Personal Training Blog with Douglasville Personal Trainer David Hansey

Earlier this week, I wrote about getting honest with yourself and writing down what you put in your mouth as a way to start an effective weight loss program.

Now I want to talk about another big one — RESTAURANT FOOD

While everyone loves going out to eat, you really have to be careful if you eat out on a regular basis. Restaurants have enormous portions, use large amounts of fat and sugar and are generally lacking on being a balanced meal.

Not to pick on any restaurant in particular because a lot of them are bad – but many burgers are over 1000 calories — Douglasville examples of these fat attack burgers include Burger King, Ruby Tuesdays and Five Guys to name a few. Many pasta portions from restaurants are not only 1 serving of grain — but most of the time, at least 5 and sometimes as many as 8-10 — yes, more than a day’s worth.

Even vegetables at restaurants are soaked and cooked in butter to make them attractive and tasty and salads are full of fat and extras like cheese.

So what do you do? First, determine if you are eating out as a treat, a necessity or because you are not interested in cooking. If it is a treat, then watch your portions and enjoy. If it is a necessity (like you are on a business trip etc) then make very wise choices, ask for dressings on the side, order small portions if they are available, ask for green salad instead of fries, avoid fried anything and opt for more fresh and whole foods like fruit, vegetables, chicken and fish.

Now for the category that is tough — the “I don’t wanna cook” gang. You really should look at reducing your meals in restaurants. It will make a major impact on your diet. Anyone can learn to cook if you can read so not knowing how is sorry – a lame excuse for not doing it. There are lots of recipes on my sister site, Douglasville Weight Loss, where you can get started.

If you are truly at a loss for cooking, then I suggest trying a meal service such as Dinner Afare or Dream Dinners to get your calories and portions under control. Home cooking helps you control the ingredients and content. So it is always the first choice and will make the biggest impact on your weight loss so really give it a try.

Check back in a few days for the next part in this series from the personal training blog – Portion Control

Getting fit and feeling great is about more than just doing a bit of cardio in a group fitness class. And it is more than just showing up for a couple of personal training sessions. And it is more than just adding a few recipes to your diet.

It is about doing ALL of these things ALL of the time.

For personal training, you need to show up and work hard for your sessions (be on time, do the work — get the most bang for your buck) Also for personal training, make sure you are doing all the other workouts that you are supposed to. Like your cardio or strength training sessions that you are supposed to be doing between personal training sessions. Remember, the 1/2 hour or hour you spend with me is not enough

And for eating — find a way to control what you eat and how much. Do you need to keep a diary, do you need to seek out professional help, do you just need to learn a new way to cook, do you need to learn how to lighten up a favorite recipe. These are all things that you need to do to begin your journey to healthier eating. All of these things done together will seriously change your body and are WORTH IT!!

I have had a lot of people asking me about nutrition. Nutrition is a HUGE part of a healthy lifestyle and I know it can be challenging.

But — Nutrition is a HUGE part of feeling healthy, being healthy and looking good.

If you have a terrible diet, you will be tired, you will have trouble losing weight, you will have trouble finding the energy to work out.

So, you need to find some easy ways to change your diet. I am talking about permanent change here. So first step is to identify some things in your diet that you can change. So keeping a diary for at least a week makes the most sense. Then identify how you can change a few things. Trust me — a few small changes will lead to big changes. Then look at how you can eat more fruit, vegetables and drink more water.

Those changes right there will make dramatic changes in how you look and feel so try these small changes for a bit and watch how they turn into big changes.

For a diary, there is an easy one on my 4 fit bodies site NUTRITIONAL DIARY FROM THE PERSONAL TRAINING BLOG (click to get the printable diary)

For ways to incorporate more fruit, veggies and water into your life, there are lots of ideas and recipes on my recipe site DOUGLASVILLE WEIGHT LOSS