10 Tips for EATING OUT

Hey it's Friday! I love to go out at least once a week to dinner, and the weekend is the perfect opportunity! But going out to a restaurant doesn't have to be my dietary downfall! Here's my top 10 tips for eating out, savoring each bite and keeping up with your healthy lifestyle:

10 Tips for Eating Out:

1. View the menu online before you go out, that way you are prepared with your choice before you are influenced by hunger, friends or family to order something that isn't on your healthy meter.

2. Order an appetizer as your main course You know it, and so do I, portions are huge these days, an appetizer on a menu, is a perfect serving for dinner.

3. Trying to remember your portions, don't buffet it! A buffet is just setting yourself up for disappointment, avoid them, they are not going to do you any good. Save those brunch buffest for a special holiday occassion because eating as much as you can in one sitting is what I like to call "food overload". Your body can't digest all that food fast enough and is only going to store it as fat around your middle. Your heart is going to thank me for this one.

4. Don't be afraid to modify the menu dressing/sauces on the side, or ask for extra vegetables. These are small modifications that can save you big on calories!

5. Fried, cream sauces, butter, au gratin, breaded, alfredo, battered, gravy, and blackened all spell extra calories and fat. Look for better options like grilled, broiled, boiled, baked or steamed choices or ask, as said above, for those sauces on the side. Your food doesn't need to be drowing in sauce to be tasty!

6. Holy Pasta! I love pasta, and I don't think you should ever give it up! But the portions in a restaurant could serve a family of 4! So when you get your bowl, ask for a takeout container and put the rest of those servings in it to bring home for another few meals.

7. Pick and choose. If this isn't your birthday dinner or some other special occasion, perhaps pick and choose, that is, if you are going to indulge in your favorite cocktail, then avoid dessert, or vice versa. Choose where you're going to indulge and don't make going out an excuse to fall off your healthy wagon.

8.Remember you're not only here for the food but the company Sure food is celebratory but friends and family are also part of the equation right? Don't leave a restaurant feeling "bad" for overeating but joyous for not only make healthy choices, but for the great company you just broke bread with. Concentrate on the friendships, not the food and your choices will follow.

9. Savor each bite Your mom told you and I will too, "slow down this isn't a race". Savor your food and give yourself a chance to digest it (20 minutes before your belly is going to feel full) No need to rush, your out on the town enjoying yourself.

10. And most importantly, remember, your in control of the choices you make so if dessert is on your menu tonight, perhaps an eggwhite sandwich with turkey bacon and lowfat cheese or oatmeal with fresh fruit will be on your radar to start the morning tomorrow. It's not about every feeling guilty over food, but moderation, moderation, moderation :)