Join GetFit Nutrition and start leading a healthy life today. No joining fee and we're confident that you’ll find healthy ways to lose weight when you join, but for peace of mind, we'll refund your money within 7 days if for any reason you don't! Click here to join today...
Healthy Eating Tips for Eating Out – The Basics
Eating out is no longer the 'once in a while' treat it used to be - for some it is an everyday necessity, and for others it’s an essential part of their social and/or business lives.
Whenever you eat out, there are some clever tricks that will help you eat healthily wherever you’re eating!
First of all, never forget that whenever and wherever you eat out, you’re in control. A restaurant is privileged to have you as their guest (if they’re not there’s many that will be) – they’re there to supply you with a service - you’re ‘employing’ them to cook your food for you (and do the washing up), regardless of whether it’s the cafe down the road or in a 3 star restaurant.
Also remember, food served in restaurants usually contains 50% or more calories than the food you’d serve at home. Add to this the fact that portion sizes have increased over the years, eating-out can become a real risk to any weight or health management plan. But with a few little tricks and a good idea of what you want to achieve, restaurants need not become ‘no go zones’.
Tips & Tricks
Here are a few tips to help you with any dining out experience:
- If you can’t get the nutritional information of food, assume that it’s high in calories.
- Order your food with your goals, Nutrition Card® Targets and your taste buds in mind. Portion sizes are important - if you control the portion size then the calories will look after themselves.
- You can control what arrives on your plate - just make sure those serving you know what you want.
- By being polite to the waiter you'll find they will normally bend over backwards to help out. (GetFit Nutrition’s Customer Experience Director, Brayley, adds that from his own experience working as a waiter over some 20 odd years, waiters never discuss the rude customers, it’s the polite ones that are pointed out. Food for thought).
- Restaurants want you to enjoy your time with them because they need your custom (they are a business afterall) - so never be afraid to change a dish, ask for the dressing to be left off or order a range of side orders for your main course. Don’t ever compromise your goals to make it easier for the restaurant - you’re in control!
In this section we refer to bread throughout, however the points relate to any type of food offered before your meal – so you can’t pretend it doesn’t apply to poppadums, naan bread, tortilla chips, Chinese prawn crackers etc).
We all like to be healthy and to be sure that we're doing the best we can for ourselves, and our families, health.
Join GetFit Nutrition and start leading a healthy life today. No joining fee and we're confident that you’ll find healthy ways to lose weight when you join, but for peace of mind, we'll refund your money within 7 days if for any reason you don't! Click here to join today...