Feel good, French style

When New York’s first restaurant, Delmonico’s, opened in 1830, it offered never before-seen dishes such as Eggs Benedict, Oysters Rockefeller and Baked Alaska. Diners flocked to sample cuisine unknown in even the chicest Manhattan homes.

These days, restaurants have become a focal point of our business life, celebrations and week-end routines.

Yet, a lot of eating out also leads to restaurant fatigue, the yucky heaviness which overtakes us when our bodies have had enough. Even in top notch restaurants, the food is usually richer and saltier than what we’d eat at home. We tend to eat and drink above our appetite. Late nights and less time to nest at home wear us out quickly.

Photo courtesy Buddakan, New York

How do we strike the right balance between the pleasures and convenience of going out and the desire to manage our waistline?

Here is my advice:

1. Discover natural food restaurants.

Eat clean, natural food and you’ll feel clean. More and more restaurants champion high-quality ingredients, focusing on local, seasonal, and/or organic products. From macrobiotic to vegetarian to market-fresh, there is a spectrum of choices for every budget and palate.

Instead of brunching on another soggy omelet and reheated potatoes, bring the gang to juicy Argentenian eatery GustOrganics (gustorganics.com). Take your clients to Savoy (savoynyc.com) or Pure Food & Wine (oneluckyduck.com/purefoodandwine/), where you can enjoy the “scene” while savoring Hudson Valley duck with roasted kuri squash or marvel at a 100% raw white corn tamale with cacao mole.

2. Make your glass last.

Wine is the natural accompaniment to many meals out and the way we relieve the pressure after a long day. Yet, it’s also potent stuff. Alcohol is depleting and its calories cause extra poundage.

To reduce consumption, get a handle on your weekly intake. Log what and how much you drink over a week or two.

Then, practice making your glass of wine last. Try these steps:

• Have a glass of water when you arrive at the table. Get into the habit of reaching for the water glass instead of the wine glass.

• Order by the glass. Many places will also split one glass of wine into two glasses (the pours served at bars or restaurants have doubled in size since the 1970’s, so there’s room to share).

If drinking from a bottle, commit in advance to your evening’s limit.

• Keep your hands off your glass and far from you.

• Smell your wine’s aromas, without drinking.

• When you do drink, take a small sip and appreciate each one. What flavors do you taste?

• Skip the buzz, but do find other ways to blow off some steam (good conversation, a brisk walk, some fun under the covers…)

3. Enjoy in good measure.

There is nothing worse than wistfully eyeing your date’s perfectly seared New York Strip and potato gratin as you toy with your broiled flounder and broccoli. Most of the time, restriction backfires. We may be “good” for a while, only to find ourselves polishing off the Cool Ranch Doritos before bed.

Instead, plan on enjoying the chef’s signature crispy duck spring rolls or the spaghetti bolognese you’ve been craving. But, eat in good measure.

Enjoy a small portion to satisfy your tastebuds and complement with veggies or salad. If you eat out often, decide on the one or two occasions a week which merit a splurge. Balance things out the next day.

* * *

Stay tuned! Next week, I’ll share tips 4 & 5, including the art of making smart menu choices.

In the meantime, one reader shares, “the way I eat out all the time is ordering salads and appetizers only, skipping the bread if it’s not something that looks fabulous or baked on premises, no desert as I focus on wine instead and work out 5 times a week. My liver might be pickled but I look good in my clothes and feel good in my body!”

Live épanoui*!

Elisa

* in full bloom

Photo by Leslie Kobrin, thel-list.com

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some ideas to help you eat a more nourishing lunch. This week’s posting features ideas to help you put the “break” back into your lunchtime.

I recently gave a workshop to a group of women at a large financial institution. When I asked them how many people ate their lunch and worked at the same time, all 50 women raised their hands. It seems that crazy work loads and supercharged days make multi-tasking de rigueur.

Yet, working through lunch, or eating while working, seems foreign and counter-intuitive to me. It doesn’t have as much to do with my half-French side as it does with an instinct to do what’s good for me.

Taking a real lunch break and focusing on my food:

- Activates my body’s natural “portion control” mechanism. When we pay attention to what we’re eating and to the ebb and flow of our appetite, we’re able to gauge what our body needs and how much. This diminishes the risk of over-eating.

- Gives me maximum bang for my buck. I love food too much to divide my attention between my plate and the computer. When we eat and do something else at the same time, we don’t taste our food or get the full sensory effect. It’s no wonder we take our revenge by raiding the snack drawer later in the afternoon.

- Recharges my batteries. A short break from my constantly growing to do list actually helps me beat the clock. I start the afternoon with a new perspective and a better sense of my priorities.

If the idea of a recharging lunch break appeals to you, here are five ways you can get started.

1. Make an appointment with yourself.

Just like the other important things in our days, time to eat sometimes needs to be formalized in our schedules. Start small – give yourself 20 minutes, once a week.

2. Get out of the office.

Stretching your legs, feeling the sun on your face and getting some fresh air refreshes your mind and feels good.

3. Eat with someone.

Studies show that when we eat with others, we tend to eat less. We fill up on good conversation instead of empty calories.

4. Practice taking risks.

In some offices, going out for half an hour or sitting and eating may be unusual. But, intelligent risks often pay off in business.
Somehow, we always seem to get our work done. Could it be time to work smarter, not harder?

5. Get out of your head and into your senses.

Our thoughts create our stress. On the contrary, eating presents us with an ideal situation to appease our minds by firing up our senses. Focus on your chewing rhythm, your breathing, the tastes, smells and sight of your food. All of this helps you let go of the thoughts spinning around in your head.

If you’re not used to taking a break, start small. Discover how a little breathing room in your day quickly adds up to better balance between your work life and life life.

What is your favorite way to take a break at lunch?

Live épanoui*!

Elisa

* in full bloom

In the first part of my career, I worked as a management consultant in Paris. It was a thrilling experience, full of unknowns. Each assignment brought new clients, often a new manager, and a specific and different problem to solve. With lots of travel and quite a few hours, I never knew what to expect. But there was one thing I could count on — a good lunch.

In France, lunch was the main meal and a welcome break from the day. No matter what deadline we were on, I can’t think of a single occasion when we didn’t stop for a proper lunch. Fast forward a decade, and the lunch hour has become a thing of the past. Whether you live in New York, Paris or the town next door, stopping to have a leisurely, nourishing meal has become the exception, not the norm. We’re all hard at work with not a moment to spare. God forbid we need to eat! We’ve replaced a balanced, hot lunch with a variety of quickly-eaten, convenient options: chopped salads (less cutting and chewing time required), sandwiches, wraps and soups.

What we don’t eat at lunch, we make up for at dinner, and then some. This is when we’re finally more relaxed. We crave the food we gave up during the workday.

Yet somehow this routine doesn’t quite work either. Wolf down a light lunch, and you’re often craving snacks throughout the afternoon, either to satisfy a real hunger pain or a craving for a little downtime, or both.

Eating a big dinner doesn’t do us any good either. In the evening, our body no longer has time to use the calories; our metabolism slows down and our digestive system has done it’s time for the day. It’s no wonder we end up feeling yucky, tired and not at our ideal weight.

The solution? I say it’s time to take back lunch! Having a more nourishing lunch is better for your body, your waistline and your psyche. Below are five tips to inspire some new lunch choices. Without wreaking havoc on your work schedule, it’s easy to make a few adjustments that will have you feeling much better about your workday.

Next week, I’ll share more thoughts around taking a lunch break that energizes you.

1. Seek out better quality lunch places. Eateries offering organic, local and fresh foods are sprouting up all over. Chains such as Le Pain Quotidien (in the U.S. and Europe) make eating well a delicious and convenient affair. Keep your eye out for places like Free Foods in Manhattan or Bert’s in Paris.

2. Don’t let bad food happen to you. Much of the foods out there are poor quality, but you can get around that by bringing in food from home. If packing a lunch sounds too daunting, just try supplementing your lunch with fresh vegetables, seasonal fruits (you’ll have better luck bringing your own fruit rather than relying on a meaty apple from the deli), yogurts, sprouted grain bread or left-overs.

3. Build your lunch around a proper main course, what the French call a “plat.” A “plat” is often warm, and balanced, with some protein, grain and veggies. Lunch feels much different if you’re eating a nice plate of chicken, rice and veggies, for example, rather than a sandwich.

4. Incorporate something warm into your lunch. Warmth helps us feel more nourished, like we’ve really eaten. Add a soup to your sandwich or salad or heat up things you made earlier in the week.

5. Eat in courses. In general, we can all eat more at lunch, and less at dinner. To do this, it’s helpful to think of your lunch in courses: appetizer, main and dessert. Raw veggies or a soup can start you off well. Ending lunch on a sweet note (fresh or dried fruit, a piece of dark chocolate, yogurt, or your favorite treat in good measure) helps to stave off afternoon cravings and signals the end of your meal.

Live épanoui*!

Elisa

* in full bloom