Belly Fat Diet For Dummies
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Traveling can make it pose special challenges to dieters. Eating at restaurants can make it hard stick with your belly fat diet plan. Depending on when and where you’re traveling, you may face challenges like these:

  • Being tempted by the hotel vending machine

  • Changing your eating times or schedule

  • Eating out often if staying in a hotel

  • Having difficulty fitting in regular exercise

  • Having to eat on the road or in the car

  • Needing to find healthy meals and snacks at the airport

It’s so easy to get off track when you’re up against these challenges, but if you plan ahead and prepare yourself before you leave, you can easily stay the course and prevent slip-ups. Here are some ways to prepare:

  • Pack food. If you’re going on a road trip, purchase a small cooler or an insulated lunch bag and fill it with Belly Fat Diet essentials, such as raw veggies, fresh fruit, low-fat string cheese, a sandwich on whole-grain bread, low-fat yogurt, and so on. This way, when you’re hungry, you have a healthy option on hand.

  • Call ahead to request a mini fridge in your room. When you arrive at the hotel, you can then fill the fridge with belly-friendly snack and meal options. If you’re driving to the hotel, you can purchase these foods in advance and travel with them in the cooler. If you’re flying, ask the hotel where the nearest grocery store is so you can stock up upon arrival.

  • Before leaving, look up potential restaurants you may want to visit on your trip. Pull up their menus online to identify some belly-friendly options you can select when eating out. To identify restaurants in the area where you’ll be traveling, use the online Yellow Pages for that city.

  • Stick with an eating schedule. It’s easy to get sidetracked and forget to eat on vacation, but doing so can lead to excessive hunger and cravings later on. Have a small meal or snack every three to four hours to prevent excessive hunger and keep your metabolism revved up.

  • Don’t forget exercise. If you’re staying in a hotel, try to book one that has a gym or workout room. If you can’t, plan in advance where you can fit in a walk in the area you’re traveling. Or you may be able to do your belly fat diet workout in your hotel room. Resistance bands are small and easy to pack for a great strength workout.

You didn’t gain weight overnight. A slip-up or occasional treat won’t put the weight back on overnight either. What can put the weight back on quickly is being so rigid that you burn out and go back to old habits for weeks or months.

The food industry pours millions of dollars annually into research on human behavior to understand how it can encourage you to eat and order more food when eating out. Here are some tricks restaurants use to increase how much and how quickly you eat:

  • Loud music: Is the music pretty loud at your favorite restaurant? Have you wondered why? Studies have actually shown that loud music makes you eat faster, which increases restaurant turnover and profits. Eating quickly decreases your ability to eat mindfully, so be aware of your eating speed.

  • Uncomfortable chairs: The next time you eat out, focus on the chair you’re sitting in and where it’s located. Is it uncomfortable? Is it in the middle of the dining area? Some restaurants use less-than-comfy chairs or place you in the middle of the dining room. Both have been shown to increase the speed in which you eat and leave.

  • Wall color: Glance around the restaurant and notice the wall colors. Warm colors like red and yellow stimulate the desire to eat, which can be another trick restaurants use to help increase your appetite.

  • Serving tactics: Did you order a drink, get served quickly, and then wonder why your waiter disappeared? Alcohol stimulates appetite. If you drink before ordering, you’re more likely to order more food (and less healthy options). So drink water before and save the alcoholic beverage for the end of the meal.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Erin Palinski-Wade, RD, CDE, is a nationally recognized nutrition and fitness expert who has contributed to national media outlets such as the CBS Early Show, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, Fitness Magazine, and Prevention Magazine, among others.

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