It is difficult to check what you are eating when you are dining out when it is the time when people tend to overeat. So here are some tips to stick to a healthy diet.
Eating out and having fun often complement one another. It is okay to give yourself a little break and go out to have dinner. Or you can go out to social gatherings or parties where you have to eat outside food. Let’s say you are watching your weight, or maintaining a healthy diet, both these situations can create some uneasiness while dining out. So the next time you eat out, rather than just feeling guilty, make some healthier choices. This way you can enjoy a little well-deserved break and eat delicious food. Here are the most important and effective 10 tips that can help you minimize the guilt and enjoy freely.
- Appetizers are not necessary:
While eating out, people often start with appetizers or starters which refers to a small dish or drink that is usually eaten before the main course. If you are watching what you eat, even outside, then you can skip on this. Do not feel compelled to order something just because the person in front of you has ordered something. Make yourself feel comfortable with eating and appetizers often make you overeat. So only order main courses or dishes that look extremely tempting and preferably make an order for just one.
- Skip the bread butter
Most restaurants give bread and butter on the table as a compliment which looks appetizing. But again, they tend to make you overeat because, at the back of your mind, you would be thinking these calories would not count. The same thing goes for potato chips and salsa. Instead what you can do is, you can go for a side salad or soup, a much healthier choice. When you are consuming a leafy green salad, you are consuming twelve percent fewer calories than when you are not consuming a green salad before your main meal. The fiber in the salad will fill you up and the vinegar dressing’s acetic acid helps you suppress appetite and lowers the rate of your stomach feeling empty.
- Order above the mentioned items
Do not shy away from ordering anything other than what is mentioned on the menu. Depending on what you like to eat, you can ask for an avocado along with the green salad, or ask them for a healthy fat which will be an alternative to cheese. Politely ask the server for the items and enjoy healthy food choices even when dining out,
- Watch the portion size
Nutritionists often say that no food is bad or harmful and the real magic lies beneath the portion size. So for people who are watching their diet, it is always advised to stick to appetizer-size servings for their main courses. Often these serving sizes are enough which people fail to recognize. If absolutely necessary and you have already ordered an appetizer on top of a main course meal, it is suggested to share it with the one you have visited the restaurant with.
- Give salads a chance
Salads have a bad reputation and people tend to always turn their backs to salads when ordering food. It is also not considered real food, but if ordered correctly, salads can be really tasty and fulfilling. To order a delicious salad that will fill you up, make leafy greens your base, and then you can put a protein of your choice like chicken, seafood, or beans. You can also add a starchy vegetable or a grain like potatoes or even wild rice, and complete the order with plenty of other vegetables for the crunch. While ordering you can skip the cheese or the croutons but do not miss out on the vinaigrette dressing.
- Choose olive oil over butter
If you compare olive oil and butter, the latter has 63% saturated fat in comparison to just 16% saturated fat in olive oil. Other than this, olive oil is a much healthier choice because it contains monounsaturated fats and antioxidants that are good for the heart. So if possible, ask the chef and server to cook your food in olive oil and if it is not an option, go for the steamed food.
- Skip the alcoholic beverages
Alcohol might seem like a fun adult drink choice but nothing seems right when it is overdone. When the advice would be to cut alcohol out completely, if you cannot, reduce it to a few glasses per week. Excessive consumption of alcohol has many bad repercussions. But mostly it will create difficulty for your body to absorb natural minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids.
- Give your favorites a makeover
If you cannot avoid eating greasy, oily, and unhealthy food, give your favorites a makeover. If your favorite is Mexican cuisine, you can ask for lettuce wraps or other vegetables with salsa, sauces, and all the other dressings on the table. But skip on the cheese sauce or sour cream. If it is pizza that you are mad about, ask for thin crust pizza made with whole grain flour and baked on wood. This will give you the goodness of your favorites but with a healthy twist!
- Make correct choices on vegetables
Vegetables of all kinds are extremely good for your body. But depending on how they are served, some might be better than others, so it is important to make the right choices and order correctly when it comes to vegetables. If you are ordering sautéed veggies, it only adds hundreds of calories to the food, so instead you can go for steamed vegetables. Sautéing veggies not only adds calories from the oil but also cooks out half the antioxidants and nutrients vegetables are known for.
- Skip the sweet tooth
Now we have reached the end of the list, and you have reached the end of the meal. Which is why you are probably craving some sweet, chocolaty dessert. If you find yourself craving dessert at the end of each meal, or consider yourself to be a sweet tooth, here is one tough thing for you to listen to, you have to stop that. If you are watching what you are eating, sugar is your number one enemy. So wait on that craving and distract yourself from that plate of dessert, and as the hot priest from Fleabag said, “It will pass”.
There you go, 10 tips to make healthier choices even when you are dining out. With a little planning, you can still go with your day according to your diet. Stay fit and stay healthy!!
