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| Eating at a restaurant does not have to sabotage a healthy diet. Use smart-eating strategies: plan ahead, consider the menu and choose foods carefully to keep you on your plan. |
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Have a plan. Eat a light dinner if you ate a big lunch that day. Or if you know ahead of time that you're going to a restaurant, cut back on calories during other meals that day. |
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Knowing menu terms and cooking basics makes ordering easier, especially if you need to control calories, fat and other nutrients. Look for foods that are steamed, broiled, baked or grilled, and limit fried and sautéed items or foods described as "crispy," "rich" or "au gratin." |
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Think ahead. Consider meal options at different restaurants and look for places with a wide range of menu items. |
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Balance your meal by including foods from all the different food groups: meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and grains. Look for freshly made entrée salads that give you "balance in a bowl." For example, entrée salads with chicken, cheese or almonds provide protein along with fiber and vitamins. If you are counting calories, use a low-fat dressing or skip some of the extras, like croutons. |
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For sandwich toppings, go with low-fat options like lettuce, tomato and onion; use condiments like ketchup, mustard or relish; and low-fat for fat-free dressings. |
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Round out your meal by ordering healthy side dishes, such as a side salad with low-fat or fat-free dressing, baked potato or fruit. Boost the nutritional value of your baked potato by topping it with vegetables, salsa or chilli. |
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Substitute. Ask for a side salad with low-fat dressing to replace fries in a combination meal. |
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Many restaurants honor requests, so don't be afraid to be assertive, ask menu questions and make special requests to meet your nutritional needs. |
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Many restaurants serve huge portions, sometimes enough for two or three people. Order menu items that contain fewer calories and eat a smaller portion. Bring leftovers home for another meal. |
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Eat slowly. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to get the message from your stomach that you are no longer hungry. Fast eaters often are overeaters, while slow eaters tend to eat less and are still satisfied. |
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Choose a restaurant that caters to children and has a healthy children's menu that includes smaller portion sizes and meals designed to provide ample nourishment for smaller bodies. |
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For kids' meals, opt for milk as a beverage and fruit for dessert. |
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Order kids plain foods with sauce on the side. |
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Substitute healthier "sides" in place of fries, like carrots or apple slices |
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Choose two or three suitable menu items, then let your child pick one. |
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Let kids order their familiar favorites when they eat out. For new foods, offer a bite or two from your order. |
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Calcium is important at all ages, but especially for growing bones. To get more calcium, drink low-fat or fat-free white or chocolate milk or add a slice of cheese to their sandwich. Choose dairy-based treats like yogurt, a milkshake or frozen dairy dessert. |
| Restaurants may be intimidating to people trying to stick to a healthy diet, but with preparation and confidence, you can enjoy your restaurant meal without abandoning healthy eating. |
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Salads are fine for lunch but if you don't get your carbs, then beware the 3pm munchies.
How Difficult can it be to get lunch right? A couple of slices of bread with a tin of tuna and some tomato and all should be good? What you choose to eat for lunch can have a huge impact on your mood, energy and appetite for the remainder of the day. In fact, choosing the right lunch may even help to protect you from the 3pm dreaded munchies so it is worth knowing how to get the balance exactly right.
A nutritionally balanced lunch should include some low glycaemic index carbs such as wholegrain bread, beans or pasta, teamed with a good serve of lean protein such as tuna, chicken breast or egg as well as plenty of salad.
For those of you who routinely ditch the carbs in favour of tuna and salad therein lies the problem.
Denying your body carbs during the day, when both your brain and your muscles require them for energy, leaves you prone to sugar cravings and low energy levels later in the afternoon when your brain finally realizes that it does not have enough readily available fuel to function optimally.
Including a small serve of nutritious carbohydrates such as 1-2 slices of grain bread, a few wholegrain crackers or a small tin of beans of corn is all the carbohydrates you will need to avoid this scenario.
TOP LUNCH CHOICES
Two tuna sushi rolls
Chicken and salad wrap
Frittata and salad
Tuna, beans and salad
Wholegrain crackers with salmon |
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Ever noticed how the serving size of Snickers Bars, Coke and Popcorn are simply getting bigger and bigger? We have to contend with "Big Gulp”, "King Size” and "Super Summer Size” creations of junk food. The worst part is we actually go for it!
Whether you eat these foods or not, is not critical, but you would have to agree that generally speaking we are eating massive amounts of food. Probably more food than we actually need to sustain us.
At home we are faced with cooking a little too much pasta with the evening meal. The end result is you continue to devour all of it! Because you do not want to waste any...do you?
Lunches are the same. A great plate of teriyaki chicken and rice followed by an orange juice has you full to the brim, but you paid the $7.90 for it so it may as well not go to waste! |
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Get serious about the foods that you eat! Have a good hard look at the foods you eat on a daily basis. Are you eating more calories than your body really needs? If you are, then it’s time to make a couple of changes!
Here are some tips: |
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Cut the size of your dinner in half. You would be amazed how little calories are required to watch, heaven forbid, Home and Away! |
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Do not miss meals. Half the reason for the bigger lunch or dinner is that you had worked yourself into starvation mode. Don’t let this happen. |
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Rather than making a huge pasta dish, put so many vegetables in so you can hardly see the pasta! |
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Be happy to simply graze the whole day. Eat smaller meals more often. If you are getting hungry, that’s great, your metabolism is increasing. Just be sure to keep grazing! |
| Courtesy of Brad Shephard |
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