It often seems like a weight loss battle when we are watching our weight and dining out. But it is possible to eat well at a restaurant. Go ethnic. Go Vietnamese at Pho One.

The one place that I can always count on to give me a delicious meal without the guilt is Pho One. My usual is #38 the cold vermicelli with bbq pork. Of course, there’s also the mixed vegetable stir-fry with tofu. Mmmmm—so good!

My friend orders the hot egg & rice noodle with seafood and more.

For those who like it spicy, there are a variety of other options for you.

Many of the dishes have a modest portion of lean protein and loads of vegetables in light and flavorful broth or sauce. It will fill you up--totally guilt-free!

Enjoy! Maybe I’ll see you there!

Pho One
1617 Kapiolani Blvd # 101
Honolulu, HI 96814-4724
(808) 955-3438

*** MAHALO to the more than 800 who have completed the Hawaii Health Survey. For those who haven’t, I invite you to participate and join in on the effort to Build a Healthy Hawaii. Please visit my website www.lifefitnet.com. It is a short 15-question online survey that should take only 2-3 minutes to complete. For those who are wondering…summary results were posted last August. The survey was taken down to make revisions and re-released this January. Once I receive sufficient new data, I will again post a summary of results and will share the aggregated data with partnering businesses who share our mission. No one’s personal, individual data is ever shared. Mahalo for your support! Lori

For some reason, when people start “watching their diet,” they always seem to resort to eating salads more often. It’s not that I’m against salads, but what kind of salad are you eating and how are you eating it? For those who are eating iceberg lettuce salads, drenched with dressing, you might be better off having the barbeque chicken plate.

For those who enjoy salads, you can probably make it a little healthier by having the dressing on the side. But this technique isn’t only for salads. For any food that adds sauce after it’s cooked, you could cut the calories significantly by having the sauce on the side.

You’d be surprised how much less sauce, dressing or gravy you consume simply by placing it on the side. Whether you are eating buffalo wings, BBQ ribs or a hamburger steak, having the sauce on the side instead of having it drenched on the platter often leads you to eat much less.

Give it a shot. I’ve done this numerous times and over and over again I find myself using a fraction of what I would typically consume when the dish is served with it already mixed in or topped off. Many popular dishes can become ‘reduced calorie meals’ by simply placing the sauce or gravy on the side. And what’s even better is that you won’t miss a thing. You end up having just enough to flavor your food and make your taste buds happy rather than slathering your meal in a ton of unnecessary calories.

Try it and tell me that you don’t feel like you’ve hit the jackpot--enjoying the foods you love most, reducing the calories, yet not feel like you are making any sacrifice in doing so. You can’t beat it!

*** MAHALO to the more than 800 who have completed the Hawaii Health Survey. For those who haven’t, I invite you to participate and join in on the effort to Build a Healthy Hawaii. Please visit my website www.lifefitnet.com. It is a short 15-question online survey that should take only 2-3 minutes to complete. Mahalo for your support! Lori

You may be surprised how well little “tricks” can work to help you stick with healthier habits, which also end up as very practical alternatives. One that has works well is meal sharing. We all know that portions from many, if not most, restaurants are twice as big as they should be--or should I say twice as much food as one person needs to consume in one sitting. Since it is so difficult for people to control their appetite, meal sharing may be a solution. In most cases, this will lock you in to a preferred portion size. And if you split the bill, you will start saving money too.

Meal sharing can also provide the support and camaraderie that are so helpful to those trying to improve their eating habits. Since we live in a “food culture” where half of the value of eating is the social aspect of doing it with friends and family, it isn’t unusual for people to go through a lot of trouble in order to partake with others. What better way enjoy company than to “break bread?”

If you are thinking that it might be difficult to find someone who wants to eat the same dish, you never know until you ask. You may also be pleasantly surprised to find that food selection may change and improve because both of you are trying to accommodate each other. After all, you don’t want to be the one who messes up your partners healthy eating efforts.

In addition, even if you just meal share for a short period of time, your body and mind may adjust to eating smaller portions and you will find it a little easier thereafter to apportion meals.

All around, there are numerous benefits to meal sharing. Start meal sharing at home and at work and you could end up managing your diet better than you have before and better than you even imagined moving forward.

*** MAHALO to all of you who have completed the Hawaii Health Survey. For those who haven’t, I invite you to participate and help build a Healthy Hawaii. Please visit my website www.lifefitnet.com. It is a short 15-question online survey that should take only 2-3 minutes to complete. Mahalo for your support! Lori

We’ve got to do so much more. It saddens me to see businesses like Sweet Nothings disappear. It was a sugar-free bakery (and candy shop too) that I used to patronize to get things for my dad and friend’s dad who needed to watch their sugar intake. I’d get the chocolate chip cookies and chocolates, which were all so delicious
Anyway, we as consumers ultimately choose what remains on the market. We do this by spending our money on the items that we’d like to see businesses continue to offer and by patronizing the businesses that provide the products and services that we want.

I was reminded of this when dining out recently. The menu had a few “Weight Management” options but most of the menu selections were obviously far from that. At any rate, I kept thinking how wonderful it would be to have even more options rather than choosing between only a handful of less than 590 calorie meals (most being salads).
We all really need to do more to keep healthier selections available when dining out. We do this by asking for more. Ask for smaller portions. Ask for preparations that are healthier—like grilled versus saute’d or fried. Ask for low-fat or fat-free dressings. Ask if you can substitute cream sauces for marinara. Even if they don’t now, don’t let that stop you from asking again and again.

We can’t keep complaining that it’s not possible for us to eat healthy when dining out if we don’t do our part to communicate to businesses that we want healthier options. If we keep buying the fried, cheese-loaded, gravy covered dinners, guess what? They’ll keep offering them. Yup! They will probably feature the fried, cheese-loaded, gravy covered dinner as a weekly special. In the meantime, healthy choices fade off in the distance.

Here is my plea. When dining out, make healthier purchases and request that they serve even more. Eventually, I remain hopeful that menus will change and healthy options won’t be listed at the bottom of page 5, only accounting for 5% of the selections—or less. Maybe one day (in my lifetime I hope), it will be 20% or more of the selections.

Okay. Maybe I’m dreaming. But barring any of us opening up our own healthy restaurant, this is the way to go. This is how we convey our preferences to businesses and this is how we begin to change the direction of dining out. Please join me.

Quite a while ago we talked about how great it would be to have a tasty brown rice musubi, given all of the delicious whole grain bread, pasta and snack products out there. Well, it is finally here!

After hearing about this musubi place, I had to check it out. You know us local people and musubi! I was delighted to find the typically Japanese clean design and honorific greeting by its owners, Mr. and Mrs. Manabu Asaoka.

But getting back to the good stuff… they have delectable mix-ins and fillings of Spicy Ahi, Teri-Spam (lite), Tuna-mayo, Baked Salmon, Spicy Takuan, Hijiki, Shiso and Wakame, Kombu, and Ume. In addition, they offer special selections like Veggie Curry Pilaf, Teriyaki and Shoyu Dried Bonito musubi! I’ve tried almost all of them. One more visit and I think I can claim that I have.

The musubi comes in a white rice, brown rice or ten-grain rice version (their special mix). I tend to gravitate toward the ten-grain variety of course just to get my whole grains for the day but the others are good too.

My kids love the spam (not surprisingly). I like the Spicy Ahi, Baked Salmon, Hijiki and the Spicy Takuan.

And there’s more… they also offer Organic Tofu and Broccoli, Organic French Bean, Organic Shoyu Edamame, Okinawan Potato and Macadamia Nut Salad, Curry Potato and Edamame Salad, Kabocha Nishime, and Grandma’s Hijiki—I love that stuff!

And to satisfy your sweet tooth… they offer dessert of a Low-fat Custard Pudding (so good that my daughter finished mine and never gave it back), Hawaiian Coffee Gelatin, and Maui-Sugar Zenzai with Mochi.

Mr. Asaoka also pointed out that he only uses Hawaiian Sea Salt and Maui Sugar--keeping it local!

They are open at 10:30 am and are usually fairly busy then. By 11 am it thins out and the selection is still good. This is the perfect ‘take with you’ snack for kids games/sports, school, work or on the go since they are individually wrapped. They even have party platters for your next event. Definitely worth checking out!

Mana Bu’s

1618 So. King Street (across from Washington Intermediate, a door away from Baskin-Robbins)

Ph. 358-0287

Faxed orders taken at 945-2323

www.hawaiimusubi.com

*** MANY THANKS to all of you who have completed the general health survey. For those who haven’t, I invite you to participate and build a Healthy Hawaii. Please visit my website www.lifefitnet.com. It is a short 12-question online survey that should take only 2-3 minutes to complete. Mahalo for your support! Lori