Ten Top Tips when Out Eating
It’s always easy to control the calorie and fat content of your meals when you prepare them yourself at home, just not so easy when you go out. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to become a social hermit if you’re trying to watch what you eat! There is always room in a healthy lifestyle for eating out and buying takeaways, you just have to watch the frequency, make a good choice and select the right portion size.
Top 10 Eating Out tips:
- Always aim to order a balanced meal, that is, one that includes some carbohydrate, protein & vegetable or salad.
- Try and order dishes that are in a tomato-based sauce instead of those in a creamy or cheesy sauce.
- Ask for the dressings to be served on the side so you can control the amount you have.
- Look for meal options that use low fat cooking methods i.e. steamed, grilled, BBQ, baked, poached instead of pan or deep fried options.
- Watch you don’t “double up” on carbohydrates. For example, rice and naan bread - instead of having a standard portion of both choose one or the other, or half a portion of each. Likewise, a burger and wedges/fries - instead of having a both, have only the gourmet burger or if having breads and dips as a starter choose a salad as your main.
- Just like carbs, watch you don’t double up on proteins – so cheese OR meat in a Sub not both.
- When having bread/ rolls watch what you add. Bread acts like a sponge when you dip it in oil! Also watch for things like garlic, herb and cheese breads as these tend to be higher in fat. Ask for plain bread instead.
- Trim the fat off meat and take the skin off chicken.
- Order less food. One or two courses should be ample or share a dish.
- Check what comes with the main course – you can then avoid being tempted by chips, buttered vegetables etc. Instead bulk up the meal with steamed vegetables or a side salad (watch the dressing).
REMEMBER – Everything is ok in moderation, including moderation itself!!!
By Kath Fouhy, BSc, PG DipDiet, NZRD - 22/04/07
Pulse Personal Training – It’s About Success - www.PulsePT.co.nz