The Texas Saints

How to Make Healthier Choices When Eating at Fast Food Restaurants

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:19:07 +0000

We all know that eating at fast food restaurants is terrible for our health. It makes us fat, lazy, bloated and sick. Just one cheeseburger will double your daily calorie requirement, and the salads, yogurts and diet sodas they sell are not really all that much healthier. They are the biggest reason for the obesity epidemic in America today, and there does not seem to be any way of making them disappear from our ever growing suburban landscapes.

If you are really serious about getting or staying in shape, fast food restaurants are not on your path to success. Sometimes, though, these restaurants may seem like the only option other than starvation. Long road trips, co-worker lunches, and other situations may force you into choosing between bad or worse. This can be devastating to anyone trying to lose weight or trying to change their bad eating habits to good.

Listed below are 7 tips that will help you make healthier choices if you are ever forced to eat fast food. It is inevitably going to happen in todays fast paced world. You might as well be prepared!

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #1: Get Less For Your Money

So-called value meals really only offer you extra calories, saturated fat, sugar, and other diet killers. The only way this could be beneficial is if you are saving up for bypass surgery. Getting twice as many fries for only 20 cents more is not a good deal. Fast food packs a lot of unhealthiness into a small package as it is, so super-sizing it is only adding fuel to the fire.

Think about it this way. Is 20 cents really worth eating an entire weeks worth of fat and calories in one sitting? Paying extra to ruin your health makes no sense. Ordering the small size may not be as cheap per pound of food, but it will save a fortune when working off pounds of fat later.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #2: Discover Your Inner Child

Sadly, a reasonably sized portion for an adult is now only found on the children’s menu! Want to get healthy sides like fruit or carrots? Again, only on the childrens menu! It is great that kids are getting healthier options, but what about adults? We need good nutrition too! Don’t be ashamed to order the junior hamburger or even the kids’ meal. You are the only one who can control what you eat and how much of it.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #3: No All Salads Are Created Equal

Just because it has lettuce does not mean it is healthy. A Big Mac has lettuce, and you know it would not be any healthier if it was called a Big Mac Salad. Don’t be fooled by clever naming tricks. Use common sense when selecting a salad, and make sure all the ingredients are vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins you recognize. Also, do not go through all that effort just to drown your healthy meal in a pool of fatty dressing! Ask for vinaigrette.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #4: Have It Your Way

Most restaurants honor your requests if you ask them. Hold the mayo and high-corn-syrup ketchup, and ask for more pickles, tomatoes and lettuce. Substitute the breaded chicken breast for the grilled chicken breast. Ask for extra vegetables. Ask for wheat buns instead of white. And by all means, hold the cheese! Most of the time you can not savor the flavor when it is packed into a sandwich anyway.

Fast Food Healthier Choice Tips #5: You Are What You Drink

The most profitable menu items for restaurants are soft drinks. Costing almost nothing to make, they want you to get as big a size as possible and pay for it. What you’ll get is tons of sugar and chemicals. And maybe eventually, diabetes! Soda and diet soda will ruin your figure and your health. Order iced tea or water instead. If someone is holding a gun to your head and making you order a soda, get the small.

Of course the best advice I can give you is to make your own fast food at home in the form of a soy-based protein meal replacement. This is how I lost 70 pounds in 4 months and have kept it off for over 15 years. It usually takes me about 3 minutes to make, which is less time than it takes to wait in the drive-thru line at any McDonalds.

I rarely go to fast food restaurants anymore, but when I do I follow the tips listed above. Losing weight and keeping it off for good is about making healthy decisions about what you eat, no matter where you are eating.

You are What You Eat

hanun — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:14:58 +0000

I recently read an article about how many whole foods have a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function. The similarities between the food and organ signal the benefit that food provides. Basically saying, you are what you eat.

I did a bit more research and found the similarities between different whole foods strikingly similar. It may surprise you, and hopefully encourage you to continue eating those good-for-you foods. Here are just a few examples.

A sliced carrot looks like the human eye. The lines inside the carrot resemble the pupil, iris and radiating lines in your eye. Science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A tomato resembles the heart. Tomatoes have four chambers and are red, just like the heart. The lycopene in tomatoes are crucial in the fight against heart disease.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell. Research today shows that grapes are also a profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A walnut is strikingly similar looking to the brain. The shape of a walnut looks just like the left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, and Rhubarb look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength and they replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Onions look like body cells. Today’s research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

Preparing For and Surviving an OSHA Inspection

hanun — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:13:38 +0000

The primary responsibility of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is to develop and enforce health and safety standards that protect workers in the workplace. It has mandatory power to audit organizations for compliance of health and safety standards. OSHA conducts workplace inspections to make certain that employers are complying with the standards and providing a safe and healthful workplace.

OSHA inspectors, called compliance and safety officers, carry out these inspections/audits. These may be carried out due to accidents, fatalities, situations of imminent danger, complaints and referrals or as a follow-up investigation. An OSHA audit can be a tedious and stressful experience for employers since the agency is empowered to impose penalties on those who are in violation of the standards. This is particularly true for small businesses that may not have the wherewithal to be in full OSHA compliance.

Generally, an employer who takes proactive action (and the associated pains) to try and adhere to mandated requirements will fare much better during such OSHA inspections. A little known fact for many employers is that compliance officers normally research the history of a worksite before an inspection. Therefore it pays to work with the inspectors and answer questions fully and honestly, rather than adopt stalling tactics. Actions like insisting on an inspection warrant, to buy time, can turn out to be counterproductive in the end.

Every workplace is unique; no universal formula can be prescribed for negotiating an OSHA audit unscathed. However, attention to some basic details can help immensely:

First, having an effective safety and health program which lays down the policies, procedures and practices for protection against occupational safety and health hazards helps to develop the proper mindset. Depending upon the type industry and the complexity of operations, these programs may even include a Processes Safety Management (PSM) program mandated by the 29 CFR 1910.119 OSHA Standards. A written program should be communicated to all employees.

Second, coaching employees on health and safety, including OSHA compliant training, should be routine. Proper training is necessary to insure that workers understand potential hazards as well as practice safe working methods.

Third, it is important for companies to stress employee participation in safe practices. Active employee involvement can greatly enhance compliance to OSHA standards.

Fourth, it is imperative that businesses have a written hazard communication program. This is particularly important in industries handling hazardous chemicals. The complexity of the program will obviously depend upon the specific needs of the worksite. It may range from a simple collation of information from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), to a comprehensive OSHA mandated program in line with the 29 CFR 1910.1200 Standard.

Fifth, periodic self inspections and compliance audits will help to identify violations and allow corrective action to be taken. Earlier cases of accidents or injuries, if any, can also be analyzed for possible preventive measures. This will minimize the likelihood of being cited for violations during OSHA audits.

Record keeping is one of the most important tools for providing proof of a company’s efforts to comply with an OSHA inspector. The scope of documentation is wide and the more accurately records are maintained; the better it is for audits. Examples of relevant documentation would be accident reports, injury and illness reports, exposure records (hazmat exposure, noise exposure, etc where applicable), past inspections and action-taken reports, as well as employee training records.

All these steps will lessen the stress of an OSHA inspection and reduce the odds of receiving citations and penalties. As an OSHA fact sheet states, “OSHA’s primary goal is correcting hazards and maintaining compliance, rather than issuing citations or collecting penalties.”