How to Lose Weight While Eating Out

It is important that you enjoy your meal and that you are not stressed out about your choices when you get to the restaurant so the following four tips should help you prepare for an enjoyable eating out experience:

1. If it is your choice, choose somewhere that you know you will have healthy options that you will enjoy.



2. When possible arrange to go for your meal at the time when you would normally eat at home. This will help ensure that you are not outside your hunger comfort zone when making your menu choices.



3. If you can't arrange a good time for you, you expect service to be slow or you are feeling peckish before you go to the restaurant eat something healthy. Maybe, a piece of fruit, a handful of nuts or a bowl of soup. This will ensure that your brain is not ruled by your stomach when you choose your meal!



4. On the day of your meal try to make healthy choices in terms of meals or snacks that you are having before or after eating out. Maybe skip the muffin with coffee and save yourself for dessert!







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Check out the following websites for some nutritional information on restaurant menu's (More resources coming soon!):

Healthy Dining Finder is a website that helps you source restaurants that serve healthy options. Even if you are not planning to go to one of the restaurants featured, you can check out the nutritional information on some of the menu items here to give you some ideas for selecting healthy options.

Chow Baby includes nutritional information on quite a large selection of fast food places including Planet Smoothie, Little Caesar's Pizza, Outback Steak House and many more. No I am not encouraging you to eat fast food but this site can help you to see the difference between healthy and non healthy options. It will let you know appoximately how many calories etc. you can expect to find in certain food items so that you can make more informed food choices. You can find nutritional information for juices, smoothies, salads, pizza's, steaks, burgers, sandwiches, sides, sauces and coffees etc. at this site.

First of all, stay away from the bread and the prawn crackers and save yourself for dessert!

They say that if you have soup as a starter you will eat a hundred calories less over the course of your meal. Sounds good to me! Choose a cream free soup or maybe a consomme instead of French Onion (think of the cheese!).

Choosing a salad without dressing or with a light vinaigrette is also a good option.

Fed up with soup and salad for starters - melon, chicken yakitori, smoked salmon, prawns, crab and maybe even a little caviar or also vey good options!

See there are choices!






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Ask your server if you can have a break between starter and main course. It takes twenty minutes for your body to register that you have had food so if you start on your main course straight after your starter you are likely to eat more.

Great main courses to choose while you are eating out and trying to lose weight include pasta dishes with a tomato based sauce (no cream please!), grilled chicken or even steak with salad.

If you had salad as a starter you might choose a baked potato instead of fries or gratinated potatoes - just go easy on the butter!

Fish is an excellent choice and many types of fish are nicely complimented with a squeeze of lemon instead of sauce. Avoid fish that is deep fried or in batter.

Maybe go for sushi or teppanyaki if you like Japanese or Szechuan prawn dish with vegetables in a Chinese restaurant. There are many healthy options in Japanese, Chinese and Thai restaurants.

Check the menu for items that will boost the flavors of your meal without breaking the weight loss bank! . Think chilli, mango or tomato salsa, balsamic vinegar or a balsamic reduction, fresh herbs, ginger, garlic, black pepper..... get my drift?

Enjoy!

Again wait a little before ordering dessert. Do you still want one???

Ok then, how about a fruit salad or a some sorbet? A crepe with a fruit filling?

Fruit and chocolate fondue - more fruit than chocolate please!!

Maybe share your favorite dessert with someone else at the table or ask your server for one scoop of your favorite ice-cream instead of three!

You can lose weight while eating out and have dessert too!

Now relax and enjoy your meal - no guilt trips allowed. Remember the food is only part of it. Enjoy the company you are in, the restaurant, the service - make the most of it!

You deserve it!

I hope the hints and tips above are of some help to you and I hope they inspire more options for you -there are lots!! I will add more to this page in the future so you might drop by again.

If you are looking for more help and advise on achieving your weight loss goals Click Here!

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If you are making healthy food choices you don't want to spoil that by overconsuming on the drinks. This does not mean that you can't enjoy a glass of wine or two - it's when it stretches to a bottle or two that you've lost the battle!

Try and decide what you are going to drink in advance so that you won't be tempted to overindulge.

Good choices for drinks include diet soda's, fruit juice, wine (if you make it a spritzer even better) and spirits mixed with slimline tonic, soda water or diet soda. Please stay away from creamy cocktails, Irish coffees (unpatriotic of me I know) and cream based liqeurs.

Try to balance your choices. If you are going to have a couple of glasses of wine then you might want to replace the latte with a black coffee or a tea at the end of the meal.