Term papers!

While it would be nice to have a home cooked dinner 7 nights a week, this is just not possible or practical   for the modern American family. Heck,   even us single folk without kids are challenged to find enough hours in the day to get the   food from the fridge to the cutting board to the stove to the dinner plate to our mouths!

Let’s Get Real!

Eating out in moderation (you don’t need to be a Jamie Oliver to throw together a quick, healthy, delicious meal at home) can be healthy.    I’m here to rescue you from all the hype around what’s good and what’s not good to eat out.

S0…let’s jump right into the basics:

Begin with Restaurant Selection.

We all know that grabbing a quick bite to eat at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, or any other fast food chain just isn’t nutritious.   While salad is now a standard feature on every one of these menus, they just don’t cut it in terms of a quality meal.   I don’t care if one in particular is marketing themselves with a drive-thru diet menu – it just isn’t the kind of diet you and your body want to be on.

The plain truth is that these chains provide you with lower quality ingredients.   You may save some money but your own health care costs could suffer in the future.   Limit chain fast food venues  to a one-time-a-year road trip experience.

If you are lacking omega-3s in your diet, consider selecting a seafood  restaurant.   These tend to be on the healthier side (as long as you steer clear of the fish fry! and check out the environmental working group’s safe fish list).

It’s ok if your family members vote for Italian but you’ll be far more tempted here than you would at the seafood spot.

Select your  restaurant  with care…take charge and consider all options.

Decide What You’ll Be Having…

When we’re hungry, we can make the worst food decisions.   So I advise you to carve a couple minutes out of your day to do an online search for the restaurant’s menu.

If you make up your mind ahead of time, you are setting yourself up for success.   Making an  entrée  selection on an empty stomach is never a good move.

Set your own groundrules too.

If you know that the restaurant has nightly specials that aren’t listed on the site, you can either call them up ahead of time or make the, “no heavy dish” rule.   Which means that you are only allowing yourself to order a healthy choice.

Make a pact with yourself on other things too…whatever feels right.   Here are a few ideas:

• I shall skip the bread basket and all breaded or grain products.
• I will request a substitution for any starchy veggies.
• I promise to forgo alcohol tonight.
• I will savor every bite by chewing slowly.

Remember, it’s all about setting yourself up for success.   Do what feels right and be realistic.

Focus on Digestion

Even if you order the healthiest item on the menu, your body needs to digest it in order to thrive.   Always carry along digestive enzymes which will help you reap the nutrients in your food.   Larger meals are harder to digest and you are almost  guaranteed this when eating out.

Do you have a favorite restaurant preparation tip?   If so, please share!

Next time we’ll continue our chat about healthy tips while at the actual  restaurant…..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Food, Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.