Eating Out is Nothing to Freak Out About

You are doing so well on your weight loss and now your invited out for dinner. You can feel your pulse rising and your stomach has butterflies. What do you do? You have not eaten out since you started losing weight! It is OK. Changing your eating habits is a life changing experience. In the real world you are going to face the challenges of eating out. Here are some tips to keep you on track:

How to Prepare

• Look Online. Many restaurants have online menus. You can look ahead and know what you are ordering before you even go. This will help you to identify the healthier items on the menu. Some restaurants will even post the nutritional values making it even easier to figure out what you are eating. Can't find the values online, try Calorie King. Tip: If you have acess to the menu ahead of time, don't look at the menu once you get there. Looking at the menu makes it easier to change your mind to something else.
• Mental Rehearse. It is helpful when you visualize in your head what you are going eat and the questions you are going to ask. It is like practicing for a speech or a performance, when you go over it ahead of time, you will feel less nervous and/or awkward when ordering your meal.
• Save your Points. If you are a Weight Watcher member you get an extra 35 points every week. If you know ahead of time you are going out with friends, family, etc. You can use those points when going out.
• Exercise! Calories in = Calories out. If you know you are going out, you may want to increase your exercise that day to burn off some of those extra calories you are going to eat.
• Suggest a Restaurant. When going out with friends or family, make a restaurant suggestion. We all know some ethic foods are better than others. If you suggest the restaurant then you are in control of what you can order off the menu.
• Don't Go Hungry!!! We all know what happens when we go grocery shopping hungry. Well going to a restaurant hungry usually leads to poor food choices. It can also lead to dipping into appetizers and bread baskets.
• No Elastic Waist Bands! If you wear a pair of pants that fit, you will easily know when to stop eating. Enough said!

How and What to Order

• Order on the side. Ordering sauces and salad dressing on the side will allow you to control your intake of them.
• Substitute. It doesn't hurt to ask if they can substitute fries for a salad or fresh veggies. Maybe they offer a salad with fried chicken, you can always ask for grilled. Restaurants are there to serve you and they want your business!
• Order First. If you are in a group ask to order first. This will prevent you from changing your order to something else.
• Ask Questions. Always ask how things are prepared. There is nothing worse than ordering a side of veggies only to have them come swimming in butter and/or oil. I am still working on this one.

Eating out does not have to be a stressful situation. The more prepared you are the easier it will be!