Eating at Restaurants

Sometimes I think that restaurants are deceptive on purpose! Over the weekend I went to Toronto to spend time with my mother, and she told me we were invited to dinner on Monday night with some friends. OK, sounds good so far. Then she tells me it's at a pizzeria. Well, I'm a big fan of not letting weight loss interfere with your life, but there are limits. I took a look at the menu and there was absolutely nothing I could eat that wasn't a zillion calories. I called the friends and asked if we could change the venue to a place that at least had some salads. So we settled on Jack Astor's.

I highly recommend at least checking out the menu before you dine out so you can make good decisions. In a lot of cases, you can eat your Nutrisystem dinner before you go out to reduce the odds of being too hungry and ordering something you really shouldn't have. Then just save a protein serving and order a nice plain salad with chicken or shrimp or fish.

However, some entrees can be misleading. I looked up the stats for Jack Astor's six dinner salads, and one clocked in at a whopping 1100 calories and 85 grams of fat! Now that's scary. People choose salads thinking that they are healthy, but they're not always as good as they sound.

I chose to order the Asian Salmon Salad, which if served normally, contains 600 calories and 37 grams of fat. Why on earth do restaurants have to wreck a perfectly good meal? The description says they butter the salmon and top it with toasted sesame seeds and candied pecans. I asked for no butter, seeds, or nuts, and dressing on the side. The salad was wonderful without those things and I am sure I reduced a significant percentage of those fat grams and calories.

Don't be afraid to ask a restaurant to customize things for you! Most of the time, they are happy to make whatever substitutions or changes that you ask for. It's 100% OK to want to be healthy- you don't need to just eat whatever they put in front of you. You're in charge of what goes in your mouth.

I'm doing a 6 week mini weight loss challenge with a friend, and we weigh in on Tuesdays so I've already got an inkling of how things are going this week. Let's just say that I am glad that I didn't let myself get derailed by going to a restaurant! Are there things I could be convinced to break program for? Absolutely. But fast food or mediocre chain restaurant food is definitely not one of them. When you're tempted, ask yourself; is it really worth it?