Eating healthy while eating out can be tricky, right?! It’s a lot easier to stay on a healthy eating plan when you prepare your own foods. I know I need to meal plan and meal prep at home to really know what I’m eating and to be sure I’m making good choices. Make sure you have my top meal plan tips freebie for when you’re not eating out!
As a family, we like to eat out now and then and we all find ourselves in social situations that involve food. In fact, a lot of times socializing and food seem to go hand in hand. Read on and be sure to save the 10 tips for eating out at the bottom!
Eating out healthily is totally possible!
I can say from experience that IT IS POSSIBLE to make healthy choices when you’re eating out! Have you done this before? Have you skipped going to a get together because you were “on a diet”? Fess up! I can’t be the only one!!! If we are going to live a healthy lifestyle, we have to be able to go to social gatherings and our favorite restaurant! Depriving ourselves of social fun and celebrations is punishment. We should not be punishing ourselves for making healthy choices.
When we do go out, it’s important to consider what is happening behind closed doors – the restaurant kitchen doors especially! Fried or baked, salt and butter, and sneaky sugar are all things to be thinking about when eating outside of your own dining domain.
One of the few places everyone in my family can find something that they like to eat is Chili’s. Guess what the one thing we all love is?! It’s the chips and salsa appetizer! Oh, and we like to get a side of ranch for dipping too. It’s social for us to snack and chat before dinner. But, dipping chips can wreak havoc on a healthy eating plan. For sure, calorie counting goes out the window. It’s like that saying goes… “you can’t eat just one!”
Plan ahead when eating out
TIP 1:
When we plan ahead for eating out, it’s a lot easier to stay “honest” with ourselves. For instance, if the family is going to eat out on Saturday, be more diligent about your eating during the week leading up to the experience and again after. If you’re anything like me, though, falling off the clean eating wagon on Friday or Saturday can turn into a few days of total derailment. KEY POINT: When you make your weekly meal plan, make sure and write in the eating out events! Make sure you have my top meal plan tips freebie if you’re new to meal planning and check out the meal planning video here too!
TIP 2:
Reserve your spot in advance…or wait in the car! Call ahead seating is the best! Did you know that just waiting around for your table can cause you to make worse choices? It’s the smell! Have you ever ridden by a McDonald’s and just the smell pulls your steering wheel toward the drive through??
TIP 3:
Another great tip for eating out success is to research the menu in advance and have an idea about what you want to order before you arrive. Words like rich and creamy may draw your attention for sure. Just like the smell of food, descriptive food words can get your food emotions stirring! Also, though, those words are hints that you may want to dig deeper into the description for the ingredients. Words like those can mean the foods are just dripping with pointless calories.
TIP 4:
Maybe you’ve noticed that restaurants are starting to include calorie counts with their menu options – as hard as it may be, do not look away!!!! When you’re stuck on a certain dish, think about what you can strip away to reduce the calorie count. Less salt, baked instead of fried, sauce on the side – those are ways to get the dish you desire, but ditch some extra calories! And, I don’t know about you, but extra calories at the table usually means extra guilt later on and when I put my pants on the next day.
TIP 5:
Don’t be afraid to ask for a doggie bag! You can even portion out what you will eat as soon as your plate arrives and box up the rest early in the meal. Or meal share with your dining companion! Restaurant portions can be enormous! If you’re a “clean your plate” type person, the larger restaurant portion can be too tempting to resist. One way I conquer the portion problem is that I order two of my favorite (non-fried!) appetizers or I order the sides of veggies. I pretty much always skip potatoes with my meal, unless it’s a sweet potato that’s not loaded with “extras”.
Those are some of my top tips for making good choices while eating out! To help you remember, I made this fun graphic that you can save to your phone with 10 tips at a glance.
