Tips for Eating Out

You don't have to sacrifice fun restaurant trips because you're on a diet or you're leading a healthier lifestyle by eliminating processed foods. Aside from fast food chains, restaurants often employ fresh and healthy ingredients in their cooking, and when you add a little compromise and moderation, there's no reason you can't enjoy eating out.

Here are some tips to help you maintain your healthy food lifestyle while also enjoying your restaurant experience:

* Before you leave home, make a rough plan about your choices of foods. This way you wouldn’t be confronted with the problem of deciding what to order when the waiter gives you the menu.

* Never skip your meals earlier simply because you are eating out in the evening. That way you would end up consuming more calories in the night, when your calorie requirement is actually low. All excess calories would end up being stored as body fat. They are not going to compensate for having skipped the afternoon meal or be used for your next day’s requirement.

* Have a proper lunch so that in the evening you won’t engulf whatever comes to the table. Order a small fresh salad and skip fatty appetizers or chips and salsa while you wait for your meal.

* Go for an ‘a la carte’ menu instead of eat-as-much-as-you-can buffets. Choose dishes with extra portions of vegetables and order small portions or split portions with friends. You can also order a healthy appetizer for yourself as your entree. Seriously, you'll most likely find this is all you need!

* Start your meal with a glass of plain water. Since you are on a diet plan, you must already be aware of the kinds of foods to shun completely, namely, the deep-fried foods, creamy, buttery and sugary stuff, regular colas and sodas, etc. Ask instead for lower-fat steamed, grilled, roasted, broiled or flame-cooked items. Or maybe you can even order another appetizer as the main course itself.

* For drinks stick to water or carbonated water -- no sodas. One often forgets to count alcohol calories as part the food. Alcohol is very high in calories and can prevent you from making healthy food choices.

* Try to sit away from the breadbasket and the chips bowl. It is really easy to keep on munching on these while chatting with your friends without even realizing that you are.

* Be careful about the dressings that come with salads. They can defeat the whole purpose of your diet control. One ladle of a creamy salad dressing can give you about 300 calories. Ask for the dressing on the side rather than on the salad.

Josh
Co-Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com