The Dining Out Dilemma: Top 5 Tips for Eating Healthy When Dining Out

Most Restaurants are more concerned about making tasty and great meals. They add certain additives that may be detrimental to your health, especially if you are on weight-loss diets. Their menus feature dishes drenched in creamy salads, butter, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.

One beautiful thing about restaurants is that they have mastered the key to your stomach. They know that your stomach is the key to your heart. Although their drinks and food can be mouth-watering, eating in restaurants can consume more than your daily recommended calorie intake.

Research has it that an average meal prepared in the restaurant is 134 calories more than the same home-prepared meal. This can be harmful to your health. However, there are ways to dine out without altering your diet plan or health. Keep reading to get the best out of these tips.

1. Plan Ahead

Gone are those days where you randomly choose restaurants based on their outward beauty and attractiveness. These days you can go online and search for restaurants that offer low-calorie menus. This will save you from any tight situation while dining out.

The goal of planning is to get an idea about the kinds of menus the restaurants offer. This will help you know if it is healthy for you.

Also, ensure that you don’t stay longer than expected within the restaurant’s premises so that you don’t get tempted to partake of the delicacies you are beholding.

You must also note that discipline is paramount if you want to stay healthy while dining out. Do not allow yourself to get tempted by the enticing menus. Do not rush your meal, eat slowly.

Research by Medical Nutritionists reveals that it takes close to 20 minutes for your brain to decode that you are no longer hungry. If you are a fast eater, you will consume more than your body require.

2. Order for Guilt-Free Meals

Nowadays, you can get healthy meals almost everywhere. Most restaurants have their menus online. Check through and ensure that you know what you are ordering. Please do not fall for it; patiently wait for your main meal.

Also, you must note that many restaurants have fancy-sounding and enticing menus. Don’t just get attracted to the name of the menu but ensure you know what it is. Any menu described as “breaded,” “stuffed,” “creamy,” “smothered,” or “buttery” is likely high in calories. Menus described as “broiled,” “grilled,” and “baked” signify that the meal is healthy.

Note that the preparation process of a meal determines its description on the menu. Stay away from meals described as “fried,” “rich,” “smothered,” “alfredo,” “breaded,” and “creamy.” Go for meals described as “steamed,” it indicates meals with low fat.

3. Add to Your Meals

Most people think that staying healthy while dining out is all about staying away from some specific kind of menus. But it is far beyond that. You also need to focus on the extra things you can add to your plate to make it healthier instead of just concentrating on meals to avoid. Checkout pasta, and whole-grain bread.

Also, go for meals with healthy fats such as nuts, avocados, olive oil, nuts, and seeds. Order for more fruits and veggies, they are good for your health. You can also order chicken, turkey, fish, or lean meat.

It is not only when you’re dining out that you should be mindful about eating healthy. You can also prepare healthy meals at home. One of the healthy meals we recommend is the weed brownie recipe, and you can click to learn how to prepare it.

4. Skip the Empty Calories

When dining out, make sure you drink a lot of water. This forces you to limit your consumption rate. Also, if you are celebrating and you need to take sophisticated drinks, stay away from sugary drinks, and go for a glass of red wine. There are other better and healthy drinks like a squeeze of lime or vodka club soda.

Remember that your goal is how to stay healthy while you dine out, therefore you must not get carried away. You must do all within your power to ensure that you skip any unnecessary stuff that will be detrimental to your health. It is up to you to achieve this goal.

5. Ask Questions and Be Comfortable Being Different

One of the major problems people face while dining out is that they don’t want to feel awkward or different. Therefore, they choose to go with what everyone is ordering, not minding the health implication. It would help if you were not afraid to be different; your health should be more important to you than your feeling of indifference.

Seek the help of your server to make your meal healthier. For instance, you could ask for salad instead of the usual chips or fries. More so, if you like, you can ask the server to take away the breadbasket so that you will not get tempted along the line to partake of it.

Conclusion

If you love dining out and want to stay healthy while you do so, you would find these tips helpful. There are still many more tips and strategies you can adopt to stay healthy while you dine out, but the bottom line in all is discipline. You might feel tempted and enticed to lay off your guards, but discipline and determination to stay healthy are what will see you through.