eating right outside and inside

Eating right at home can be tough when you don't know where to start. I saw this as an opportunity to learn a life skill (cooking) while also eating right and controlling what I eat. Nowadays, you don't know what goes on behind the scenes in the process of making foods in restaurants or those processed, pre-packaged foods at grocery stores. When you make your own food, you have full transparency and control on what you eat.

Salads have actually become my friend. However, you have to be careful on what kind of salad you choose, because it might be just straight up grass or actually unhealthy.

A chicken Caesar salad at Chili's (loaded with salad dressing, croutons, cheese, and chicken) will set you back 1,010 calories and 76 grams of fat. ... For a healthy salad, start with a variety of colorful veggies, fruits, beans, and mixed greens -WebMD

While caesar salads are great, the sauce can be deadly because of the high fat concentrate and mayo-based substances. For a healthy and successful salad, you want veggies, beans, mixed greens, and fruit. Beans are often better than other protein such as meats (chicken, beef, turkey) because it's lower in cholesterol and fat and still contains protein. However, for me, I enjoy eating meat, so I usually choose chicken over red meat since red meat has more saturated fat and cholesterol than chicken (white meat).

Whenever I go out to eat, I always try to get a salad. It's a good salad if it has these items, and it doesn't hurt if it has a bit of dressing or sauce. The main goal of eating healthier is to have fulfilling nutrients, and carbs and fat are necessary nutrients (in moderation). For losing weight, you don't need to cut out everything bad, you just need to eat around 500 calories less each day to lose a pound a week (theoretically).

Eating out is always fun because you get to try new food. Sometimes healthier food such as salads isn't such a bad choice!