Flatten Your Belly With the No-Diet Diet

sources from : Yahoo.com

Indulge your tastebuds—and shrink your waist!

“You can’t lose weight eating in restaurants!” So says my close buddy Terri, who is not only a great friend, but one of the busiest people I know. She juggles a 40-hour-a-week job, an overactive 3-year-old, and a couple of errant teenagers in the bargain. Oh, and she works out three times a week as well. “I can’t diet!” she said recently. “I’m so busy, I have to eat restaurant and fast food! How am I ever going to lose these last 10 pounds?”

“Relax,” I told her. “You don’t have to diet, and you don’t have to give up your favorite restaurant food. You just need to follow The No-Diet Diet.”

Then I laid it all out for her: The No-Diet Diet is a plan for people who are simply too busy—or too hungry!—to exercise more or “go on a diet.” That’s my friend Terri—and that’s me, too, and probably you as well. Most of us lead busy lives, and busy lives often send us at meal time toward the flickering neon lights of fast-food and family restaurants, places that aren’t exactly known for their weight-loss magic. So we’re helpless to lose weight, right?

Wrong. More and more restaurants are actually stepping up and offering food thatcan be part of a weight-loss plan. In fact, you could eat fast food breakfast, lunch and dinner and still lose 10, 20, 30 pounds or more. A lot of restaurants—from Starbucks to Red Lobster to Carl’s, Jr.—are stepping up to offer lower-calorie meals that will totally satisfy your need for great flavors, as well as your need to look good in a swimsuit. All you need is a guide to the smartest choices on the restaurant menus, and a few healthy snacks to boost your nutritional intake (and never, ever let you go hungry!).

That’s where the new The No-Diet Diet comes in. After all, you are what you eat. And trust me, with The Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet, you’re going to look delicious.

Bonus Tip: I'm giving a free iPad to one lucky Twitter follower! To enter, simply follow me on Twitter.

1. BEST PLACE FOR A SIT-DOWN BREAKFAST
DENNY’S

Not That!
Heartland Scramble
1,160 calories
63 g fat (19 g saturated)
2,930 mg sodium

Calorie Equivalent: 6 Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts

Eat This Instead!
Build Your Own Grand Slam with Egg Whites, Bacon, English Muffin, and Fruit
320 calories
6 g fat (2 g saturated)
567 mg sodium

Your Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet savings: 840 calories, 57 g fat (17 g saturated), and 2,364 mg of sodium

Denny’s Heart Scrambler—Heartland Scramble, I mean—contains about a day’s worth of sodium and saturated fat. This entrée represents the old model for breakfast diners: Take a healthy food like scrambled eggs and stuff it with so much fat- and sodium-loaded junk that patrons feel like they’re getting a bargain. In reality, you're just getting an excuse to buy new pants—bigger ones. Thankfully, Denny’s is making changes. This Grand Slam is part of the chain’s Better For You Menu, which provides 250 meal combinations all under 550 calories. If you plan on crafting your own Better For You Slam, here are a couple of points to note: One, choose egg whites over whole eggs. It’s not that whole eggs are bad for you, but Denny’s cooks them with so much butter that each two-egg order ends up with 21 grams of fat and 260 calories. And two, choose regular bacon over turkey bacon. Both options provide 70 calories per serving, but the regular stuff saves you 100 milligrams of sodium over turkey bacon.

Bonus Tip: I'm always keeping my eye on the very best places for you to eat, and the often surprising places where hidden calories lurk. Get the scoop every day by signing up for the FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter.

2. BEST PLACE FOR AN ON-THE-GO BREAKFAST
STARBUCKS

Not That!
Blueberry Scone and a Grande Tazo Tea Latte (with 2% milk)
700 calories
26 g fat (14.5 g saturated)
58 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 29 servings (1.2 tubs) of Extra Creamy Cool Whip

Eat This Instead!
Egg White, Spinach & Feta Wrap and a Venti Nonfat Cappuccino
390 calories
10 g fat (3.5 saturated)
18 g sugars

Your Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet savings: 310 calories, 16 g fat (11 g saturated), and 40 g sugar

Have you seen Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory? The scene where Violet Beauregard bloats up like a giant blueberry? That’s basically what scones do to your body—even “healthy” blueberry scones like this one. (That’s why we deemed it one of the 19 Worst Breakfasts in America.) Muffins, scones, or danishes—they’re all just pastries, which means they’re made from little more than fast-digesting carbohydrates. Eat these things for breakfast and they’ll spike your blood sugar and insulin levels and force your body to store glucose as fat. Starbuck’s Wrap invokes the opposite response. The combination of spinach and protein-rich eggs provide a nice nutritional balance, but the real accomplishment is the fiber. It’s rare to find a grab-and-go breakfast with more than a couple grams, and this wrap has an astonishing 6! That’s enough to keep your hunger stifled, your body energized, and your belly flat.

3. BEST PLACE FOR A FAST-FOOD LUNCH
CARL’S JR

Not That!
Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger
1,040 calories
72 g fat (24 g saturated)
2,240 mg sodium

Fat Equivalent: 31 Oreo Cookies

Eat This Instead!
Eat This, Not That! Teriyaki Turkey Burger
470 calories
14 g fat (5 g saturated)
1,120 mg sodium
32 g protein

Your Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet savings: 570 calories, 58 g fat (19 g saturated), and 1,120 mg sodium

Look as hard as you like, but you won’t find a burger at this size with less fat. That’s because this burger uses lean turkey instead of fatty beef, and still packs plenty of flavor thanks to a light jacket of teriyaki sauce. Besides, look at the alternatives. Not one burger in Carl’s line of Six Dollar Burgers—save for the bun-less, low-carb version—contains fewer than 900 calories. If you begin your order with a Guacamole Six Dollar Burger and finish it off with medium fries and a 20-ounce soda, you’re facing 1,630 flab-making calories. (Note: The Teriyaki Turkey Burger will be available at Carl's Jr. on March 23.)

Bonus Tip: You don't ever have to fall prey to meals like the Six Dollar Burger! Our latest book, The Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet, includes the healthiest, tastiest menu options at every chain restaurant in America.

4. BEST PLACE FOR A SIT-DOWN LUNCH
ROMANO’S MACARONI GRILL

Not That!
Mom’s Ricotta Meatballs & Spaghetti
1,240 calories
60 g fat (21 g saturated)
3,430 mg sodium

Saturated Fat Equivalent: 14 orders of Cheesy Nachos from Taco Bell

Eat This Instead!
Pollo Caprese (pasta and chicken), with a side of broccoli
550 calories
20 g fat (5 g saturated)
1,660 mg sodium

Your Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet savings: 690 calories, 40 g fat (16 g saturated), and 1,770 mg sodium

Romano's was once among the unhealthiest restaurants in America. But its menu underwent an overhaul in 2009 and is now one of the most nutritionally sound you’ll find outside of your own kitchen. But there are still few holdovers from the days of excess. Spaghetti and meatballs with more than 1,200 calories? Fuggedaboutit! This thing is big enough to feed an entire family of hungry Italians. Go with the Pollo Caprese instead and you’ll earn 46 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, and loads of vitamins and minerals—all for just 550 calories.

Bonus Tip: You can drop pounds quickly by eliminating—or drastically reducing—the liquid calories in your diet. Here's where to start: The 20 Worst Drinks in America.

5. BEST PLACE FOR A SIT-DOWN DINNER
RED LOBSTER

Not That!
Garlic Crab-and-Shrimp Pasta (full portion)
1,540 calories
78 g fat (14 g saturated)
4,090 mg sodium

Sodium Equivalent: 151 Ritz Crackers (that’s more than a full box!)

Eat This Instead!
Live Maine Lobster with cocktail sauce, Garden Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Fresh Broccoli
300 calories
9.5 g fat (1 g saturated)
1,325 mg sodium

Your Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet savings: 1,240 calories, 68.5 g fat (13 g saturated), and 2,765 mg sodium

Take a second look. This is an entire lobster dinner for only 300 calories. What’s the secret? We swapped out the usual melted-butter dipping sauce for cocktail sauce. That one substitution saves you 310 calories and an astonishing 38 grams of fat. Now get this, if you eat this lobster over the fat-infested Garlic Crab-and-Shrimp Pasta, you’ll add 1,240 calories to your day’s caloric savings. Make a swap like that just three times a week and you stand to drop more than 55 pounds this year!

We know that sounds hard, but it really isn't. Start right here: Simply avoid The 20 Worst Foods of 2011.

Follow Yahoo! Health on Facebook.

------------

TODAY'S MEN'S HEALTH NEWS: The 2 Words You Should Never Say to a Women... The End of Osteoporosis ... Baldness Linked to Cancer

LOSE 15 POUNDS OF BELLY FAT FAST! Check out the brand new Men's Health Dietor the Women's Health Diet! You'll lose weight and get healthy faster than ever—thanks to a plan that draws on the easiest and most effective research ever published!

EAT RIGHT RULE: If your food can go bad, it's good for you. If it can't go bad, it's bad for you. FOLLOW DAVE ZINCZENKO RIGHT HERE ON TWITTER and get FREE health, nutrition and weight-loss secrets like this one every day! You'll lose weight and get healthy faster than ever!

Sab Nyer...