Are you looking to learn more about the HCG diet? Well, you’re in the right place.
In premise, the HCG diet holds the same requirements for vegans and vegetarians. However, there are some important things to keep a note of, because the diet will differ tremendously for both.
In this article, we will cover some HCG diet tips to ensure that your transition is as smooth as silk.
So keep reading to learn more and try the diet at your earliest convenience.
Some Requirements Are the Same
Some of the requirements of the HCG diet are the same for vegans and vegetarians. For instance, two servings of fruit each day, and two servings of veggies as well.
Vegetarians only have to stick to non-fat protein selections during the first phases of the diet. During the first couple of days, vegetarians can eat pretty much everything, and high-fat from full-fat dairy products can be eaten in preparation as well.
However, thanks to the very low-calorie diet, which lasts about 3 to 6 weeks, after which during phase 3, vegetarians are able to eat a more verbose collection of foods.
Avoid Grains
The biggest challenge that awaits those who are on the HCG diet is the avoidance of grains, as they are a powerful source of protein.
However, there are many substitutes such as non-fat dairy products or whey meal replacements that can be used. Grains can be started again after the diet is completed, but during the third phase, full-fat dairy can be eaten, even though grains are still to be avoided.
There can be an exception for certain kinds of grains, as well as having a limited quantity of them. But this should be discussed with a medical provider, which will be able to help guide you in the right direction.
HCG Diet Tips: Results Will Vary
The results on the HCG diet will vary greatly for vegans and vegetarians. Vegetarians might experience reduced weight loss than a non-vegetarian because they have the milk protein source.
Dr. Simeons, the creator of the diet, noted that the high carbohydrate content of milk slows down the weight loss in vegetarians. The slower rate can be prevented with meal replacement packs, which have reduced carbohydrate quantities.
This is not a problem for vegans, as milk is not a part of their diet.
Ensure That Milk Is Organic (If Any)
If you do choose to drink non-fat milk in the diet, you have to make sure that it’s organic. Non-organic milk can have a terrible effect on metabolism, due to the contaminants and hormones in the drink.
Also, you never want to drink this kind of milk because of its direct link to chronic health concerns. The best bet is to use meal replacements as mentioned earlier.
Be Cautious With Whey
Whey protein is often a great replacement for vegetarians, not vegans. However, they often have many unnatural additive, preservatives, and other ingredients.
When you are on the diet, you have to be careful with supplement use, and speak to the medical specialist about the supplements that you do plan on taking. This is because supplements can have a direct effect on hormone capacity for fat metabolisis.
Don’t pick a whey protein without speaking to your medical provider, and stick to organic, third-party tested products.
Legumes Are Great
A great option for both vegans and vegetarians is the legume protein. Certain soy like miso is low in fat, but not all soy products are like that.
Pea protein is a great source of amino acids and is low in starch and carbs. There are many pea protein isolates that are great for this diet.
But once again, speak to your medical provider and ask them about the product, ensure that it is truly vegan/vegetarian and that the quality is applicable to your health goals.
In phase 3, vegetarians are able to access a more verbose spectrum of foods. For instance, even though a regular person would not eat legumes, you can ask for an exception.
You also have the option to consume full-fat dairy products or reduced-fat products, but you have to be careful and stick with organic. The body is sensitive to weight gain when transitioning to a regular diet, so phase 3 is very important.
It can be quite confusing is nutrition is not your strongest suit, so that’s why it’s important to be guided by a specialized medical professional at all times. And that’s for HCG diet tips.
Speak With a Specialist
The HCG diet does not have to be hard on vegans and vegetarians. There are many replacements for typical protein, and the most challenging part is only the first week of transition from a full-fledged diet to a restricted food list.
If you are vegan/vegetarian, there are very minimal changes that must be made to your diet, and everything else can be left as it was before. Thus, the HCG diet is great for those who want a simple customized solution with great results and without significant sacrifice.
HCG Done Right
Now that you have discovered the HCG diet tips, you are well on your way to starting this new stage in your life. As long as you stick true to your diet, take care of your health and consult with a specialist, the results will be outstanding and your well being optimal.
If you’re interested in similar articles, feel free to check out our other health-related filters at the top of the page.
It’s that time of the week again. Taco Tuesday! What are you going to make this time?
If you’re out of ideas, read on. Here are ten simple ways you can spice up Taco Tuesday so that everyone enjoys their tacos, including you!
#1 Switch up your salsa
Bored with making the same old tomato salsa? Try these alternatives:
Mango salsa! Cubed mango, japaleño peppers, diced red pepper, fresh cilantro, chopped red onion, a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lime, and it’s ready.
Strawberry salsa! This salsa uses similar ingredients as above, but with strawberries instead of mango. Try it and see!
Salsa verde. Grab some chilies and tomatillos, and make this delicious salsa. A recipe is here.
Pineapple salsa. Sweet and delicious, with pineapple, japaleño peppers, and red onion.
#2 Take your filling up a notch
You’re probably already using either beef, chicken, fish, or pork for your tacos. Try changing either the cut or the type of meat you’re using for one of these:
Al Pastor: Sauteed pork marinated in pineapple and lemon juice
Barbacoa: Beef brisket, shredded
Carne Asada: Grilled steak pieces that have been marinated in lime, cumin, and other spices
Carnitas: Shredded pieces of slow-cooked pork shoulder
Pollo: Marinated then shredded chicken
Pavo: Marinated then shredded turkey
Chorizo: Spicy sausage
Camarones: Marinated and grilled shrimp
Pescado: Marinated and chopped pieces of whitefish
Maple Cardamom: olive oil, maple syrup, cardamom, salt
Sweet Lemongrass: sugar, fish sauce, lemongrass, garlic, shallot, chili
#5 Sweeten up the side dishes
Try some new side dishes with your tacos, such as:
Cilantro lime rice
Refried beans (this is a must! Crumble some cheese on the top)
Spicy corn salad
Cucumber or tomato gazpacho
Cheese dip. You can’t have too much cheese with tacos. You just can’t.
Grilled vegetables
Marinated kale salad
Corn on the cob
#6 Stray from the beaten corn tortilla path
Rather than have the ubiquitous El Paso-style fried corn tortillas, try making your tacos with some of these alternatives:
Soft tortillas (for soft tacos): white, wholewheat, blue corn, gluten-free: there are many different kinds. Fill them and wrap them up. Dollop the toppings on top of your rolled wrap, and enjoy!
Dosa, or another savory crepe recipe: these will get people talking!
Parathas, chapattis, or rotis: Indian bread and Mexican filling, what’s not to love!
Potato skins: you can cook the potatoes, scoop out the inside to make puree later, and use the skins for your tacos.
Pita bread: toast them first, if you like. Delicious!
Cauliflower pizza crust: perfect for open-faced tacos.
Large lettuce or cabbage leaves: these are good if you want to eat lots of taco filling without feeling too full.
#7 Don’t forget the margaritas
Want to get away from the classic margarita? Try one of these:
Watermelon margaritas
Strawberry margaritas
Blackberry grapefruit margaritas
Cranberry margaritas
Pineapple margaritas
Mango orange margaritas
#8 Scale up your presentation
We also eat with our eyes, so present your tacos on colorful plates or cookware, like the stuff you can find at unocasa.com. Tacos look great on any colorful dish!
Garnish your tacos with fresh cilantro, and remember to include a variety of colors in your food. Mexico is a country that is full of color: the houses, the clothes, and the food.
Add the following to your plate of tacos to up the color scheme:
Slices of lemon or lime
Star fruit
Pomegranate seeds
Sliced red chilies
Sliced red onion
You’re now ready to take Tuesday taco night up a notch! Have fun, and enjoy your tacos!
You’re looking for different ways to cook chicken? Start here first.
In the United States, more than 50 billion chickens are eaten every single year. With so much chicken as part of our diet, it can be challenging to keep flavors fresh and original when you cook.
For those looking for the best, check out these top five different ways to cook chicken you need to know.
Read on to learn more.
1. Try Roasted Chicken
One of the best ways to prepare chicken is a classy roasted chicken. Most known for its appearance on traditional holidays like Thanksgiving, this delicacy can easily become part of your weekly food regimen.
For those cooking for several people, a roasted chicken is one of the easiest types of cooked chicken to feed lots of family and friends. A standard sized roast chicken serves six people and takes less than two hours to prepare.
Add black pepper, salt, onion powder, margarine, and leafless celery for additional flavor. Check out more roasted chicken recipes here!
2. Give Baked Chicken a Go
For those looking for one of the healthier ways to cook chicken, consider a baked chicken. Baked chicken differs from a roasted chicken in that it is prepared in individual parts, such as the:
Drumsticks
Thighs
Breasts
Wings
Use skinless, boneless chicken pieces and add olive oil, salt, and seasonings like paprika and garlic powder. Don’t forget to brine and brush the chicken before baking it.
3. Consider Poached Chicken
Poached chicken is one of the lesser-known ways to make chicken. A poached chicken starts with four cups of cold water and two large, raw chicken breasts placed in a saucepan.
Add 3 1/2 tsp of salt and continuously stir the water as you bring the chicken to a boil. Remember to flip your chicken with tongs halfway through. The chicken breasts should be poached for a total of 10 minutes, then remove them from the water and enjoy!
4. Make Some Fried Chicken
Classic fried chicken is one of the best home-cooked meals a person can have. Combine one whole chicken with buttermilk, paprika, all-purpose flour, salt, and vegetable oil for frying.
Make sure the chicken is well coated before frying so you get optimal flavors! Cook it for about thirty minutes. The chicken should be crispy.
5. Test Out Grilled Chicken
Test out grilled chicken for an excellent source of protein. It’s also an easy item to add to a salad! First, pound the chicken until it is about a half-an-inch thick. Consider adding lemon zest of juice for flavor. Let the mixture marinate for at least four hours.
Since it’s so thin, grilled chicken typically only needs to be cooked for a few minutes on each side before it can be enjoyed.
Different Ways to Cook Chicken
Chicken is always a good addition to any meal, but if you don’t know all the ways to cook chicken, you’ll miss out on some of the best dishes out there. Get started with these different ways to cook chicken.
What are you waiting for? Your next meal awaits!
Want to see more posts like this one? Check out the rest of our blog to learn more!
Starting keto again? Getting back on keto can sometimes be more complicated than starting keto in the first place. Starting involves change and hope while starting again involves pain and regret.
You know what you’re capable of, both good and bad. Many people jump into keto with both feet, only to find themselves months down the road gorging on sweets during the holidays, or eating sweets at a barbeque.
Slip-ups don’t mean that keto is not right for you. Far from it! In this article, we’ll explain five ways how to get back on keto.
Five Tips on How to Start Keto Again
Many people “fall off the wagon” when trying the keto diet. That’s okay. Starting again means that you have the opportunity to try again smarter, wiser. Rather than focusing on the negative, instead, put that energy into finding strategies to manage cravings. Here are five ways how to start keto again.
1. Understand That No One Is Perfect
According to Dana Hunnes, a senior dietician at UCLA Medical Center and an assistant professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, she recommends that to practice the keto diet, it’s essential to let go of a perfectionist mindset.
Keto is a different type of diet in that it is a lifestyle diet. That means that you aren’t on it for a short period of time. Instead, it’s an adjustment and recalibration of your daily eating habits.
That can take time to change, especially if you’re a carb lover. Having an all-or-nothing mentality only makes it harder. So understanding that you have a craving for sweets doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker.
There is a wealth of resources out there for keto snacks, like the SuperFat keto snacks resource. It’s about replacing your old foods, not removing them altogether.
2. Take a Targeted Approach
Liz Weinandy, a lead outpatient dietician for nutrition services at Ohio State University, states it is better to start again with a targeted approach by not stopping carbs cold-turkey.
That is because stopping carbs too fast can have adverse effects, like keto flu. Instead, Weinandy recommends cutting carbs with a targeted approach, such as cutting 25 carbs per day until you get down to your goal.
Creating a gradual transition into your keto diet can help you ease back in. It also provides small victories to celebrate as you decrease your carbs and get to your goal.
3. Track Your Macros
If you dove into keto with both feet, cut out carbs, and ate protein like it was going out of style before. The problem could be that you were not fueling yourself in the right way.
For a. more effective approach to keto, it can be helpful to use apps to help you track your macros. The typical macro ratio for someone on the keto diet is:
5% of food coming from carbs
25% of food coming from protein
70% of food coming from fat
If this shocks you, then you know you weren’t eating keto the correct way. Fat is a significant part of the keto diet. Fat gives the feeling of satiation and provides the opportunity for ketosis to set in.
Instead of thinking about all the foods, you can’t eat on a diet, instead, think of all the healthy ways you can fuel your body. By changing your mindset around food, and more importantly, fat consumption, you can wrap your mind around a new way of eating.
It’s not about eating fewer carbs as much as it is a paradigm shift in the way you think about food.
4. Remember to Stay Hydrated
The keto diet decreases carbs and your dependence on processed food, which also cuts down on your electrolytes. As you cut electrolytes, it is crucial to replace them. Water is essential for storing electrolytes.
The keto diet burns fat rather than glucose for fuel, so in essence, the keto diet has a diuretic effect on the body. It’s essential to keep a balance of electrolytes as they can get flushed out from the keto diet causing symptoms like keto flu.
Electrolytes are essential minerals found in your blood, like sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. These four minerals are vital to normal bodily functions. If your electrolytes are low, you may experience one or all of these symptoms:
shakiness or feeling faint
brain fog
headaches
constipation or bloating
If you’ve experienced some of these symptoms while dieting before, it is most likely that you weren’t bringing enough electrolytes back into your system. Drinking water, eating green leafy vegetables, and consuming nuts and seeds can help restore electrolytes naturally.
It’s important to drink enough water when on the keto diet to help restore electrolyte function and regulation.
5. Eat More Whole Foods
A significant component of the keto diet is that it is a natural food diet that forces you to eliminate processed foods. We all know processed foods aren’t good for us, but the convenience of them in our lifestyle can make it hard to change.
By committing to a whole-foods diet plan that adds more green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats like salmon, avocados, and olive oil can help stick to a diet free from processed foods.
While it can be hard to adjust to a whole food diet, it is essential to create a sustainable, healthy dive into the keto diet. Cutting processed food out of your diet is a decision to take back control of your health.
Starting Again, Smarter and Wiser
Succumbing to bouts of carb craving is only natural when we are learning the process of how to get back on keto, but with setbacks, you can begin again smarter and wiser.
Lifestyle choices are different than diets, and you owe it to yourself to give yourself some slack when getting back on keto.
If you found this article helpful, please look around our site for more helpful advice about food, recipes, dieting, and more.
Starting keto again? Getting back on keto can sometimes be more complicated than starting keto in the first place. Starting involves change and hope while starting again involves pain and regret.
You know what you’re capable of, both good and bad. Many people jump into keto with both feet, only to find themselves months down the road gorging on sweets during the holidays, or eating sweets at a barbeque.
Slip-ups don’t mean that keto is not right for you. Far from it! In this article, we’ll explain five ways how to get back on keto.
Five Tips on How to Start Keto Again
Many people “fall off the wagon” when trying the keto diet. That’s okay. Starting again means that you have the opportunity to try again smarter, wiser. Rather than focusing on the negative, instead, put that energy into finding strategies to manage cravings. Here are five ways how to start keto again.
1. Understand That No One Is Perfect
According to Dana Hunnes, a senior dietician at UCLA Medical Center and an assistant professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, she recommends that to practice the keto diet, it’s essential to let go of a perfectionist mindset.
Keto is a different type of diet in that it is a lifestyle diet. That means that you aren’t on it for a short period of time. Instead, it’s an adjustment and recalibration of your daily eating habits.
That can take time to change, especially if you’re a carb lover. Having an all-or-nothing mentality only makes it harder. So understanding that you have a craving for sweets doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker.
There is a wealth of resources out there for keto snacks, like the SuperFat keto snacks resource. It’s about replacing your old foods, not removing them altogether.
2. Take a Targeted Approach
Liz Weinandy, a lead outpatient dietician for nutrition services at Ohio State University, states it is better to start again with a targeted approach by not stopping carbs cold-turkey.
That is because stopping carbs too fast can have adverse effects, like keto flu. Instead, Weinandy recommends cutting carbs with a targeted approach, such as cutting 25 carbs per day until you get down to your goal.
Creating a gradual transition into your keto diet can help you ease back in. It also provides small victories to celebrate as you decrease your carbs and get to your goal.
3. Track Your Macros
If you dove into keto with both feet, cut out carbs, and ate protein like it was going out of style before. The problem could be that you were not fueling yourself in the right way.
For a. more effective approach to keto, it can be helpful to use apps to help you track your macros. The typical macro ratio for someone on the keto diet is:
5% of food coming from carbs
25% of food coming from protein
70% of food coming from fat
If this shocks you, then you know you weren’t eating keto the correct way. Fat is a significant part of the keto diet. Fat gives the feeling of satiation and provides the opportunity for ketosis to set in.
Instead of thinking about all the foods, you can’t eat on a diet, instead, think of all the healthy ways you can fuel your body. By changing your mindset around food, and more importantly, fat consumption, you can wrap your mind around a new way of eating.
It’s not about eating fewer carbs as much as it is a paradigm shift in the way you think about food.
4. Remember to Stay Hydrated
The keto diet decreases carbs and your dependence on processed food, which also cuts down on your electrolytes. As you cut electrolytes, it is crucial to replace them. Water is essential for storing electrolytes.
The keto diet burns fat rather than glucose for fuel, so in essence, the keto diet has a diuretic effect on the body. It’s essential to keep a balance of electrolytes as they can get flushed out from the keto diet causing symptoms like keto flu.
Electrolytes are essential minerals found in your blood, like sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. These four minerals are vital to normal bodily functions. If your electrolytes are low, you may experience one or all of these symptoms:
shakiness or feeling faint
brain fog
headaches
constipation or bloating
If you’ve experienced some of these symptoms while dieting before, it is most likely that you weren’t bringing enough electrolytes back into your system. Drinking water, eating green leafy vegetables, and consuming nuts and seeds can help restore electrolytes naturally.
It’s important to drink enough water when on the keto diet to help restore electrolyte function and regulation.
5. Eat More Whole Foods
A significant component of the keto diet is that it is a natural food diet that forces you to eliminate processed foods. We all know processed foods aren’t good for us, but the convenience of them in our lifestyle can make it hard to change.
By committing to a whole-foods diet plan that adds more green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats like salmon, avocados, and olive oil can help stick to a diet free from processed foods.
While it can be hard to adjust to a whole food diet, it is essential to create a sustainable, healthy dive into the keto diet. Cutting processed food out of your diet is a decision to take back control of your health.
Starting Again, Smarter and Wiser
Succumbing to bouts of carb craving is only natural when we are learning the process of how to get back on keto, but with setbacks, you can begin again smarter and wiser.
Lifestyle choices are different than diets, and you owe it to yourself to give yourself some slack when getting back on keto.
If you found this article helpful, please look around our site for more helpful advice about food, recipes, dieting, and more.
Running a restaurant feels like a rollercoaster of great days and empty seats at the best of times, moreso with the current troubles. To keep afloat, many restaurants are trying to pare down menus and space out dining areas. These and other measures have some promise but seem so difficult to engage with.
One way places are thriving is through offering expanded restaurant delivery service. The problem isn’t a lack of food or a lack of will to make it, it’s the riks of having too many people congregate in an area. The solution: take the food to the people.
The rapid expansion of delivery needs has led to a massive surge in delivery company profits. Getting your food out there, whether through a third party or an in-house team, is clearly important.
Read on to learn about how to expand or start delivery services for your restaurant.
Restaurant Delivery Service Essentials
Restricting dinging room customers by distancing the tables only does so much to keep money rolling in. Half the capacity means half the profit but little change to your overhead. You’re still paying for the lights, the HVAC, and all the same advertising meant to draw people in.
Cutting orders with suppliers puts them in a bad position and you may have faced warnings that future rates will go up for many of your typical shipments. The COVID-19 pandemic is squeezing everyone and, unfortunately, restaurants are getting slammed the hardest.
Delivering food keeps your staff working, justified all the same (or close to) orders through suppliers, and it builds rapport with customers that will be remembered when normalcy returns. This list compiles ideas and tips from worldwide food service trends to give you the best chance of maintaining your business.
Why a Simplified Menu?
Before you start sending drivers out the doors laden with copious amounts of succulent edibles, you need to consider your menu.
The wide variety of things you normally offer won’t fair so well for delivery. Not only does variety make it difficult to box, but it also makes it easier to make a mistake. As annoying as it is to have something sent back to the kitchen for an alteration or addition, it’s better than losing the customer altogether.
A simple menu lets you prep for a larger rush in a shorter time window and still get everything done.
Creating daily specials and large quantities of some signature dishes is easier to do when the menu only offers so much. This saves on waste from unordered options.
Finally, changing menu options to meals that can stay warm longer, need fewer finishing touches, and reheat or travel well is key.
Offerings and Options?
Wanting to limit the menu is the first step. The second step is figuring out what to offer.
With so many people stuck at home, and stressed, the need for comfort foods is way way up. People want to feel like they are getting a bit of an escape, and the day-to-day health of a meal is less important.
Consider both your previous best sellers and your biggest orders on a rainy day or just after the home team has lost. These are the things people want most right now.
For dishes that need a bit of structure to complete, consider making instructions for completion and putting all the pieces into separate containers. Anything that will congeal or get soggy should be kept apart to preserve flavor/texture.
Curbside
If you want to test the waters of desire for your restaurant food delivery services, start with curbside pickups.
This option limits the interaction between staff and customers (and customers with other customers) while still getting your food out the door.
Post appropriate signage for pick up areas or instruct patrons to stay in their cars and provide clear identifiers for delivery. Look into online or remote payment options or be prepared to have checks paid after ordering.
Contactless Delivery
Whether you send out your own staff as delivery drivers or contract through a third party, you want to offer a contactless option.
Your own staff makes for a more coherent restaurant pickup and delivery service but speed is of the essence. If you are using your own staff, make sure you have safety in mind.
Make clear if a customer is looking for a contactless delivery and confirm addresses and special instructions before an order is completed. You don’t want to send a driver out on bare-bones info that costs time.
Provide drivers with appropriate PPE in the form of masks and gloves for order placement. Add tips and other gratuities to the front-end check. This both helps assure you can compensate delivery staff and also keeps worrisome cash exchanges out of the equation.
Deals and Discounts
To offer the best restaurant delivery service, you will need to have a robust online portal. This helps you to advertise specials and show the refined menu. It also gives you confidence that your costs are being covered by ensuring payment before the food gets boxed.
Offering discounts on dine-in options in the future (but not too far in the future) when making delivery orders is important. You want to remind the customer that you do have a physical location and to keep inviting them back. These discounts also offset charges you may need to make for delivery.
Offer special prices for bulk orders of a pre-made menu. Not only is this an affordable option for people, but it provides the double benefit of delivering a multi-course meal that feels more special.
If you change your menu weekly and keep your website current, you can also add hour by hour updates about in-house seating availability.
Make It Tasty
No matter what steps you take to start a restaurant delivery service, you still need to make the best food you can. Don’t let your identity or your quality get lost in the changes.
For more information about the restaurant world, keep coming back here.
