt for something that heats up quickly, like noodles or a casserole, and regret the calories later. Here are some ideas for nutritious, non-fattening, one-woman meals.

  • Make yourself a promise to eat a real meal, one that contains some protein and some carbohydrates. This doesn’t necessarily mean something elaborate, grill a steak or piece of fish and eat with a salad, toss a huge salad and supplement it with soup, make a low calorie vegetable dish ahead of time and serve as a side dish with a piece of grilled chicken.
  • Stop at a greengrocer, pick up some beautiful greens and make a fabulous salad. Two suggestions: a spinach salad made with raw spinach leaves, sliced raw mushrooms, and a hard-boiled egg and diet dressing; or a Chinese salad made with Chinese cabbage leaves and mustard greens, bean sprouts, onions, raw mushrooms, water chestnuts, and sesame seeds, served with a mustard soy sauce dressing. After your salad have a glass of wine and a scoop of sherbet or low-calorie ice cream. Or fresh fruit is always easy.
  • Learn how to use herbs and spices. They’re a good way to add flavour, but not calories, to almost anything.
  • Practice making the perfect omelette. Fill them with all sorts of things and have a very good meal. Some good fillers are: asparagus and cheese, cottage cheese and chives, sauteed vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, and zucchini, swiss cheese and raisins, mozzarella, a little dietetic jam.
  • Plan activities while you’re waiting for dinner to cook, standing around in the kitchen only tempts you to raid the refrigerator. Polish your toenails, iron clothes for the next day, balance your chequebook.
  • Any of these quick-cook ideas are well worth trying: sprinkle a piece of fish with tarragon and fresh pepper, squeeze a lemon over it, pop under the barbecue grill and serve with slices of lemon; cover a chicken breast with a mixture of curry powder, crushed garlic, onion salt, fresh pepper and grill it, adding green pepper rings and onions or shallots when halfway through; saute bean sprouts with a crushed garlic cube, sliced mushrooms, and diced onions and soy sauce (good with steak or chicken); saute prawns until pink and serve with sauteed slivered almonds and chives.

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