Tips for Healthy Eating at Restaurants

By MexiKen | Oct 7, 2009 | 0 Comments | Rating: 0

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It's inevitable... even those of us who are trying our best to lose some weight and make better food choices in our lives, we're going to end up eating at a restaurant sooner or later (probably sooner, and probably more often the we should, ideally). With the hectic lifestyles that most people lead these days, it is making it tougher to find the time to plan home cooked meals anymore, much less shop for them and prepare them (plus doing the dishes!) But just because you won't be the one preparing the food doesn't mean you can't make good (or at least better, more informed) food decisions. Don't think that your whole healthy eating effort is going down the drain, or that since you're stuck eating out, you get to forget all the good nutrition concepts and habits you've been working on establishing.

This article will give you a few tips and guidelines to help you out when you do find yourself in the situation where you're eating out rather than preparing your own food. Of course I hope that this only comes up because you are truly in a bind of no time or needing to do some kind of entertaining for work or a friend. Don't get lazy and simply stop preparing your own food at home! There are loads of easy, time efficient ways of preparing your own food by using things such as Rival slow cookers to cook while you're at work. And it's easy to make extra so that you have something ready for lunch the next day, or several days! (I recently resurected my crock pot cooking skills after i found a few of my missing Rival crock pot parts in my kids' toy chest...)

OK... off my soap box and back to some tips for you to keep in mind.

If you're going to be eating at a Chinese restaurant, make sure you avoid any of the fried foods such as egg rolls or any kind of dish with a 'crispy' meat in it. Those are deep fried and loaded with unhealthy fats. And don't be fooled by the term 'spring roll' either; just because it has some veggies inside, it is still wrapped in a deep fried shell. Skip it. Eggplant is another food to avoid, despite what you might think. While it too is a vegetable, it soaks up oils like a sponge, and I promise that these have had the opportunity to soak up plenty of it! If you feel like having a fortune cookie at the end, go for it. They only have about 30 calories. It is simple carbs though, so keep that in mind if you're counting your carbs.

Italian restaurants have some big temptations too. Bread is usually placed on your table right away. Don't do it! Or at least take it easy on the bread. One thing you can do to make things easier on yourself if you're tempted is to make sure the bread basket isn't sitting right in front of you for the whole meal. If you want to order a pasta dish, check to see if you can share it with someone. They are usually big enough to feed two people. If this meal is lunch, perhaps a bowl of minestrone soup will be adequate and you won't need to order anything more (maybe a small house salad to go with your soup and to get some greens with your meal).

Mexican restaurants - if this isn't already super obvious to you, you need to go back to square one... avoid the chips! Nothing but deep fried carbs and fat. Not the combination that helps efforts to lose weight! When it comes to your main dish, try to avoid things that are covered in cheeses. Instead of cheese and sour cream on your food, go with salsa and guacamole. Yes, guacamole has fat, but avocados have healthy fats, so don't worry about the guac too much (bot don't go crazy on it either, and DON'T eat it with a bunch of chips). A great option is to go for fajitas. Both the meat and the vegies are grilled and they're not drowned in cheese. For that matter, any kind of meat you can get that is prepared on the indoor grill will be a good choice.

And finally, regardless of what kind of restaurant you're going to, if you show up starving, you're only going to make things harder on yourself. If at all possible, eat a little something before you go. Maybe an apple or a handful of mixed nuts. That way your eyes won't be bigger than your stomach and get you into too much trouble.

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