A Guide to Dining Out
A Guide to Dining Out
By choosing to have a healthy diet and engaging in clean eating, you are making a serious effort to take control over the foods you put into your body. Consistency is the single most important factor in maintaining a healthy diet and achieving lasting fat loss. Ultimately, every meal and/or snack comes down to a choice. At any given point, you are forced to choose what to eat.
However, no one can completely avoid being in certain circumstances in which it is difficult to know how to decide what to eat. When you are dining out of the home, you are faced with a menu of foods with which you may not be familiar.
While it might seem like this is a bad thing, it doesn’t have to be. As a matter of fact, your decision to enjoy clean eating is not just a restrictive diet, but rather a lifestyle change. For it to really work, you have to learn how to eat in any environment, be it in the home, at work, during the holidays, or at a restaurant.
Nevertheless, you may have some questions about how to ensure that you make the right food choices when you are not the one preparing your own meals. As such, here are some helpful guidelines for eating out:
“No Bread for Me, Thank You”
Most restaurants offer some kind of empty-calorie filler for the table before they bring you the actual main course. At pizza joints, waiters often suggest some sort of fried appetizer for the group before the pizza. In other types of restaurants (especially Italian), there is an even greater temptation to indulge because they provide you with free bread. Mexican restaurants are usually no better, as they make chips and salsa plentifully available.
Just as bad as this, though, is the fact that many fine dining establishments incorporate bread, tortillas, and other empty carbohydrates into their main courses. How do you handle the situation?
The answer is simple: politely ask that they not bring you bread. If you order a hamburger, try getting it wrapped in lettuce rather than on a bun. Going to Chipotle? Try the burrito bowl instead of the regular burrito.
Do Your Homework
Most restaurants have an online presence. A simple search using one of the popular internet databases will help you find the restaurant’s menu online. If you cannot find the nutrition facts on the company’s website, try searching “[Restaurant Name] Nutrition Facts” and see what you can find on a third party website.
Choose what you will order before you even arrive. Wave off the waiter and say I already know what I want. If you are able order then. ALWAYS, be the first on to order. That way you won’t change your healthy prepicked choice to something that will derail your fat loss efforts.
“What’s on that?”
Do not be afraid to ask your waiter what comes with a meal or what kinds of ingredients are used to prepare it. Make sure you find out what sides come with the entrée. Instead of French fries, try to substitute vegetables, salad, or another healthy option if it is available.
