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What The Heck Are You Supposed To Do About Dining Out When You’re Dieting?

Eating out has become such a large part of our lives these days that the last thing you want to do if you’re dieting is to stop going out for meals, it’s enjoyable, sociable and if you do most of the cooking in your home, like I do, well it’s just so pleasant to have someone else do not only the cooking for you but the preparation, the clearning up and the washing up too!!

But we now eat on average one third of our meals away from home so if we’re dieting then we really need to get a cool handle on what we should and shouldn’t be doing.

I’ve got 8 quick tips to help you dine out responsibly …

1]   Stick to What You Know!

If you normally have some kind of protein, vegetables or salad for your lunch then choose something similar off the menu.  Stay away from the sandwiches and pasta …

2]  Be Canny About The Foods That Sound Healthier Than They Really Are!

For example sandwiches can of course be healthy if you choose the right bread and the right filling like lean meats, vegetables and salad but if you start to add mayo and cheese then you’re heading for a calorific catastrophe especially if you go for these ridiculously large foot long sandwiches which have become fashionable.  It doesn’t matter how healthy the bread or the filling is that you’ve chosen, the simple fact is – if you have a massive sandwich then you’re having massive calories too!

3]  Salad To Be OR Not To Be …

Mmmm that really can be the question can’t it?  You should even take care when you’re choosing your salads because some of them have so many lovely extras added to them like Chinese chicken with crunchy fried noodles and then a gorgeous scrummy dressing oh delicious but WOW it can contain as many as 1000 calories so watch out!

4]  Specials Are ‘Special For A Reason!

They generally come draped in fabulous rich sauces with extra ingredients added in to them to make them ‘Special’.  Try and get any sauces in a separate side dish so that you can dip your food into it to control the amount of sauce you actually eat.  You’ll be surprised how much sauce is left over at the end of the meal which, had it been on your plate you’d have wiped up with the rest of the food.  If you can’t do this then just choose something else from the menu more suitable and avoid the heartache later.

5]  Get A Jug of Water On The Table.

Make sure you’ve drunk some water before you order to help your body decide how hungry it actually is.  Sometimes you can mix the signals of being hungry with those of being thirsty.  If you drink water before your meal it will help your body naturally decide just how hungry it really is.

6]  Avoid Upgrading

What seems like a monetary bargain can almost always turn into a calorie and grams nightmare.  Drinking water before you eat will help you avoid falling into the ‘Gosh that sounds good value for money’ trap!  Remember it might cost you a few pennies more to upgrade but it will cost you a whole lot more than that in calories and grams of fat!!

7]  Check Out The Menu Properly

These days plenty of menus tell you the calories associated with each meal that the restaurant provide but a recent study showed that the calories you eat might actually be 20% higher than quoted on the menu!  The other point to keep in mind is that when you’re taking into account the calories of the meal, don’t forget to add in the calories from the starter, sides dishes, any alcohol you may have drunk and even (dare I say it?) the dessert as well as the main course.

8]  And Finally

Last but not least, portion control.  Remember restaurants generally go overboard with portion sizes so have a look around and see what size the portions are and then share your dish and order extra salad or vegetables to bulk it out.  If you’re not sure about portion sizes then click here and take a quick look at my Portion Control training.  You’ll actually be horrified at what a portion size really should be.

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For personal help from me with weight loss please visit my ‘Weight Loss With Rachel’ page‘ or go to my Facebook page.