Unsolicited Advice on How to Dine-Out

And now for some advice that you didn't ask for (but since you are reading this blog, maybe it interests you).

How to dine-out successfully (or semi-successfully)

If you know in advance that you are going out to a particular restaurant for a meal, go to their website and find the nutrition section.  Pick your meal from there so you know what you should order when you get to the restaurant.  Pay attention to the starters and sides too.

If you want to start with a salad, a simple garden salad is usually the best choice depending on the dressing, so check out what choices the restaurant offers and the nutritional info.  Check out the soups too, sometimes the choices have less calories than the salad with dressing.

 

Check out the side dishes in advance too.  Side dish choices sometimes vary at some restaurants depending on the day or season.  I suggest being aware of several so that if the one you want is unavailable you will still be able to make an educated alternate choice.

Beware of  buns, biscuits, and breadsticks!!!  For example, a Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit has 150 calories and 8 grams of fat.  I can't resist them so I do sometimes have a second one but I am very aware of the extra calories this adds to my meal.  A breadstick at the Olive Garden has 140 calories and 2 grams of fat.  If you can resist the bread choices, even better, but one of my goals in this journey is to not feel deprived so I factor the bread choice into my meal and because I am planning my meal in advance I can factor my choices into my overall day!

I hope this helps you, I know it helps me.  I won't lie though, sometimes if I'm going out, I let that day be my "bad" day for the week.  However, I have noticed that I can't even eat as much "bad" stuff as I used too.  I get too full!  (And if you didn't get the chance to preplan your meal because of last-minute plans, search the app-store on your smart phone for a restaurant nutrition guide to keep on your device just-in-case.)