Author Archive

Migrating from one rails server to another.

Well,

I migrated from mongrel to passenger phusion in an effort to reduce our memory footprint and help stabilize simpleweight to make it easier to use.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m still debating on the backend administration settings and what our next move is to help you maintain your weight.

Of course, if you have any suggestions on what we can do at simpleweight to help you with your weight management goals, let us know.

Thanks for now.  More to come…

System Maintenance.

We’re doing some system maintenance on Simpleweight.  Please patient as we get the system back up and running.  It may take a bit of time.  Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.  I’ll post again when its back to normal.  Thank you.

If your First Plan Fails, Try Another! Religious Sacrifice.

If the first plan which you adopt does not work successfully, replace it with a new plan; if this new plan fails to work, replace it in turn with still another, and so on, until you find a plan which does work. Right here is the point at which the majority of men meet failure, because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those whose fail. … No man is ever whipped, until he quits — in his own mind.
Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich

I have had a recent set-back in my Groundhog Resolution plans. There is a reason I am not a garage door repairman. I hurt my finger pretty good while repairing the garage door opener motor. My painful experience put a big cut in my Pick and commit a time to exercise 10 minutes a day plan.  Don’t worry though, The doctor says I’ll be okay and everything will return to normal with time.

In my persistence for fitness, I am required to find a plan that works for me and you for that matter. We must keep trying and trying until we hit the mix of exercise and healthy eating that’s proper for our individual bodies.

So, a new plan?

Sacrifice: an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy as defined by Apple Computer Leopard’s Dictionary.

Sacrifice

I’ve talked a bit about different motivations for fitness. We all are unique, and consequently we have to find what will motivate ourselves. Weight Loss and Fitness is as much as a physical battle as it is a mental battle. Re-thinking old habits and building new healthy habits takes time, persistence, and motivation. Sometimes, we need a little extra help with motivation and our sacrifice to fitness.

• By giving up eating too many calories, we can achieve a healthier body.
• By giving up sleeping an extra 30 minutes in the morning, we can exercise and achieve a physical fit body.
• By giving up unhealthy habits, we can create healthy habits.

We must give up and sacrifice in order to create new.

Now when I hear sacrifice, I usually think Religion.

Most religions require some sacrifice during your religious calendar. Jews have Yom Kippur, Muslims have Ramadan, and Christians have Lent. Each is a time to fast and atone for sins and a way to teach patience, sacrifice and humility. These Religious periods offer a perfect time for those motivated by God to offer up healthful-based sacrifices.

If you have Faith, make a promise to God to abstain from sugary sweets, chocolate, alcohol, French Fries, Coca Cola, or other unhealthy habits. I think that would be one promise you’d want to keep. No on wants to make God unhappy with broken promises.

If you don’t have Faith, then make a promise to your most motivating best friend to abstain from some unhealthy habit.

Back Story

Lenten Sacrifice is exactly how I gave up drinking Coca Cola. I used to drink almost a two liter of Pop (Coke, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, etc…) a day. I decided during lent of 2001, that I would give up Pop as a sacrifice to God. After 40 days abstaining from Coke, I decided to see how long I could go. It is now 2009, and I have about two cans of pop (usually Sprite or 7-up) a year and no Coca Cola.

So, I suggest you and I use the next 40 days to focus on eating habits.

What can you sacrifice that is valued in your diet that may be unhealthy?  Is it Starbucks Coffees?  is it French Fries?  Is it Candy?  Is it Alcohol? Make a promise to the most important person in your life, possibly God for some of you readers, that you will abstain from that unhealthy eating vice.

Let’s Review:

1. Who’s the most important person/entity in your life now?
   • God, Spouse, Best Friend
2. What are the unhealthy items in your life/diet?
3. Make a promise to sacrifice your unhealthy vice for the next 40 days to your most important person.

Hmm, let me think, What are the some things I commonly over-indulge in lately?

• Peanut M&M’s
• French Fries
• Ice Cream
• Brownies, Cakes, Cookies
• Starbucks Hot Chocolates
• Fast Food

I guess there is no rule that says, I can’t cut them all out.

So, a new plan.  What’s your Sacrifice for Fitness?

Pick and Commit Time to Exercise, 10 minutes a day. Ground Hog Day 2009 Fitness Resolutions.

Groundhog Day is here and gone, but there is still time for you to resolve to be better.

David Seah, the first person I know to talk about Groundhog Day Resolutions explains his GDR ideas. Leo at Zen Habits talks about Groundhog day resolutions too. It is in the air!  So, is 6 more weeks of winter regardless of whether the Groundhog saw his shadow or not.  (Hint:  the First Day of spring is:  March 20.  Count the number of weeks from Feb 2, 2009 to March 20, 2009)

So, What is Simpleweight’s Ground Hog Day Resolutions?

Number one: I know I can do a better job at convincing you (and I) that we can and will achieve our fitness goals. I know it, and I will help you to know it! It is imperative!

Number two, and more importantly: Our GroundHog Day Goal is to become physically fit. That Goal is too BIG! however, we need it that way. As I wrote in my previous Groundhog day post, Begin With The End In Mind, we must become absolutely certain where we want to go. So certain, that we believe and know it is inevitable. Remove the fat talk from our consciousness and replace it with fitness talk.

Some suggestions about goals:

• Break out a map (a piece a paper).
• Draw a line of where you are to where you want to go.
  • If you don’t know where you are, then write down everything about where you are now.
  • If you don’t know where you want to go, then write down everything about where you want to go.
  • Then keep that in your mind.
• Then, break this big elephant into small bites. We must start small in order to make good habits.

As we begin to create our new selves, creation and being creative is a habit we must form just as a our fitness habits must replace our fat habits. So, how do we build this creative habit? In Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, the first step she talks about is the “Rituals of Preparation”:

When you have

• selected the environment that works for you,
• developed the start-up ritual that impels you forward every day,
• faced down your fears,
• and put your distractions in the proper place,

you have cleared the first hurdle. you have begun to prepare to begin.

Tywla Tharp

Wow. That is a lot in just one paragraph. I added the list and bold for emphasis. In order to create creative habits, we must make rituals. Rituals are things we feel impelled to do consistently. For some, that means to attend church everyday or every week. For others, it means praying five times a day. For basketball players, it means shooting your free throws in the exact same form every time. If we want to create good exercise and food habits, we have to be boring at first. We have to create rituals. We have to be consistent everyday.

Homework exercise:

• Decide what time of day you are going to exercise every day for the next week.
• Decide how much time you plan to exercise.
• Decide what type of exercises.
• Decide where you are going to exercise.
• Decide why are you exercising.
• Write this time and what you plan to do on 7 different 3 x 5 index cards.
• Put the index cards next to your alarm or on your mirror or somewhere you will have to see them!
• Set your phone alarm, set your watch alarm, set your clock alarm, set your computer alarm, and set your spouse alarm. Do whatever you have to do to meet this goal for the next 7 days! Each Day, pick up your card, go to the appropriate place and exercise!

Homework Hints:

Make this exercise time a ritual that is so rigid and so small, that it’s almost impossible for you to fail. Failure will not be possible. Guess, what we will do the following week. Increase the time and keep increasing it until we get to a net-caloric effect, but for now, we start small. We have to.

Mental thoughts: people who are not committed to exercise will ask themselves, how can I fit exercise into my day tomorrow. People who are committed ask themselves, how can I plan my day around my exercise time. Are you committed? Do you really want to become physical fit and achieve your ideal body? If so, change the questions you ask yourself.

Resist the urge to start exercising 60 minutes everyday. You are changing habits. People gradually become out of shape and sedentary. When we come out of the womb, we’re not super fat overweight babies. As we grow, most children are naturally active and moving around. We gradually learn to become sedentary, so we have to gradually learn to become active. If we do it too quick, we generally see people fail and over-whelmed. We know failure is not an option. So, start slow.

Homework Recommendations:

For those of you who need recommendations, because you don’t know where to start.

• When to exercise?: First Thing you do when you get out of bed is to exercise (you might need to use the restroom, take a drink of water, and put your exercise clothes on and then exercise!)
• How long? 10 minutes.
• What Exercises? Anything. Do Jumping Jacks for ten minutes, Do stretching. Do Yoga, Run in place. I don’t care as long as it is something physical and you are pushing your body beyond what it normally can do. The goal is really to make the exercise a habit. If you need more stringent recommendations, I think you’ll see the most benefits from High Intensity Strength Training (we’re not talking heavy weight lifting, we’re talking weights that make you tired when you get to repetitions 7, 8, or 9.) Possible Exercise plans: The pattern that Jorge Cruise uses in the 8 minute workout is an excellent starter plan. Also, the Fitness Ladder Exercises from the Hacker’s Diet is another excellent quick starter workout. Remember pick something you love. So, if you love being outside, then go for a 10 minute walk.

I was reminded today, that big websites started out small. The first Amazon was nothing in comparison to what it is today. The first city began with a one room meeting place and then evolved into skyscrapers. Our Fitness habits will start small, we’ll build a strong foundation of habits that we’ll layer on top of. We’ll add biometric habits, eating habits, and more exercise habits all of which will make up the Slow Weigh to long term weight management and weight loss.

Dream Big, Start Small, and Continually take action! What’s your Ground Hog Day Resolutions?

Begin with the End in Mind for Weight Loss – 13 days to GroundHog Day Resolutions

Image: 'quiet I'm thinking' www.flickr.com/photos/28801512@N00/292262245

Our goal in the next two weeks is to get ourselves so worked up and convinced that we can be healthier and meet our weight loss goals that it becomes inevitable.  Even if you have failed in the past with dieting or exercise regiments, we must overcome that negative karma in order to generate our the positive self-image required for the arduous tasks ahead.

Really?  Arduous tasks?  What’s so arduous about our tasks ahead?

In the future, we’re going to have to break down all our bad habits and replace them with good healthy habits.  The only way we can do that is to be in a positive emotional state leaving our baggage behind.  Don’t worry about these arduous tasks, for when we’re done, we’re going to make these tasks be the easiest things you’ve ever did.

Huh?  wait a minute, did you just say that we’re going to make our weight loss goals and exercise habits the easiest thing we ever did?  How the heck are we going to do that?

The right frame of mind.  That’s what we have to do in the next two weeks.  We have got to convince ourselves, by 02-02 (Feb 2), that there is no way we will fail.  No way.

One of the reasons we built simpleweight was to help everyone manage their own fitness.  When I say everyone, I include myself in this list.  Have you ever seen a Fitness Expert, Diet Book Author, or Diet and Weight Management website owner be unhealthy, unfit, and generally obese?  Neither have I. So, my brother and I built simpleweight to help us maintain our own physical fitness and healthy body weight.

Now, I wouldn’t call myself obese by any means, in fact, its borderline whether I’m fat or not, but I’m also not the symbol of fitness a weight loss website owner should be.  When I follow my own advice, I lose weight, I feel better, I look better, I save money, and I eat less.   When I don’t follow my own advice, I do the opposite.  Well, what have I done, I haven’t gained weight, but I haven’t lost weight either.  So, I have failed at meeting my weight loss and physical fitness goals, but I don’t like to call it failure.  It’s just taking me longer than I expected.  I will succeed, because I will act.  Action must come before the success.

Around the web, people are losing their way with weight management.  For example,  Oprah recently went on her show and discussed her weight issues. Oprah now weighs over 200 lbs. (I am surprised and happy to hear that I weigh less than her.  Then again, she is worth a billions of dollars, and I am not. Of course, money does matter.)   I have followed the fellas at getfitslowly.com on their journey for weight loss.  I’m totally surprised that their experiences almost mimic my own progress.  They are eating better, they feel better, but they are not meeting their own weight loss goals. In fact, they had a discussion just this last summer about what it means to be healthy and fit, and whether you can be fit and still be overweight.  Ultimately, I’d say they are healthier and with God’s good grace, they will live longer because of their efforts. Starling

Many of us, fluctuate.  We get on the horse ride a bit, then fall off, and we forget to get back up on the horse again for too long.  We let our bad habits take over our good habits.  It takes a long, long time to turn bad habits into good habits. However, it takes perseverance.  I know I will do it, and I know you can too.

So, How do I get back my Positive Outlook?  How do I turn the tide and return to the healthy habits of daily exercise and eat until satisfied rather than eat until full.

I generate positive inertia by re-focusing on the long-term.

I’ve been analyzing it by comparing Weight Loss and Fitness to other Common Business and Personal Problems.  For Example,  David Allen with Getting Things Done suggests that there are 6 levels for reviewing your own work. He compares our work to altitude.  At the Runway level, we have the immediate next action.  In other words, what am I going to do right now at this very moment in order to achieve the larger goal of projects which operate at the 10,000 foot level.  Projects below to our Areas of responsibility at the 20,000 foot level.  Which hopefully are moving us toward are One to Two Year Goals at the 30,000 foot level.  Working us towards our 40,000 foot level of 5 year vision which leads us to the 50,000+ Foot Level of the Big Picture, and other Purpose for Living Life Goals.  For some people, Not knowing your purpose or not knowing your one to two year goals, they can operate just fine.  In other words, They can fly the plane just fine even though they don’t know where they are going.  I am not one of those people.

I need to have a very, very clear focus at where I want to go at the 40,000 foot level otherwise, my plane is all over the runway and probably won’t even take off.  If it does take off, then it’s all wobbly while it reaches the 10,000 foot level.  I need that Long Term Crystal Clear Vision or Mission.

Let’s look at another example, in Stephen Covey’s books: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First, he provides “Begin with the End in Mind”  as habit number two and the need for us to have a moral compass.  We need this compass in order for us to find direction.  Without our moral compass, we too often live in the day to day doing not important urgent tasks rather than the not urgent very important projects.

So, our homework as we prepare for Groundhog Day New Year’s Resolutions is to create a moral compass and identify with clarity what we want to happen with our fitness and eating habits.

Ask ourselves these questions:

• What do I want?
• How do I want to feel?
• What do I want to look like?
• What will my portion sizes look like when I eat?
• How will it feel to be exercising every day?
• What am I willing to give up to achieve my new habits?
• What will people say to you?
• If a friend walks up to you after not seeing you for a while, what are they going to say when you achieve success by meeting your Ground hog day resolutions?
• Why?, Why?, Why?, Why?, Why?, Why?  (Ask yourself why repeatedly six or more times until you are precise with an answer.  it helps when you have a 3 or 4 year old ask you. )

Image: 'Spiral-Bound Pad' www.flickr.com/photos/49503155381@N01/2475849569

Homework Assignment:

Our Goal for this homework assignment is to write down in crystal clear vivid imagery what do we want to be and achieve.  We will need to write in present and/or past tense.  I often suggest you find magazine or website pictures of buff women or men and photoshop or paste your head on your ideal body.  Build that vivid image that is so clear that you’ll be experiencing it.

Visualization Assignment:

Now clear your head by breathing in and out sitting on a firm but comfortable chair.  Listen to your breath in and out.  Count 15 even average breaths from fifteen slowly down to one.  Now, imagine you are stepping onto a scale. You see the toes and feet perfectly shaped without any excess weight stepping on the scale.  As you wait for the scale to spin to your ideal size, you notice how lean you feel and how strong your heart is.  re standing on a scale.  You look down and see that you are weighing the exact amount for your ideal body image.  The scale then scans your Body Fat % and calculates your BMI.  More waiting, and you see the body fat % is exactly as it should be and the BMI is right in your healthy range.  As you step off the scale, you look at a full length mirror and notice your body is the perfect picture of health and vitality. You notice your calves are strong lean and give your body shape.  Your thighs are not big, but not skinny.  They’re just right for your height, the waist and hips curve just perfectly to give you a beautiful look and fit your thin stomach right into your perfect chest.  Your arms are toned and the strength you have to do daily tasks that were so difficult before are now just as easy as floating a feather.

It helps to know where we are going, before we get on the plane.  We may have to take some twists and turns due to unforeseen circumstances, but we still have the end in the mind.

If you want to share, post your answers to the homework below.  If you want more privacy, but still want to share, email me your answers to coach [at] simpleweight [dot] com  –or– use our contact us form.

What is my the image of my perfectly healthy me in present tense?

14 days to Groundhog day, What are you doing about it?

Every year, people make New Year’s Resolutions.

Every year, Most people break their resolutions by U.S.’s Groundhog day,  (Feb 2)

Image: 'Happy Groundhog Day!' http://www.flickr.com/photos/62943723@N00/377567731

What are you going to do about breaking your resolutions?

I resolved this year, not to make resolutions until Groundhog day (a la David Seah).    Now, you ask why?  The Party Forces are against you. Think about it.

• From Thanksgiving until Christmas, there are parties galore with all sorts of food and drinks.
• After Christmas, you’re eating up all the left-over cookies, candy canes, chocolate, and other wonderful goodies.
• New years, you’re partying it up.  Drinking and eating.
• New Year’s Day, with all the New Year’s American College Football games, who’s not going to over-eat chips and salsa, pizza, and beer on New year’s day?
• Then, we have a week of BCS college football games, NFL Playoffs, and then on to the Super Bowl Parties.

Wow, what a stacked load of over-eating bonanzas face us before Groundhog day.  Now, who’s ever heard of over-eating at Lincoln’s birthday parties?  or Valentine’s day nachos?  Heck, The Academy Awards are more of Tea and Wine Party than a bowl of chips and hot dogs.  Granted, for the typical party-goer, Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras throw a wrinkle in the plans of avoiding the over-indulgent parties. Additionally, Toss in the most wonderful TV time of year known as College Basketball March Madness and the parties are still coming.

Yet, those can be seen as hiccups in the spring along the way to summer BBQ’s.  So, What’s the best time to join a gym?  It sure isn’t January 1st when the wait for the cardio machines changes from a December 0 mintues to a January 30 minutes.  I suggest you Join the Gym in February when everyone else is fizzling on their New year’s resolutions and annoyed by all the January Joiners.  You can avoid the wait and be clean of the major party events.

To be honest, what’s the best time for Resolutions? it’s now, when you have convictions and motivation.  Do it Now, this Second, and resolve to be the new thin you.  Believe it, Dream it, Visualize it, and Feel it.

Not Convinced?

Well, I’m giving you (and myself) 14 days to become convinced.  You have to become so convinced and motivated that you will stick with your new habits at least until you achieve your goals and reach your swimsuit size by summer beach time.

How are you going to prepare yourself to begin the journey of healthy eating, healthy exercise, and a healthier you?

…stay tuned…

Of course, it has something to do with the Slow Weigh, but that’s enough of that for now.

Does the Flat Belly Diet or MUFA diet work for weight loss?

A Skim Review of the Flat Belly Diet.

Welcome MUFA & Flat Belly Diet Searchers.  We have noticed a large percentage of our visits have been from people like you searching for MUFA.  So, We decided to revisit the MUFA / Flat Belly Diet.

With three questions for you:

• Are you following the Flat Belly Diet?
• What do you think of MUFA is it a fad diet or is it the next best thing since Protein Diets?
• How do you Balance MUFA vs. Calories?  Since, that’s the biggest challenge I have had.

Here’s my quick review for those of you new to the Flat Belly Diet.
Disclaimer: I have yet to complete the entire book, (I’ve only skimmed it).

Let’s review the basics of the Flat Belly Diet:

1. Have a calorie goal, they recommend 1600 calories/day
2. Eat MUFA at every meal.
3. Eat Often.
4. Manage your emotional eating.

Now:  Does the MUFA | Flat Belly Diet Really Work?

As we’ve said before at simpleweight, it does not matter what diet you are on, if you eat you less calories than you burn, then of course you will lose weight. When I wrote, Do I really eat 3790 calories a day, I learned that the average US person eats 3790 calories a day. Now, if you are a normal average person, and you go from eating 3790 calories to 1600 calories, then of course you will lose weight. So, restricting calorie intake is a key of any weight loss plan.

Now, the key for the Flat Belly Diet, is science research states by eating MUFA at every meal you will feel fuller longer and help to curb your appetite. If you are interested in the science, you can check out the British Journal of Nutrition (2003), 90:717-727 Cambridge University Press, specifically the article titled: Substitution of saturated with monounsaturated fat in a 4-week diet affects body weight and composition of overweight and obese men

Substituting dietary saturated fat with unsaturated fat, predominantly MUFA, can induce a small but significant loss of body weight and fat mass without a significant change in total energy or fat intake.

More science states that:

In conclusion, diets in which saturated fat is partially replaced by MUFA can achieve significant reductions in total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations, even when total fat and energy intakes are maintained.
Cholesterol reduction using manufactured foods high in monounsaturated fatty acids: a randomized crossover study

Okay, so you want to add MUFA to your diet, How can you do so?

Check How to add MUFA to breakfast, lunch, or dinner for weight loss?

The question as I stated above, is the challenge of balancing the 1600 calories a day with high calorie MUFA foods.

The other challenge is weight loss is both an emotional task as well as a physical task.  Physically is really the easy part:  Eat Less Food,  Exercise More.   Emotionally, weight loss is the difficult part.  With any lifestyle change, we have to very strong motivations for making the change.  The motivation to change must outweigh the difficulty in overcoming our predeliction for eating and emotional and pscychological attachment to unhealthy habits.  I’ve explored the topic of motivation many times here at simpleweight, and it can not be stated often enough.

You must think positively, manage expectations, create strong motivations, and make weight loss socially fun in order to sustain long term habitual change such as weight loss and weight management. For more information, I suggest you read:  7 steps to a positive and healthy lifestyle.

What are your motivations and how has the MUFA diet worked for you?

Your Fitness Bicycle Follows Your Habitual Inner Eye.

As my last post implied about restaurants, I was on vacation for a bit.

Upon returning from vacation, my writing time, my family time, my work productivity, my exercise habits, and my simpleweight development time have been competing for attention as demonstrated by my recent drop off in simpleweight posts. It’s amazing when one’s commitments begin to compete how people react.

• Some people buckle down, pick one thing and get right to it.
• Other people multi-task, and do little things from every piece.
• Other people become overwhelmed by the forest of projects that the tasks that are trees get lost and ultimately procrastination sets in.
• Other people trim their obligations.
• We all follow our Inner Eye trained by our Habits.

Since humans are creatures of habits, regardless of your response, all of us tend to slip in to old habits.  I know I have.  My eating quantity is up, my exercise is down, and my emotional state is directly related to that.  While reading the web as I love to do, I noticed this:

When the schedule gets squeezed, exercise and diet are the last things to cut from my daily routine.  –some commenter on some blog somewhere.

That’s a great mind-set.  Health and Fitness should be one of your top priorities.  I know I can help improve it.  In fact, I believe when you improve your diet and exercise, the rest of the commitments tend to fall in place.  It’s a balance between your passions, your fitness, and your spiritualism/science.  When one is of out whack, the rest of them follow suit.

Here’s a good analogy:  While driving a car or riding a bicycle, if you look to the right, you will start to move towards the direction you are looking.  It’s a balance.  The same came be said for our fitness habits.

If you let one of your habits veer off course, the rest of your habits will follow.  The reverse can be said.

For example, I noticed if I start exercising, I feel good, and then without thinking I start to become conscious of my eating habits.

Another example, a friend of mine and I went to a baseball game.  I ate a hot dog, and he ate a salad.  — Huh? A salad at a ball game?  Well, the backstory is the friend is highly motivated to eat healthy and exercise.  In no uncertain terms, his doctor said exercise and eat healthy.  Wow, what motivation.

Now, my friend asks, instead of how am I going to fit that run in,  how am I going to fit in everything around my running time.  The exercise time is non-negotiable.  By changing your self-questions, one changes their habits and ultimately creates the healthy balance.

Where is your inner eye looking?  How has that impacted your fitness habits?

7 steps to mix Weight Loss with Eating Out at Restaurants.

Steps to Weight Loss and Restaurants: Think, Read, Ask, Alter, Half, Slow, & Walk

It’s difficult to navigate the landscape of the over-sized, over-oiled, over-salted menus of today’s restaurants. In my opinion, mixing Weight-Loss with Restaurants is similar to mixing oil and water.

It’s much easier to prepare your own meals in portion sizes that you control what ingredients are being used. Having said that, one can still enjoy meals at restaurants and lose weight. It’s definitely possible, but more difficult.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune describes Bernie Salazar’s, of Biggest Loser Fame, method for eating out and losing weight.

Bernie Salazar, who eats out twice a week, sometimes has half of his meal boxed up before the food ever gets to the table. And he asks them to keep it in the back—to avoid eating it right away. “Keep it out of sight,” he says. Do not have the other half sitting on the table with you. “A meal in a box is just a present!” he says, adding that he would be tempted to open it – and eat it – if it were sitting there with him.

Above all, he says, don’t be afraid to ask for food to be prepared the way you want it. “Would you rather offend the waiter or the cook by being picky or would you rather offend your heart?”

source: Trine Tsouderos, Chicago Tribune: A ‘Biggest Loser’s’ calorie-busting tips

Let’s break it down into steps we can repeat every-time we dine out.

7 tips for eating out and maintaining weight loss

Image: 'Restaurant Row in Dresden' www.flickr.com/photos/95572727@N00/1463856598

1. Think before picking a restaurant. Try to find restaurants that don’t sacrifice taste in low-calorie dishes. Obviously, metropolitan areas like Chicago offer a large variety of restaurants to choose from, but in Paducah, KY, one might have less of a culinary choice.
2. Read and comprehend the menu. By actually reading the menu for comprehension, you’ll have to think about it. Consequently, if a starter sounds appetizing (then you’ll remember while reading) that you will have to exercise more later to compensate the increase in calories.
3. Ask questions! How is this prepared? What oil are our using? Is it fried or baked? How many calories are in this dish? Most restaurants will not divulge or conveniently choose not to know how many calories are in their menu items. By asking questions about how the food is prepared, you can make a better educated case into how many calories, carbs, fat, protein, nutrients are in the dish you are about to eat.
4. Ask the waiter, chef, to alter the dish to your dietary needs. In other words, ask them for no salt, or to bake the fish instead of frying it. Paraphrasing Salazar, its much better to offend the restaurant than to come to a premature death due to poor diet.
5. In the event that you do find yourself in a large-portion restaurant, while ordering your food, Ask the restaurant to half your order, and keep the doggie bag in the back as a gift for you when you leave the establishment. This way, you are not tempted to eat it, because its not on the table. Secondly, you’ll have a meal for home. I’ve suggested splitting the order in half in the past prior to eating, but I had not thought about asking the restaurant to split the order before even delivering the food to my table. That’s such a great idea.
6. Eat Slow during the meal taking it one bite at a time. Chew your food completely, savoring each bite. By making the meal a slow event, you enjoy the food and give your body time to digest the food. Consequently, you’ll eat less and get your money’s worth.
7. Take a walk after you eat to help with digestion. Exercise helps burn the calories. In fact, many experts suggest eating before and after a workout helps the body burn fat. I don’t go that far, but just the fact of walking around helps increase your activity and thus increases your Food Out.

What are your steps for maintaining weight-loss while eating at your favorite restaurant?

Help Wanted: Front End Designer Apply Within

Yes,  Simpleweight is looking for a Front End Designer willing to become a partner in our new Triumvirate Technology Team.  We solve problems with Technology.  Do you want to join us?

Here’s what we have?  We’re currently a team of two, Ryan and Scott.

We’ve always felt we’ve been missing someone.  We need a Designer.
Help us convert our  Duumvirate into a Triumvirate.

If you’ve read Getting Real, we’re fond of small talented, hungry teams.  We stayed small on purpose, but it’s time to grow.  We’ve got the Developer (Ryan), We’ve got the Sweeper (Scott),  We’re missing the Designer (Possibly You).  I know its odd, I read stories of different designers having difficulty find back-end developers.  Not us,  We have the developers, we need a Designer who is creative, effective, efficient, and an awesome Web Application User Interface Specialist.

However, we don’t just want any ordinary web designer. Here are our needs:

• You are a designer who is passionate about Design. You read the popular design blogs, but you stay true to yourself.  Our individual lives, jobs, family life take priority, but your passion is so strong, that you are designing in your spare time.

• You are a designer who writes well and thinks.  We often communicate via email/chat.  So, clear concise writing is imperative.  We feel good writing demonstrates creative thinking. Finally, good writing helps grow a business with blogging, twitter, friendfeed, etc.

• You are a designer who wants to learn, experiment, and do.  If you look at our post:  Why Build Simpleweight – Defining Simple Weight Success, our number one goal and our number two goal details learning.  We built simpleweight to learn about ourselves, to learn about entrepreneurship, to learn about weight loss, and to learn new technology.  Learning happens by doing and experimenting.  So you must be a learner and a doer.

• You are a designer who has a broad list of passions including but definitely not limited to Health, Fitness, or Weight Loss.  We’re trying to help large numbers of total strangers achieve a healthful weight loss balance.  However, we’ve got a number of other ideas in our ten webs project that we’d like help on.

• You are a designer who lives in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, but this is not really a requirement it is optional.

• You are a designer that is efficient yet exceptional with web and graphic design tools. We will be wowed by your ability to take designs and make them come to life into interfaces that people will want to use many times a day.

• Finally, You are a designer who is willing to work for FREE and become a partner in our Triumvirate. You think I’m kidding?   Simpleweight is more about helping others than making big dollars.  Yes, if we had 200 million users, we’d all be doing pretty good financially, but our hope is that those 200 million users are healthful and saving the economy money.  We’re not a non-profit company, we expect to make a profit.  Eventually, it is our desire for our websites, applications, and other projects to grow enough financially where we’d be able to decide whether we want full-time jobs or not.  Until that time comes, our profit is funneled back into the company to help more people.  We expect you to have a current income that is sustaining your lifestyle.

Now, we understand no one works for FREE.  What do you get in return for working on simpleweight?  You get an outlet for your passions: Design and Fitness.  You get to learn and grow your career.  You get experience that is unmatched in your current set-up, because you now become a ground-floor partner in a business that compliments your passions. You get untold rewards that are limited only in our collective creativity and ability to act.  How cool is that?  You also get some developers to help you take your ideas to market into real-live products. Yes, we’re open.  Our ideas become your ideas and vice versa.

Are we asking for too much?  We don’t think so.  If you do, then obviously, you’re not the right candidate.

Contact us – We’d love to hear from you, see your portfolio, or read your blog.  Tell us why you should become a member of our triumvirate?