5 Do's and Don'ts When Dining Out

An important part of healthy living is eating a well balanced, nutrient-rich diet. This includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and even small snacks in between. When eating at home, you can be in complete control of not only the food you eat but how it is prepared. With the fast-paced world we live in, sitting down to a home cooked meal is not always easy. For us, we love cooking and eating at home during the week, but definitely enjoy meeting for lunch or grabbing dinner with friends on the weekends. Through trial and error we have come up with some guidelines which help us stay on track when dining out. Although we have a handful of local go-to restaurants that offer options that make it easier for us to eat healthy, sometimes when we travel back home to Chicago or Philly, finding healthy eats is more of a challenge. However, by following these guidelines, you will be able to quickly identify the healthiest options and how to order them at almost any restaurant. Also, for those of you who travel quite often for business, these guidelines will help keep you feeling and looking good.

1.) Make your drink of choice water.

Drinking water is the ultimate way to hydrate, has zero calories, and is free. You can easily add a lime, lemon or orange slice to your water if you’d like a little flavor. Choosing water over soda or alcohol will significantly reduce the overall caloric intake of your meal. It’s important to realize that water is vital to our health, and many people live in a constant state of dehydration and don’t even know it. We suggest avoiding flavored liquid drops, as many times these are colored and sweetened artificially and add extra sugar. Just stick with plain water. Some of the benefits to being properly hydrated include, proper functioning of the digestive tract, keeping your kidneys functioning properly, keeping your skin looking good, and maintaining the proper balance of body fluids. If you choose to order alcohol, stick with one drink and avoid sugary options. Remember…sweet on the lips, straight to the hips :-). If you prefer a carbonated beverage, club soda or seltzer with a lime is a great option. 2.) Steamed and Grilled.

These methods of food preparation are often healthier than breaded, fried, and sautéed. This applies to meats, fish, and veggies. Battering and frying vegetables negates a lot of the nutritional value originally present in the food and adds a lot of unnecessary fat and calories. There is also some evidence that suggests frying foods creates carcinogens in the food which is something we all want to avoid. Sometimes people believe they are eating a healthy meal of chicken and vegetables, when in fact, if the food is fried or sautéed in a half stick of butter, it is far from healthy. So whether you’re deciding on an appetizer, entree, or even a side dish, choose steamed or grilled. Trust us, it will be delicious. We have found that consistently choosing these healthier options helps train your palate to crave less fatty, salty foods. 3.) Take a pass on the “free” starter foods.

Often times we are so hungry when we go out to eat that we inhale the free bread or chips and salsa put in front of us and still order appetizers, entrees, and dessert. This one is extremely challenging for us, especially when we are famished. We find the best way to resist these extra calories is to simply tell your server, “no thank you.” If it’s already on the table, ask the server to remove the food when they drop off your drinks. Following through on this one requires a lot of discipline. How many times have you told yourself you’re just going to have a half a roll and you look down and you’ve polished off three rolls? Or in our case, we say we’re going to eat just a small handful of chips and before we know it we are scraping at the bottom of the second basket and the entrees haven’t even arrived yet. Going out to eat with others may throw a wrench in your healthy eating plans, but do it anyway. Don’t feel pressured to overindulge, remember, you will get more than enough calories from your entree. Passing on bread and starter foods should also not be used as an excuse to order dessert, just stick with your entree. 4.) Go in with a game plan.

One thing we’ve gotten accustomed to doing is taking a look at the menu online before leaving the house. We love Yelp for this because we can easily look at the menu and read customer reviews. We have found some hidden gems using Yelp, especially while traveling. This allows us to pick two or three healthier options so we don’t give in to temptations and hunger while at the restaurant. This is also a good way to think about exactly how you are go to order your entree. For example, you see the restaurant offers a seasonal vegetable salad and a turkey burger, most likely under the selection is a list of the ingredients. Knowing these ingredients will help you choose which items to leave off when ordering your entree to keep it healthier. Such items to avoid include cheese, bacon, cream based dressings, croutons, candied nuts, mayo, etc.. Trust us, your entree will still taste delicious without these less healthy ingredients, and the calories you cut will be many. Remember we are working on re-training our palate so be patient and trust the process.

5.) Portion control.

A long time ago restaurants used to serve much smaller portions. Times have changed, however, and the name of the game now is more bang for your buck. From larger sizes to unlimited refills and all you can eat menus, without self control and discipline, it is easy to over eat. We have found that we can easily satisfy our hunger and avoid over eating by sharing an entree. We each have a small salad as an appetizer and that, plus half of an entree, is usually more than enough food. There are times where we are really hungry and not so inclined to share, then we remind ourselves that we can always order more if needed, however, it never ends up happening. Even when Katie was pregnant and we were eating for three!

Have you ever found yourself absolutely stuffed to the point of loosening your belt or unbuttoning the top button on your pants and yet you continue to eat your entree…because it tastes so good and you feel like you don’t want to waste food? You can easily prevent this from happening by ordering less food and sharing with a partner or friend. Sometimes when we dine out with another couple, we will order two different entrees and share with the whole table. Create your own tapas experience, just shoot for one entree per two people. At this point in the blog we would be remiss if we didn’t recommend skipping dessert. The last thing you would want to do is pass on the bread or chips, eat a healthy and clean entree, and then double your caloric intake by having a dessert. Make dessert an exception to your healthy routine. Treat yourself just once a week to a small dessert or share a dessert with your friends.

Bon Appétit!

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