How To Eat Out And Not Blow Your Diet | How To Eat Out & Be Healthy | How To Survive Eating Out On Your Diet
Food is a part of every culture. It’s how people gather. It’s how many people show they love someone. It’s most people’s favorite past time.
That being said, eating out is just what we do. It’s how we see our friends. It’s how we celebrate. It’s how we cope with the day, or maybe get over a breakup. Food is the center of pretty much every get together – celebrations of birth and celebrations of life. It’s required to live. It’s our fuel source. It’s delectable and enjoyable and more pictures are taken of it than probably anything else – aside from maybe the sky and ocean?! And even then – I’m sure food pics give them a run for their money!
Eating out is a part of our lives. Period. Whether fast food or sit down restaurants. Whether Applebee’s or your local spot where “everybody knows your name”. They all count.
Problem is – eating out often most likely contributes to being overweight and unhealthy. It contributes to high cholesterol and sodium issues. It directly correlates to inflammation in the body. So let’s be honest, not much good comes from eating out every day, or multiple times a day….particularly if you’re on a lower budget and do this.
Fast food is all the things – high in shitty ingredients, loaded with sodium, laden with crappy ass oils, full of inflammatory stuff, and never shy on the hard to pronounce ingredients. Not to mention doused in sugars! Sounds like a dream – right?! Maybe for your wallet at the given moment, yet that’s about it.
Restaurant food, while often better, is often not. The quality is generally a bit better. Like the chicken you order is probably real chicken, versus whatever’s in most of the chicken nuggets or strips fast food spots carry, yet still. The appetizers loaded with 26 ingredients per bite – not good. Just the oil and salt and junk in the breading and sauces alone will take you up a pant size.
Here are some tips that I have always found to help the small waistline and healthy heart efforts. It’s not about never going out to eat again. After all, you’re trying to be healthy-ish, not ruin your damn social life and celebrations!!
Tip 1: Always get water with lemon. I don’t care if you get other drinks, well actually I do, but regardless of what else you’re drinking – GET A DAMN WATER WITH LEMON! Lemon water helps your body with digestion as the acid helps to break down food….not to mention it’s an immune system booster. So drink it first, and have at least two glasses with your meal. If you’re having alcohol, you should drink it before you have that!
Tip 2: Learn to use your brain and not your inner fat girl to create a realistic portion. Yes, even as you drool over that creamy fettuccine alfredo eluding a hint of garlic and parmesan! What I mean by this tip is, use your brain to determine a portion size that’s good for one sitting. The simple little way to do that has often been associated with what can fit in the palm of your hand. A serving of protein fits in the palm of your hand (or is the size of the palm of your hand), and I’d say you just go with the same about the carbs. Veggies though – eat all them colors up like they’re skittles and you just tryna taste the rainbow!
A possible way to go about helping out with portion control is to automatically ignore half of your meal/dish, and plan take it home! Consider, you can actually ask for a “to go” box immediately. Shocking, right?! You can also share a meal with someone…yet I really only suggest that when it’s a carb loaded meal like pasta or pizza. You need your protein and veggies, so splitting a meal can screw you out of the things you need. Simple solve: if you’re splitting a fattening and calorie laden entree with someone, then just make sure you start with your own side salad or get your own extra side of veggies, too!
Something else I’ve noticed is that it’s easier to consume less when you eat slower. When you’re intentional about what’s going in your freaking mouth, when you take your time and chew it fully, your whole life might just change! Your stomach and GI tract will sure as hell thank you, and so will your waistline or muffin top. I’ve recently started working on putting my fork down every few bites. It’s so easy to hold on to that damn thing like someone’s gonna jack it from you, but come on now – that threat is not real. Putting your utensils down allows you to eat slower and ideally catch when your body is showing your signs of being full. Funny thing about eating less at meals, especially if that shit’s good as hell, is that you might just get to enjoy it twice?! Once now and then once when you reheat the leftovers tomorrow?! So really – isn’t that an extra win? Isn’t that the way to really make your inner fat girl smile?
Tip 3: Don’t go all out with everything offered! It’s easy to get weak and caught up with whatever the server is suggesting you try as an appetizer, or when they say “did you want a refill or another round?” Like it’s hard to say no! No one wants to be that guy – no wants to be Debbie downer saying no to the drinks, the specials, the apps and the damn dessert?! You need to be that guy, though. You just do. Ego aside. Childhood dinner table issues or not. You need to be confident with your healthy-ish choices you’re making out and about! And I have faith that you can!
But seriously, the best scene is, “did you all save room for dessert? To which you’re like – sweetheart, didn’t you just see me unbutton my pants last time you came around the corner?! Pretty sure I don’t need any damn dessert!
Nonetheless, their job is to up-sell you. The more money they get you to spend, the more their tip is. Do the math. And they may truly love the restaurant! The 7-layer carrot cake they make probably IS to fucking die for – reason for which they eat it for breakfast 3 days a week – but that doesn’t mean you need it when you tryna level up and be healthy-ish! It also doesn’t mean you don’t!
My thing is, as I’ve mentioned in other posts about taming your inner fat girl, is that you don’t get it all. You get “OR”! It’s the appetizer OR the dessert. It’s the carb heavy meal OR the drinks. It’s the fresh made bread with finger lickin’ good olive oil and seasoning (butter for my obsessed self) OR the brownie a la mode. So you get some, you just don’t get to go all out with something from every freaking category on the menu. Make sense?
I don’t want to get carried away with the rules about eating out, as making life too stressful doesn’t help us either. Stress is the freaking devil and wreaks havoc on a body, in so many ways. So I want you to go out. I want you to enjoy yourself and your life. I want you to make memories with the ones in your world. I just want you to not regret the negative impact eating out a ton can have. Sometimes 3-4 meals out on the weekend can literally wash out an entire 4.5 days of progress you made Monday through Friday afternoon. And we don’t want that. We’re trying to maintain, if not lose, so we can’t afford that shit.
We tryna level up the healthy-ish factor, and these tips can help you do just that!