5 Things I learned At Lunch
Lunch today was at Sue’s Mongolian BBQ (A buffet where they cook your food on the spot). Here are a few things I noticed:
Eat slow - I’ve talked about this one before but today I really noticed it. Usually, when I go to Sue’s, I eat with chopsticks. Not being very good with them, I eat slowly and take small bites. It takes me about ten minutes to finish a bowl of food and by then I’m full. Today, I used a fork. I ate fast and I was still starved five minutes after I started, which was about when I finished my first bowl. So I ate another bowl. Lesson learned, eat slow, take smaller bites and enjoy your food.
Veggies make great filler - Mongolian BBQ places work likes this: You pick up an empty bowl and then you fill it with all sorts of raw ingredients. Hand it to the cook who prepares it on a large open grill and you’ve got food. The person in line in front of me filled most of their bowl with meat. I filled most of my bowl with veggies and a few noodles. We both got the same sauces. Our food tasted and same but his had at least three times as many calories as mine. Which brings me to my next lesson learned.
Sauces and spices are key - the guy in front of me failed at realizing a basic truth of cooking. It’s the spices and the sauce that give most dishes their flavor. His food tasted just like mine but he had a lot more calories for the volume of food he ate. Remember, eating veggies doesn’t have to mean eating bland tasteless food. If you think about most spices and sauces you like, you’ll note that they come from, that’s right, vegetables! So find a healthy food and season it to your liking. (No, that doesn’t mean drowning it in ranch sauce!)
Water = Filling goodness - My food came out a little (which actually means A LOT) spicy. So I was drinking a lot of water. That slowed me down even more plus it helped fill me up. Water is great because it’s healthy and it has calorie free volume. As such, it’s a must have part of every meal.
Post lunch walk is the best dessert - I usually take a walk after lunch. Today I drove around running some errands. Result? I was sleepy and bloated. My post lunch walk reenergizes me and helps me avoid the post lunch nap. It doesn’t have to be a 1 hour workout session, it just needs to be a 15 to 20 minute walk. And feeling too tired to take a walk is not an excuse, it’s the reason to get up off your ass and start walking.
