heather's Food bLog: Eating out tips

I'm not doing so hot at posting lately so it makes sense that I'm not doing so hot at meeting my fitness and nutrition goals either. I've had a few distractions. I've made the decision to try and make some changes in another area of my life...dating. Dates often involve food, so the topic fits here.

Dates often involve eating out at restaurants...risky territory when trying to lose and maintain weight! Restaurant portions have so many unknowns!! You never really know what you're getting in terms of calories, ingredients, types of fat, sodium...you get the point. Sure, restaurant food is delish!! Super delish, in fact! But what can you do to keep your restaurant eating 'in check'?

Well, here's what I do when I know I'm going to eat out...

Pay even closer attention to my eating the rest of the day and stick to my food plan! This generally means a mainly vegetarian and extremely low carb day before going out. This isn't necessarily the best decision, but won't hurt once in awhile.
View the restaurant's menu online and choose the meal in advance--basically, I make a decision in advance so that I'm not overwhelmed in the moment. Do they have nutrition information online? Even better! Use the nutrition information to really make an informed decision!
When making an advance decision, I consider substitutions and alternatives. For example, a steakhouse will often coat the steak in butter, I ask them not to. Or, if the vegetable choice is a starchy vegetable, I will request to substitute a salad.
Seek out fresh berries for dessert...or decide to not have dessert at all. Honestly, this on only works for me when I eat out with someone who doesn't really care for dessert.
Does the menu have a 'skinny' menu? I consider ordering from the skinny choices.
Ask for sauces to be served on the side. I don't know about you, but I think most restaurants use too much when it comes to dressings and sauces anyway. If I get it on the side, I can use only as much as I want, or none at all.
Lastly, stick with water or unsweetened tea. No point in adding calories in the form of a beverage! Or sugar, or chemicals...

Maybe you find this helpful, maybe not. But if eating out is a norm and not the exception, sticking to a food plan can be very difficult. I need to leave myself some room to not be perfect, but I can't leave myself wiggle room on a daily basis just because I choose to eat out all the time.

Ok, so be warned, it's been so long since I've posted, I'm not going to catch you all the way up in one post...a few days at a time.

1/22/12

fruit, granola and yogurt

Turkey and swiss with mustard from Starbucks...eating on the go.

This is not the type of food-day that I recommend. Honestly, I did not eat enough and found that I had no energy for my work-out.

1/23/12

fruit, yogurt and a muesli that I did not like...

fruit snack

salad with seasoned beef and a little pasta

shared quesadilla appetizer

First, I only ate 1/2 of the cheesesteak and left a bunch of the fries. Second, this would be a bad example of following the above tips when eating out.