Tips for eating out healthily
Going out for a meal or buying lunch and/or snacks outside can spoil your healthy eating if you make the wrong choices. That doesn’t mean that you can never eat out when you are watching your diet, it’s just about learning about the choices of eating the healthy way.
"There’s nothing wrong with the occasional treat, so don't feel guilty if you pick an unhealthy option once in a while. However, if you go to restaurants, eat at the pub, or get takeaways regularly, it can be easy to lose control of what you are eating."
Food that isn’t prepared at home tends to be higher in calories, as well as in saturated fat, salt and sugar, but you can avoid it.
Plan ahead
Most restaurants and pubs have menus online, so you can see in advance what are the best options.
Read between the lines
When presented with a menu pay attention of what to avoid, for example, creamy, buttery, pan-fried and crispy all suggest high fat and high saturated fat. Instead go for baked, grilled and griddled. Pastry dishes tempt to be always high in calories and fats, so choose these occasionally.
Ask
Ask the waiter or waitress how certain foods are cooked, and for their suggestions about healthier options. Many menus do have healthier or light choices highlighted.
Don’t over order
Try to avoid the bread, olives and nuts before your meal arrives because they add extra calories without realising.
You can choose to have a healthy starter or a couple of starters as a main course if you don’t want to eat a full sized main meal. It could be a plain salad as a starter, with a dressing on the side (but watch out for the oily and creamy dressings, shaved parmesan and croutons that are high in calories), and then have a different starter as a main courses. Vegetable salads makes you fell fool and helps you not to overeat.
Ask for a larger order of green vegetables with your meal, instead of having the chips, or ask for boiled potatoes instead of chips or roasted potatoes. Take skin off chicken and fat off meat. Opt for tomato-based sauces rather than cheese or cream based sauces.
Top a baked potato with vegetables or ask if they have a tomato based topping and avoid the butter and sour cream and cheese.
Beware of liquid calories
Don’t increase your calorie intake with a sugary soft drink and ask for a jug of water to drink before and during the meal. It contains no calories and it will fill you up, helping you also to be less likely to overeat.
If you are having an alcoholic drink, try to avoid the sugary pre-dinner cocktails (eg: margaritas) and opt instead for a small glass of wine or a light beer.
Twenty minute rule
Generally the body doesn’t recognise that it has had enough food until about 20 minutes after eating, so wait until this point and then ask yourself if you really feel like having more food.
Not so sweet choices
Skip dessert if you can as they tend to be high in sugar and fat. Instead of dessert, you might choose a drink like tea, filter coffee, or an espresso, without sugar, skinny cappuccinos and lattes and skip alcoholic liqueurs.
If it is a special day out, choose a healthier option like fruit or sorbet rather than ice cream, cakes or old-fashioned sticky puddings. Find it hard to refuse? Then order one dessert and two spoons, and share with a friend to halve the calories.
Don’t clear your plate
It could be hard to stop yourself from finishing everything on your plate, but if you feel full just stop eating. Take your leftovers home in a doggy-bag.
Beware of the low-carb options
Low-carb doesn’t mean low in calories, as they can be high in fat, increasing significantly the amount of calories.
Order fish and seafood
You can order them cooked in many different ways, like steamed, baked, broiled, sautéed, blackened, or grilled. Just make sure it is not fried.
