10 Worst Salads – who said salads are healthy?

Here is a top 10 list of some of the worst restaurant salads you just might be eating. You might think you have chosed an healthy option, when in reality, you are eating 50-80% of your total daily caloric intake in one salad.

10.  Romano’s Macaroni Grill Chicken Florentine Salad – 1,020 calories/17 grams/2,830 mg sodium

9. Quiznos Chicken Caesar Flatbread Salad – 1,020 calories/69 grams fat/2,120 mg sodium

8. Quiznos Roasted Chicken Flatbread Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing – 1,070 calories/71 grams fat/1,770 mg sodium

7. Chili’s Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad – 1,070 calories/77 grams fat/4,380 mg sodium

6. Chili’s Southwestern Cobb Salad – 1,080 calories/71 grams/2,650 mg sodium

5. Ruby Tuesday’s Carolina Chicken Salad – 1,129 calories/71 grams fat

4. Baja Fresh Charbroiled Steak Tostada Salad – 1,230 calories/63 grams fat/2,380 mg sodium

3. Chili’s Quesadilla Explosion Salad – 1,390 calories/89 grams fat/2,710 mg sodium

2. Chevy’s Fresh Mex Grilled Fajita Salad made with Chicken, Carnitas, Shrimp or Steak – 1,450-1,620 calories/27-37 grams fat/1,570-2,530 mg sodium

The number 1 worst restaurant salad you may be eating is….

Chevy’s Fresh Mex Tostada Salad with Chicken, Carnitas or Steak – 1,550-1,720 calories/37-47 grams fat/2,480-3,310 mg sodium

Enlightening?  Shocking?  Frusterating?

You thought salads were healthy!  You thought chosing a salad when you go out to eat is a better option!

This list just goes to show that you HAVE to ask what’s in your food, even if it’s salad and you HAVE to look scrupilously at the ingredients.  Be suspicious of sauces and dressings (we always ask for oil and vinigar to put on ourselves).  Also make sure there are no fried ingredients in the salad and avoid cheese in the salad.  Check the method of cooking the meat.  A whole chicken breast which is grilled AND THEN sliced to lay on a salad is going to be much healthier than a pre-sliced meat sauteed in a sauce and then added to the salad.  Also, much restaurant (especiallly chain restaurant) meat has been pre-soaked and cooked in oil and sweet sauce, shipped frozen and then cooked again (to heat and finish cooking) in more oil and sauce.

If you would like more information about what is actually in the restaurant foods you eat I suggest you check out the “EAT THIS NOT THAT” site: http://eatthisonline.com/ETContext.

Happy and Healthy Eating.

Liesbet

Update on Paul, and How to Handle Adversity

Hi everyone.  I talked to Paul Monday.  As you know,  he injured his Achilles playing softball.  Hopefully we will get an update from a specialist this week.

What I told Paul yesterday is an important message for all of us - I guarantee we will all experience something (in fact many things) which could set us back to poor eating habits, depression, and a desire to “give up”.

Whatever life throws at you...

When this happens YOU CHOSE how the situation will affect you.  You can just as easily look at the situation as an opportunity as as a set back. Challenges give us an opportunity to learn, to grow, to explore new avenues.  We never know what will come of them. We can not control fate – but we can control our response.  Choose always to act.  Chose always to follow your path no matter what the Universe delivers to you.

Here is an often told Chinese fable which illustrates my point about life – Good things don’t happen to you.  Bad things don’t happen to you.  Life just happens and you chose what you do with it.

A man named Sei Weng owned a beautiful mare which was praised far and wide. One day this beautiful horse disappeared. The people of his village offered sympathy to Sei Weng for his great misfortune. Sei Weng said simply, “That’s the way it is.”

A few days later the lost mare returned, followed by a beautiful wild stallion. The village congratulated Sei Weng for his good fortune. He said, “That’s the way it is.”

Some time later, Sei Weng’s only son, while riding the stallion, fell off and broke his leg. The village people once again expressed their sympathy at Sei Weng’s misfortune. Sei Weng again said, “That’s the way it is.”

Soon thereafter, war broke out and all the young men of the village except Sei Weng’s lame son were drafted and were killed in battle. The village people were amazed as Sei Weng’s good luck. His son was the only young man left alive in the village. But Sei Weng kept his same attitude: despite all the turmoil, gains and losses, he gave the same reply, “That’s the way it is.”

Liesbet

Motivational Monday: Tony Robbins, Why we do what we do and how we can do it better.

Lower Body Maintenance

Your lower body may get strained from sitting long hours, standing long hours, doing a new exercise, improper running techniques, poor shoes, etc… Old injuries which never quite healed (sprained ankles, calf strains, shin splints) may manifest themselves when you start begin a new physical activity.  I recommend doing basic muscle maintenance on your feet and calves daily.  For most people this is even more important that stretching.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Liesbet

Upper Body Maintenance

Life creates muscle strain.  It’s a fact.  Poor posture, hours of sitting, shoes & weakness in the hips and core create just as much chronic soft tissue  injury and strain as playing soccer, basketball or any other sport.  So whether you are a swimmer or an office worker, a soccer player or a chef, you are going to need to use self-myofascial release to maintain healthy muscle tissues and joints. 

Self-Myofascial Release (massage) breaks the adhesions which form between muscle and the fascia which surround your muscles (think the slimy thin layer which surrounds chicken meat on a chicken).  It can also break scar tissue  which has formed in your muscles due to chronic or traumatic injury and help restore muscles tissue to a more functional form.  Lastly, it will bring oxygen into the area worked on and speed up recovery of strained muscles.  That said, don’t ever massage a swollen or bruised area.  Massage should start only after a tear has healed.  Massaging a torn muscle can increase the tear.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Food and Weight Loss: American Ethic Food Section? Cheese Wiz?

 

Watch this!  Click on Watch This to see a video made of the American Ethnic Food Section of a German grocery store.  What’s on the shelves?  Hershey’s Syrup, Marshmallows, Cheese Zip (like Cheese Wiz)…

 

Any food on the shelf? 

 

Africa may go down in history as the origin of AIDS.  America will definitely go down in history as the origin of Obesity.  Which will have killed more in the long run?

 

How does it feel to be know as the exporters of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated Oils?  McDonalds and Cheese Wiz and Marshmallow Fluff?

 

 

You probably know my opinion.  What’s yours?

 

Remember, “You must BE the change you want to see in the world.”

 

Liesbet Bickett – YOUR PARTNER IN CHANGE

CEO XceL Weight Loss & Fitness

liesbet@bickett.net

Motivational Monday: Failing is no indication of Failure

The question is not whether you jave struggled, it’s not whether youhave failed once, twice or a hundred times, it’s not whether you have stumbled or fallen flat on your face, over and over, it’s not about what other people have told you, or what you have told yourself… The question is…What are you doing NOW?!