How to "Eat Out" Healthfully

A user emailed, "What should I do when I am not able to eat off the meal plan such as going out to eat or on a vacation?

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(This is a vegetable stir-fry I ordered "dry" at Denny's (yes! Denny's!) so it was oil-free and as heathy as a meal plan meal).

First, look at the menu for dishes that sound like they could be low fat (oil-free) and healthy, which means skipping past anything that's fried. I specifically look for things that can be steamed or are not cooked (i.e. fresh spring rolls in a Thai restaurant). I'll also inquire whether my meal can be made without oil. Most often it can, if not, I'll ask if there is another dish that could. If I end up with a salad (or that's just what I want) I skip the dressing, and ask for salsa (if they have it) or vinegar.

I'm also not embarrassed about getting creative with the menu -- blending items from different dishes to create my own dish. I did this once and the waitress and chef liked my "creation" so much that they decided to add it to the menu. I have also never encountered a waiter or waitress that wasn't happy to help. I think with so many dietary restrictions these days, it's not "weird" to inquire or ask for adaptions. Plus, as my husband says, we're paying to have our meal cooked to order. (Note: we always tip generously and leave positive reviews online when places accomodate us).

Next, I consider what meals might be the healthiest choice for me in the circumstances I'm in. This distinction is important. You have to consider your circumstances, not utopia.

For example, if I'm at home, and I'm making an Asian dish, I always use brown rice. However, if I'm at a restaurant, and only white rice is available, I'm not going to stress about it. I tell myself to do the best that I can. After all, white rice and steamed vegetables is still a whole lot better for me than deep fried spring rolls :)

In the end, we all have to find our own balance, but I try not to live to eat. I'd love to only eat in, but that's not realistic with my lifestyle and work (which requires constant travel) or social situations... so I shoot for 100% perfection and land somewhere closer to 85-90% and that's fine by me. I always eat vegan (plant-based) though - that's never an exception.

Use your intuition. You know what's healthy and what isn't. Make the healthiest choice possible and if you end up making a less-than-great-choice, don't beat yourself up. It happened the best you can do is step forward and make your next choice a great one!

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Healthy Pumpkin Recipes for Halloween

Halloween isn't about candy or dressing up -- it's about pumpkin in our food, let's be honest about that ;)

Here are some of my favorite (healthy!) pumpkin recipes. Any are sure to please on Halloween!

1. Single-Serving Pumpkin Muffin (add chocolate chips!)

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2. Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

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3. Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies!

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Getting Fit & Weight-Loss Tips from a Vegan Body Builder (part 2)

Vegan model and fitness superstar Noel is back (read part 1 here) sharing his tips for losing weight (I bet you've never heard these ones before!), bulking up (this might surprise you!) and getting fit.

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GMP: For a vegan hoping to lose weight, other than managing their diet with healthy, whole foods like we use on the meal plans, do you have any other tips or advice?

If someone who is vegan and is having trouble losing weight I recommend following intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting its not a diet you just changing your eating time, and you also follow this everyday. For beginners you make your eating time from 12pm to 7pm. During 12pm and 7pm you eat your 3 or four meals. Then after 7pm you have nothing but water. You will start eating again the next day at 12pm. Before 12pm you just drink water. Intermittent fasting gives your body more time to burn fat. Combining plant-based nutrition and intermittent fasting and training hard will help you burn fat quickly. So cardio on empty stomach just water 4 or 5 times a week.

GMP: For a vegan hoping to bulk up or improve their muscular performance and physique, what advice do you have?

If you want to bulk up its simple just increase your calories.

GMP: So you don't take any special supplements like protein powder?

I don't take any post workout shakes or preworkout shakes or any kind of protein powders. I just eat healthy plant-based food.

GMP: Any other advice for someone looking to get more fit on a vegan diet?

My advice for anyone looking to get more fit is to watch less t.v. And throw away all the fitness magazines. Don't buy anymore. If you really want to get in shape take actions. Talk less and do more. If you go to a gym do the basic exercises: bench press, military press, squats. If you are like me and prefer using mainly your bodyweight do: pull ups, chin ups, push ups, knee raises, lunges, push ups. For cardio running up a hill, or walking in nature everyday. Also climbing up and down the stairs.

GMP: Finally, do you follow any special diet? My friend that's a trainer, for example, only eats carbs before a certain time of the day. Can you tell us about your daily diet?

I don't really follow a diet I just eat healthy plant-based food. I don't follow a schedule but if anyone is interested in what kind if meals I eat I post them on my blog or on my instagram @ VeganLight.

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Thanks so much for interviewing Noel and keep rockin' those abs!

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Getting Fit & Weight-Loss Tips from a Vegan Body Builder (part 1)

I'm very excited to introduce Noel - a vegan model and fitness guru! I met Noel on Facebook several months ago and was impressed by his fresh, whole foods perspective. While many body builders push supplements, Noel doesn't. He eat real food and gets real results!

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GMP: So Noel, tell us: What made you adopt a plant-based (vegan) diet and how long have you been plant-based?

Noel: I was raised in a society where obesity keeps growing, diabetes keeps growing, and kids are being fed junk food from a young age. I went through that but I am happy and glad to have been awakened. Now my eyes are opened to see things clearly. Like a quote I once heard about the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.): "The one thing an animal diet does best. is kill people". I look at my family and see almost all are over weight or being affected by diseases. I tell myself this only proves to me that the vegan diet is the way we are designed to eat.

If meat is so healthy, why do they keep getting sick? Why do they workout and can't lose weight?

We must first take care of our body through the inside. We need to feed it the right way so it can perform the correct way. But then again the meat eaters say “We are all going to die anyway so might as well enjoy food.” They forget that before we die we suffer. We suffer either from cancer, obesity, cholesterol, diabetes. We don’t just die, NO WAY! There is a great deal of suffering on the way to dying. And that suffering is caused by the meat diet. We suffer and then we die. So I follow a vegan diet to perform at my highest level at all times. I want to be able to move, play sports, and take care of myself. I am a man on a mission. I show people that you can still build muscles on a vegan diet. You can still stay strong and you can become healthier. It is one thing looking good from the outside and being unhealthy on the inside. That doesn't work for me. I don't want that. I want to be both healthy on the inside and on the outside.

GMP: There are so many myths about protein. The most common question any vegan or vegetarian gets is "where do you get your protein?" but this must be especially true for a fitness star like you. What do you tell people?

Since I have so many fitness videos on my youtube page and mostly when people see me working out and see the strength I have, they know I am doing something right. So mainly people ask me for some great recipes for them to try and ask for my help. I have helped many people transition into a vegan diet and they all have achieved great results. It isn't about how much protein you take, it is about how much hard work you put into your workouts. So when they ask me that question i just share this quote with them:

"All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy." - Scott Alexander

GMP: As a fitness star and model, you have to keep your body in perfect shape. Do you find that's easier as a vegan? How has this diet helped you?

I find it easy to stay healthy and lean in a vegan diet. Fruits and veggies and daily exercising does your body good. When you stop eating all the other toxins that causes you to become fat and slow everything else falls into place so nicely.

GMP: Many of our meal plan users exercise before or after work, where a meal (i.e. lunch or dinner) is in the near future, but it's just far enough away they'd like a snack to hold them over. What are some of your favorite post-workout and energizing foods?

After my long workouts I eat anything since I train for a long period of time. But bananas are great for recovery and also two bananas provide you enough energy for a 90 min workout.

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Check back on Friday for part 2 where Noel gives tips for losing weight (I bet you've never heard these ones before), bulking up (this might surprise you!) and getting fit.

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25 Seemingly Healthy Foods that are Actually Unhealthy

If some company is telling me their product is healthy, I know it probably isn't.

We all know intuitively what a healthy food is. For example, no one has to take out an advertisement in a magazine to convince us to eat apples and that they are a healthy choice -- we already know that in our hearts. Similarly, we're not seeing commercials for cantaloupe or eggplant or bell peppers on primetime TV. No one is trying to convince us an eggplant is healthy and we should eat it...

Don't be fooled by clever marketing. So many foods touted as "healthy" aren't. Packaging, magazines, commercials -- they're all deceptive. It's an ADVERTISEMENT after all.

Snack foods seem to be the worst offenders -- so many snack foods get a gold star when they shouldn't. We offer a comprehensive list of 50-calorie and 100-calorie snacks on the meal plans, but you won't find brand names and packaged foods in a box. Rather you'll get simple, whole food suggestions like celery and hummus, apple slices and peanut butter, roasted chickpeas with spices, baby carrots and dip, sweet potatoes baked with cinnamon, whole-wheat bread with applesauce, and so on.

Do your snacks deserve a gold star? Find out! Shape magazine recently compiled a list of 50 Seemingly Healthy Foods that are Bad for You and here are the highlights (you might be surprised!):

25 Not-so-Healthy "health" foods:

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1. Microwave Popcorn - high levels of sodium and the chemical diacetyl. Use our oil-free popcorn brown bag method instead.

2. Yogurt - we already know dairy is bad for the bod, but even non-dairy yogurts can be loaded with sugar. Buy plain, unsweetened varities whenever you can and add your own fresh fruit (i.e. blueberries) with a drizzle of maple, agave, or honey if desired.

3. Flavored Milks - soy milk, almond milk, etc. are so much better for us than dairy milk but some of the flavored varities (like the dark chocolate almond milk that's been all the rave lately) are like a candy bar in a glass. They're tasty, but they're also full of sugar, fat and calories and you can drink them down faster than you can eat a candy bar. These are fine for an occassional treat (think of it as a dessert), but when purchasing your non-dairy milk, opt for unsweetened and plain or vanilla if you can.

4. Dried Fruit - Dried fruits can be sneaky calorie bombs (you can eat 200 calories of raisins easily, but it's hard to swallow 200 calories worth of grapes that fast!) but they're also typically loaded with added sugar, oil and sulfur. If you must eat dried fruit, look for unsweetened and unsulfured varieties -- choosing fresh fruit instead whenever possible.

5. Trail Mix - nuts and dried fruit can be sneaky calorie bombs. You can easily gobble up a few hundred calories in the blink of an eye. Worse still, most trail mixes use nuts that have been salted and roasted and dried fruits that have added sugar and oil. All of that is unnecessary junk. If you must eat trail mix, elect for mixes using raw nuts and dried fruits with no additives and measure out a serving size.

6. Granola - Most granolas, even "low fat" granolas are loaded with fat (oil), sugar and calories. Toast oats and make your own granola.

7. Corn Chips - even "baked" corn chips are still high in fat and salt. Cut a corn tortilla into triangles using a pizza cutter or knife and bake your triangles for a few minutes at 350F until they're crispy. It's so easy!

8. "Gluten-Free" - "Gluten-free" is all the rage right now, but this term doesn't mean it's automatically healthy. After all, there are "gluten-free" potato chips, cookies, and candies. If it's packaged or processed -- gluten or no gluten -- it's not as healthy as a whole food like fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes or whole (naturally gluten-free) grains. If you need to follow a gluten-free diet due to allergies or sensitivities, by all means do it, but make sure you're gluten-free convenience foods are still healthy choices. A gluten-free cookie is still a cookie!

9. Frozen Dinners - even vegan/vegetarian frozen dinners leave much to be desired in the nutrition department. They're easy, but so is a bean burrito. Avoid preservatives and truckloads of sodium and try our meal plans. You can prepare all 3 meals for the day in as little as 15-20 minutes, or you cook all your meals once for the whole week in 2-3 hours and reheat all week long.

10. Vegetable Pizza - Going cheeseless is awesome, but make sure the vegetables haven't been soaked or sauteed in oil before they're loaded onto the crust. Keep an eye on vegan cheeses too. They're often loaded with fat (oil) and calories. If you must use faux cheese, try to stick to a bare sprinkling or use Happy Herbivore's Tofu Ricotta.

12. Canned Soups - even organic, vegan, "low sodium" canned soups can have upwards of 400mg of sodium per cup. Throw some vegetables in a pot with broth and let it simmer while you watch TV or fold laundry if you can. Then you have enough soup for several meals and without the sodium. Or try our 3-ingredient vegetable soup. It takes seconds!

13. Vegetable Pastas - vegetable-based pastas, like spinach pasta (which is green), look lovely but aren't much healthier than white pasta. The amount of spinach included in the pasta is so small it doesn't add up to much benefit. Stick to whole grain pastas (like 100% whole-wheat or brown rice pasta) and add some spinach to your dish instead.

14. Wheat Bread - make sure your "wheat" bread is 100% whole-wheat and not white bread with a tan. If it doesn't specifically say "100% whole-wheat" it's not whole wheat. Also check the ingredients and nutritional information. There should be at least 2g of fiber if it's whole wheat.

15. Reduced Fat Peanut Butter - Low fat peanut butters are rarely a nutritional bargain. The fat is processed out, but the calories remain the same because sugar and other fillers are added. Ick! Buy a natural peanut butter that is just peanuts (no oil and preferably no salt or sweetener added) and use it sparingly.

16. Fruit Cocktail - loaded with sugar and syrups -- eat fresh fruit instead.

17. Fruit Juice - Quoting Dr. Essy "It's like dumping the sugar bowl down your throat." Some juices are higher in calories than soda!

18. Pretzels - pretzels might be lower in fat than potato chips but they're nothing but white flour and salt - empty calories. Use crunchy vegetables like celery and carrots as a dipper or snack instead.

19. Kale Chips - most commercial kale chips are coated in nuts or seeds so it's like eating a little bit of kale with a big helping of nut butter. Kale is healthy, true, but don't drench it in fat with extra calories. Try Happy Herbivore's oil-free kale chips instead -- tasty, healthy, low cal and low fat!

20. "Raw" Foods - At the core raw foods are great -- whole fruits, whole vegetables, greens, but packaged "raw" products are often sneaky calorie bombs high in fat and calories. I recently picked up a "raw" cheesecake and it had over 1,000 calories - in a single slice! It may be raw, but I shouldn't eat a dessert that high in calories, period. Have raw banana ice cream instead.

21. Protein & Meal Bars - even vegan brands like Luna and Cliff have alarming lists of ingredients. They're easy, but so is a bean burrito, yet it's much healthier and satisfying. If you're super busy and pressed for time, consider using our meal plans. You can prepare a days worth of meals in 15-20 minutes, or do all your cooking for the entire week in 2-3 hours. If you must buy protein and meal replacement bars, make sure they're less than 200 calories and have no more than 8g of sugar.

22. Sushi - Have you ever eaten 3 rolls of sushi than wondered why you're starving an hour later? That's because sushi is typically made with white rice which is full of calories but provides little long-term satiety. Opt for brown rice sushi (filled with vegetables, not fish or avocado) for the healthiest option. Also be wary if some of the sauces (they contain mayo) and tempura - it's fried.

23. Veggie Burgers - Although a veggie burger is healthier than a meat patty, nothing beats homemade in terms of taste or nutrition. Try Happy Herbivore's 6-ingredient bean burgers. They only take 15 minutes!

24. Multi-Grain Chips - a step up from potato chips, but these snacks are still processed, not 100% whole-grain (meaning they contain processed white flours) and they're often high in salt and fat (oil). Try baking a whole-wheat pita or tortilla into chips (see #7 for directions) or choose cooked whole grains instead.

25. "Organic" - Just because it's "organic" doesn't mean it's automatically healthy. One trip to the health food store and you'll find "organic" chips, cookies, candies and other junk foods. Don't let buzz words fool you! A conventional apple is still a better choice than "organic" potato chips.

Need healthy snack and meal ideas? Try our meal plans. We include healthy snacks into the plan each day plus provide additional healthy snack ideas.

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Does Calorie Restriction Really Work for Weight-Loss?

A few times a week I'll get a question about weight-loss and calorie restriction similar to this one:

Question: In the past I've had no success restricting my calories. I noticed your meal plans are calorie-based, how will I know they will work for me?

In my personal experience, that simple math formula, "calories in calories out," never worked in absolutes with my weight-loss. For example, when I was exercising vigorously, while also not going over my "calorie allowance" I couldn't seem to lose weight, or I lost very little, which as I later realized, was because my diet was crappy. Pizza, cupcakes, french fries, oil, coca cola, chips a hoy. It didn't matter that I limited myself calorie-wise, I didn't experience real results or the weight-loss I wanted (or the flat belly!) until I cleaned up my diet.

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Once I cleaned up my diet, the weight finally started to melt away and rather easily. After a while I stopped having a calorie allowance and just let myself eat, as long as it was healthy, and whole foods (and plant-based/low fat). It seemed that as long as I ate right and I was good about exercising regularly, the weight kept coming off. Eventually I hit my weight-goal, and I recently blogged about how I maintained weight without exercising for two years.

While I think exercise is important for overall health and it makes weight-loss easier, I have found that diet was far more important for both health and my weight-loss (and later, weight maintenance).

Moral of the story: It's true you should be mindful of calories when you're trying to lose weight, but it also matters where those calories come from -- what are you eating? In my personal experience, you just can't compare a 1,600 calorie diet made from whole plant-foods, to a 1,600 calorie diet filled with junk food.

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