Tag Archives: mexican food

Just Say No Mas to the Bad Mexican Food Choices

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My husband and I went to Poquito Mas tonight and ate low-carb. We had tostadas, but without beans and rice-and we did not eat the shell or the chips. The tostada eaten this way should be under 10g of carbs.

However, there were a lot of larger people eating differently than we were eating. Burritos with rice and beans, chips, etc.

Let’s look at this way, if you want to lose or maintain your weight, you have to count carbs. Between 50 to 100g of carbs per day does the trick.

If I eat 6 protein meals a day and keep my count between those numbers, I am fine. However, what about what those other people are eating?

Chips: add on another 20 to 30 g of carbs.
Beans: add on another 20 to 30 g of carbs.
Rice: add on another 20 to 30g of carbs.
The burrito shell: add on another 30g of carbs.
Taco shell: add on 15g of carbs.

There are nutrition calculators online to check for accuracy. But. Can you see how easy it is to gain weight?

You have to educate yourself and make better choices. Fillers like rice, chips and flour and corn products will bulk you up fast. You could end up eating over 109g of carbs in just one meal! And the meatless vegetarian stuff is even more carbolicious.

Stick with protein, salad and veggies. This means meat, cheese, vegetables, salad, avocado (good carb, but watch the amount), sour cream. A few beans are ok, they are a good carb, but watch the amount.

The world is getting fat because of the filling carbs. Watch your choices, stop eating purely based on taste and find better and newer things to enjoy. Get off of unnecessary carbs for awhile and you will feel and look better.

And put those chips they bring to you in the garbage before you are tempted to eat them. They are about 1g of carb per chip. There is no nutrition there and the salt on it is the basis of the addiction. Throw them out.

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The Skinny on Mexican Food

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Recently. I read that almost 33 percent of Mexicans are obese, making it the most obese nation in the world,

We have a huge population of people in the U.S., who are also obese and eat Mexican food. So, is Mexican food fattening?

The issue is that due to high prices in Mexico, the regular population cannot afford the vegetables and fruit, so they stick to the American Junk food items (hamburgers, soda, pizza) and the cheaper Mexican meals.

Mexicans wryly call their foods of choice, “Vitamin T”–the tacos, tamales and tostadas. These foods anchor their diet and are much of the problem. Once reserved for special occasions, the carbohydrate and lard-loaded dishes now get gobbled daily.

That wasn’t so much a problem in past generations, when most Mexicans lived on the land, worked hard physical labor and couldn’t afford a daily feast. These heavy carved foods are not meant for daily consumption. And the more sedentary lifestyles, combined with the ability to eat as if it were a party most days, has helped lead to the country’s girth growth.

There are plenty of healthier choices like broth-based soups, fresh fish, salads, vegetables and fruits. But those tend to be more expensive for the Mexican poor and working class. And the heavier fare is just so good and addictive. Carbs are addictive.

People who eat Mexican food this way on America are also facing a weight challenge.

I went to a Mexican restaurant recently, after being afraid to eat Mexican food and I ordered a grilled chicken salad. It was delicious. Lettuce, guacamole, cheese, tomato and seasoned grilled chicken–served with a guacamole dressing. I am pretty site my meals was under 10g of carbs, compared to a burrito with the heavily-carbed rice and beans, at 50 or 60g of carbs.

My salad was tasty, filling and I will stay thin with it. I don’t want to go over 100g of carbs a day. This is the right way to eat and even the old school thinner Mexican way to eat. We need to learn that we can’t eat party style every day. We need to eat right and only eat Vitamin T on special occasions.

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Healthy Restaurants Can Still Make You Fat

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I saw an article today about how Chipotle has good organic food and grass-fed meat.  However, if you still eat one of their burritos, you are getting over 1,000 calories in one meal.  If you get a burrito there and have everything in it…the beans, the rice, the guacamole, etc.–it comes out to be over 100g of carbs.  That is the most you should have in a whole day if you want to lose weight.

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I have written about this before, but I get double salad in a bowl, and I choose to not have the rice and beans (adding up to about 40g of carbs, all by themselves) and I have the cheese, the meat, sour cream, salsa, etc.  You have to pay attention to what you are ordering and what you are eating.

Here is the Chipotle calculator here, but I would think that the numbers are pretty much the same wherever you go.  http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutrition_calculator.aspx

I had a client who wanted to lose weight, who brought a giant chicken burrito into my office and she ate the whole thing.  This is why she has not lost weight.  It was two to three times the portion that she should have had.  She should have split it with her daughter, at the minimum!  It was there, so she ate it. But, if she keeps this up, not only will she never lose weight (will gain), but her daughter will eventually have weight issues too if she emulates mother’s overeating style.

Restaurants make big food.  You should always break down your food, put half in a box and then it is out of sight–out of mind.  Then, just eat the half in front of you.  It really is the right size portion that you should have had in the first place–unless you are a very active long-distance runner, an athletic man, etc.  But, most people are sedentary and not that large.  There is NO way they should be eating those adult-sized portions.  It is ok to order from the children’s menu, which actually is the appropriate size portion for the average eater.

AND THEN THERE ARE THE CHIPS:  Each chip is about 2g of carbs.  If you eat the bag of chips that comes with it, it is an extra 63g of carbs–empty calories!

And don’t forget, you can make your own burrito by using low-carb tortillas.  Here is the brand that Costco and other stores has, and it is very low carb.  Tastes good too.

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Choose wisely!!  Don’t suffer and miss out on foods, just realize the restaurants are giving  you high calorie crap and you have to be smart and pay attention to what you are eating.

The Best of Fast Food: Chipotle

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So, I finally went to Chipotle.  I have to admit that I was scared to go because I heard about the size of their burritos and my husband always gets his food in a bowl smothered in rice and beans.  So, I heard it was made with your choice of food items, so I went.  So glad I did.

I had a salad and I got to choose the ingredients.  I had no rice or beans because the carb count on those items is astronomical.   Please, look at the size of a measuring cup.  It isn’t that big.  So, if you get minimally, a cup of rice in your bowl, brown or white–the carb count is 44g.  REMEMBER, DIETS should have between 50 and 100 grams of carbs per day.  44g in one meal is too much!  And now for the beans.   One cup of beans (net grams due to so much fiber in it, assisting the body) is 23 g for black beans and 26g for pinto beans.  If you do both rice and beans–70g of carbs is a lot!  So, taking that out of the meal can be a real diet enhancer.

WIth the salad, meat, cheese, dollop of sour cream, dressing and salsa, my delicious salad should have been less then 10g of carbs in total.  That is AWESOME for a meal.  Granted, I am supposed to have two servings of veggies, but the tomato in the salsa was qualifying for that.  You could get guacamole, a cup of it in net carbs is about 5 grams.

Here is the picture of my salad at Chipotle.  I will be going back.  Everything is organic, without hormones in the meat and fresh.  You order what you want and it was all for less than $7.  They also have Coke Zero!

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Mexican Food, Si or No?

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I rarely step into a Mexican restaurant since I started my life change (diet).  What is there to eat there?  Dozens and dozens worth of carbs in almost every meal.  Everything is tortilla, taco shell or chip based.  I am trying to avoid wheat products and corn products.  They make me sick (and Corn is mostly genetically modified now) and they are full of carbs.

Let’s look at a few popular places (some healthier than others) and the carbs in each chicken burrito.

El Torito:  123g of carbs.

El Pollo Loco:  63g of carbs.

ONE flour tortilla is anywhere from 14g of carbs to 35g of carbs…all by itself.  The beans and rice only add cobs more.  If you want to gain weight, this is the way to go.  Whole wheat is healthier, but unless it is “low-carb”, it is still a lot of carbs.

MY SOLUTION:

So, I went to a local hangout, Mission Burrito and to a fast food place, Taco Bell.  I ordered a tostada or taco salad (depending on the place) and asked for no beans, rice or tortilla.  I got beef, lettuce, cheese, tomato, (guacamole or sour cream) and some taco dressing.  The carb count was about 8 grams and it was still delish.  It is kind of like a tostada PROTEIN style.  And this is GLUTEN FREE!

If you do it at home, and you get a low-carb tortilla (like they have at Trader Joes and Costco), you are looking at about 4g net carbs for the whole shell vs. 14-35 for a regular one and it tastes just as good.

TACO SALAD without the shell:  8g of carbs–Shut the front door!  Beef or chicken!  DELISH!

tacosalad

TACO SHELLS

And taco shells?  About 20g of carbs per three.  You can have one or two, or if you have three, you need to watch your carbs the rest of the day. AND for SOFT taco shells?  It is about 20g of carbs for only ONE!  So, watch it.

So, you can eat at a Mexican food place if you go this route.  Those shells will kill your diet.  Remember:  You need to stick between 50 and 100g of carbs per day to lose weight, with 6 protein meals a day, 2 small salads a day, 2 small fruits a day, 4 small servings of veggies per day….and if you go over 100g per day, no weight loss for sure!