5 Tips for eating out
5 Tips for eating out
1. choose before you arrive
You may be eating in a restaurant, perhaps you are “saving yourself?”. You arrive at the restaurant, you meet your Friends and order your drinks. You haven’t seen each other for a while and there’s loads to catch up on. Your Friend arrived 10 minutes before you and has chosen their food. Before you know it the Waiter/ Waitress has arrived and you’re under pressure to order food quickly. This will not be a wise choice and will likely be driven from a purely emotional perspective “just one more treat meal won’t hurt” Will it?
To ensure that you can stay committed to your health goals, download the menu and commit (100%) to your choice, based on nourishment. If calories are written on the menu this is also worth using this information to help your choice (you may find some surprises).
Ohhhh, and the other thing: beware of the bread/ olives or crisps at the table. They’ll fill you up and are salty meaning the one beer that you had planned becomes three. This is great for the restaurants profits and less good for your health.
2. don't over eat starters
You’re hungry. You missed lunch, to leave work on time (so that you can have a social life). You are REALLY HUNGRY and the starters look amazing! Choose something small and, even better something that you can share -caring is sharing after all! We often fill up on starters and then can’t eat our main (where we get most of our nutrients). Remember your eyes are bigger than your belly.
3. don't drink your calories
A beer/ glass of wine after a stressful day is no problem but one quickly becomes three. The average bottle of beer is 150 calories (wine 215 calories -large glass). It’s Friday evening and unless you’re going to deprive yourself for the rest of the weekend, or feel guilty on Monday morning, make a choice about how much you will drink and stick to it! Control is key and sometimes you are going to need to make decisions the support your future health.
You are eating with a friend, they drink like a fish and are always so generous buying you more drinks. Share your reasoning for your choices, who knows? a good Friend may support you or join you in improving health! If you’d like to read more about the calories and amount of exercise required to work off common drinks click here: https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/understand-your-drinking/unit-calculator
4. swap sides for vegetables
“Would you like fries with that sir? -No I’d love a portion of salad/ steamed veg!”- How good do you feel?
It’s a sales pitch! You get to choose your side (my Irish blood tells me this is a con- your restaurant owner will tell you it’s “giving the client what they want!”- that’s another blog). Swapping fries/ bread/ pasta for a salad or plain vegetables is a great way to increase your fibre intake, nutrients (the small nutrients - aka vitamins and minerals) and hydration. It will also mean, less calories and less processed food!
This is a smart move for your lifestyle and will support your workout plans!
5. be aware of your environment
Lastly, this is a big one! Just because you are eating at a restaurant it doesn’t mean you have to try everything on the menu. Just because you are meeting friends it doesn’t mean you have to lose control. A better way to eating out is that it provides more choice. I bet your local restaurant has far more choice than your freezer (unless you live at Sainsbury’s). Use eating out to try healthy options which you don’t buy in the Supermarket.
Remembering your why:
How will your health support you and your Family in becoming happier? Taking a a few minutes to think about this regularly can be a game changer. Simple things like a picture on your phone can remind you. A note on your desk or a few words you can say to yourself when temptation kicks in will help you to stay on course.
-If you are eating at a friends/ families house, make them aware that you are working on your health and ask nicely for a small portion/ plate- doing this before you arrive is acceptable. They love you and will want to support your choices.
These are just 5 ways which you can eat out without the guilt and which will help you to gain and retain your results. If you liked this blog, check out my feature on “How to get more motivation”. To work with me personally use the button below to get in contact or give us a call on 07713 328010
Thanks for reading. Andy
PS: Remember I’ve been there!
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