Healthful Eating Hazards

Often when we try to revamp our diet we are met with many obstacles. Even when we completely change our shopping list, we still need to think about changing our eating habits when we are not eating in our home - which for most of is quite often.

• the workplace - Do you have a breakroom stocked with high fat/low nutrition snacks? Think about bringing healthier alternatives such as carrots sticks and hummus (our new favorite combo) or your favorote in-season fruit. For us our workplace hazard was our own business: We own a café and had grown accustomed to eating breakfast there. What started out as a pastry every once in a while became a full fledged habit at 3-4 times a week. Exchanging the pastry for two generous slices of rustic toast with jam eliminated at least 14g total fat and 8g saturated fat every time we normally would have eaten a pastry.
  

• in a rush - Convencience food can be a killer - literally! When we don't plan out our meals and we only think about them when we want to eat in the next 15 minutes to a half hour, we are particularly vulnerable to eating junk food. I'm not just talking about potato chips and soda - I mean all kinds of fast food, ordering pizza, many frozen dinners, and take-out. If you aren't very careful with your selections you may wind up eating more fat, cholesterol, and calories in one meal than you should for an entire day. Watch out!
• Some tips:Think about your week and on days when your have time to cook make a little extra so that you'll have healthy options on your busiest days. LefOr for a great meal in just minutes keep ingredients on-hand for salad anytime. One of the greatest innovations in recent years for fast-yet-healthy-food are the bags of pre-washed greens that just need toppings.
  

• beverages - Everyone knows that regular soda is loaded with tons of sugar, but what about our favorite morning beverages? In Spain, pretty much all cafés and restaurants serve a café con leche with whole milk. My husband was averaging about three a day (~15oz.) Just switching to three cortados (a shot of espresso with just a few drops of milk) saved him 14g total fat and 8.5g saturated fat every day. Sometimes little changes can have the biggest difference.

These are just a few hazards we've encountered and how we try to deal with them. Where is it hardest for you to eat well and how do you deal with it?