Eat Healthy While Eating Out

One of the biggest detriments to any dieter’s best efforts is the beloved restaurant meal.  You’ve been working hard all week, sticking to your meal plan, but then the weekend hits and someone – your spouse, your friend, or your co-workers, decide a meal out is in order.

What used to cause some excitement, now causes quite a stir of anxiety.  If you’ve ever had a look at some of the nutrient tables of the foods dished up in a restaurant, you know exactly what kind of trouble you’re in for.

Sticking with a lower calorie, weight loss plan can seem like next to impossible in many places, which is why you must plan your strategy carefully.
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Here are some quick tips that you should definitely start paying attention to.

Try And Order Raw

One quick trick that is fairly simply to follow to use is to always think ‘raw’.  Now, I’m not suggesting you order your steak blue rare, but what I’m suggesting is that you try and order something that doesn’t require a lot of cooking.

A salad is the perfect example.  Or, a wrap that easily allows you to request only certain ingredients be included is another good option.

The reason for going raw like this is because it eliminates the chances of loads of butter or oil being added throughout the cooking process.  Often this is one of the big factors that makes restaurant meals so disastrous, so if you’re ordering something that doesn’t need to be cooked, you eliminate this problem entirely.
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Just watch what you get with the dish – for salads for example you want to avoid a lot of added cheese, croutons, bacon bits, dried fruit, or high volumes of nuts.  Limiting these however is much easier than requesting changes to the cooking process, which you’ll never be 100% certain actually took place.

Watch The Sauces

Second, you also must be sure you’re watching the sauces that get added to your meal. This is another very sneaky way that calories enter the picture.  Usually creamy sauces will be the biggest culprit, however you should also caution yourself against tomato based sauces as well as sometimes they can have a lot of oil added in.
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In order to be safe, stick with the tomato sauce (it’s far safer than a cream based sauce) but ask to have it in limited proportions.  This will help to prevent the calories from building and keep everything under control.

Stay Away From Sandwiches

Next, you should also make sure that you’re staying away from sandwiches.  These typically tend to be quite bad on the diet because of the amount of bread that’s used.  Usually it is very thickly cut slices that are used which really increase the overall calorie value.
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If you’re going to order a sandwich, consider removing the top slice of bread to reduce the overall calorie and carbohydrate count.

Order Off The Menu

Finally, the last way to control the calorie intake that you’re getting when eating out is to order off the menu.  Many people either don’t realize they can do this or shy away from doing it because they are scared to ask.

Don’t be.  Almost all restaurants will be able to cook you a simple chicken breast with steamed vegetables (ask for no butter) along with a baked potato and salsa, which makes for a great fat loss meal to have.
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Navigating the restaurant menu doesn’t have to be a huge challenge if you remember these tips and do your best to order wisely.  The small changes really do make a huge difference in your ability to see progress.