Miss Eurobar Event Industry Fitness Blog #5

Miss Eurobar Event Fitness Blog #5

Now, a couple of my comments below may get me in a bit of hot water with my catering clients and foodie friends, but the nice thing about writing a blog is it is my thoughts and opinions that I’m expressing to the public – so take it or leave it as you will.  (Just keep reading… :-)  )

First of all (Disclaimer)  – I am not a certified nutritionist and my answer is not going to be your eating plan, capiche?  This is to answer a direct question from a blog reader and industry pal.

Here is a sample of my eating day:

I eat as much organic and/or local grown produce as possible.  I don’t eat fast food or drink soda.  I’m not a big fan of fried food.  I’m not a big fan of tray passed food or buffet food either (reference note above) and I eat before I attend most association mixers so that I am not tempted to over eat food that has a lot of I-don’t-know-what-I’m-eating ingredients in it.  My go-to breakfast is a fruit bowl with plain Greek yogurt and cinnamon and my favorite snack is either reduced-fat Wheat Thins with gruyere or provolone cheese or organic peanut butter, a bowl of Kashi cereal or a handful of wasabi pea trail mix. 

Sounds too healthy?  Okay - -  I do like to eat lunch out a day or two a week.  Such as:  Sushi (love Harney Sushi rolls) or Tender Greens (favorite salad is the tuna nicoise and I do eat the side piece of buttered and grilled bread!)  I also like pizza – Pizza Port’s whole wheat beer crust Monterey pizza is my favorite as is anything from Bronxs and Isola.  I like pasta too – a good Bolognese sauce with spaghetti works just fine for me and I absolutely am crazy for Bencotto in Little Italy.

All right….most lunches consist of a big tuna or fresh roasted chicken salad or sandwich (21 grain bread) or left-overs.  But just sayhing… I do cheat too and savor every second of it!

And I cook.  My husband/business partner and I like to cook together.  We tease each other – he likes to cook heavy (i.e. sauces and butter with lots of dishes and a long wait for dinner) and I like to cook light (i.e. fresh and light – but will still use butter {just less of it} J  with less dishes and a faster time to eating!)  So we have fun in the kitchen – and this is a good thing because getting creative in the kitchen, whether you are a spouse or partner or not, makes you find out ways to eat healthy and at home.

And I also like to bake.  When my mom and I opened a coffee house years ago, she and I did all the baking.  I’ve always been quite good at it.  Cookies, cakes, pies…and I don’t skimp on the butter and sugar nor use whole wheat pastry flour in lieu of white (though I do use an organic bleached wheat flour from Whole Foods).   I bake when I have company or for family dinners and special occasions.  So sharing the baked goods means fewer leftover and less temptation the next day.

BUT I STILL EAT IT!

I do not believe in boxed anything. I also don’t eat processed foods.  I look at labels – things with too many ingredients scare me (especially when I’ve never seen the ingredient name before) and avoid things with too much fat or sugar or salt.  And I don’t believe in non-fat….

WAIT! You Say? You caught me - - I said my favorite snack is REDUCED FAT Wheat Thins….

I did.  Because I think reduced fat or low fat is okay – we don’t need all the saturated fat items, but we don’t need NON-fat either.  Non-fat equates to high sugar.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sugar is why we put on weight.  American’s eat a LOT of sugar.

And I DO DRINK WINE!  Now – that is my bane.  Wine has sugar and it has alcohol…both not too high on the “What-you-should-be-consuming”  scale.  I don’t drink many bad things – no soda, no processed/bottled juices, no hard alcohol, no beer (though that is only because I dislike the taste of beer) ….  Coffee, water, wine…. My favorite things to drink.  All in moderation (except water – I drink that all day long!)  Coffee in the a.m., wine in the p.m.   I like to savor that glass of vino – and it is definitely red!

I also  juice – orange, grapefruit, cantaloupe, carrot, beet, spinach, kale, celery…. My afternoon pickmeup.  (Nice having a commercial veggie and fruit juicer at home - - hey, it’s my business, right?  The Beverage business!)

Flavor should be why you eat or drink something – and just slamming it down and not enjoying it is a waste (i.e. what sooooo many of us do in the events industry because we are on the go and on our feet for such long hours).  Eat a protein bar if you want to not enjoy yourself – lots of what you need in that thing – with no flavor, but will tie you over and keep the catering event tempting foods at bay.

So – getting the picture?  Savor good food and take your time.  Pause a moment to eat and try to make better choices – don’t starve yourself then slam into your mouth whatever gets in your hand.

On that note, Isola sounds rather tempting today…..

You can take 10 minutes to work out and you can take 10 minutes to pause and eat.  Enjoy the small things in life.  A few short minutes is all you need…