Choosing well off a menu in a restaurant is sometimes a difficult task, and in my experience, it seems to be because of several key reasons.
Firstly you’re hungry, and trying to make a good choice when you’re hungry is HARD!
Secondly you’re probably chatting away to whoever you’re eating with and so distracted from properly thinking through your choice.
Perhaps you might be a bit nervous to ask for a change or two for what you’d really like from the menu.
Finally, you’ve probably had a glass of wine or two, which clouds judgement!
Note that knowing what you should actually chose is not on the list!
So how can we make it easier to make a good choice when we eat out?
The first thing I’d say is that if you eat out once a week or less, and it is your only off-course indulgence, I wouldn’t sweat it – just choose what you fancy and OK that with yourself. It is not going to make any difference to your weight loss quest overall – and it may make the whole thing more do-able.
If you’re eating out regularly, prefer your indulgences in different situations or if you suffer various symptoms due to the off-plan choices you’ve been making though, I hope there will be some ideas here which will help.
The first, and most important, thing to do is to choose what you’re going to eat before you get there. This is easy as most places have their menus on their website – you just need to spend five minutes thinking through what to order while you’re neither hungry nor distracted.
This is so effective, because not only have you had the time you need to make a good choice, you also program yourself to order what you’ve already chosen – most of the time, it just feels wrong to go back on that.
The next thing is to decide on what you’re going to agree to when you’re there. Is your dinner date likely to order pudding? Would it be rude to not have one as well? Might you find your resolve weak in the moment? So, what are you going to do – would you be ok with a coffee? Would you order the cheeseboard so at least you’re not getting a blood sugar rocket? Are you just going to say no – and stick to it?
Think through the booze too. Do you want to have a drink? If so, fine – steer clear of sugary cocktails and the like, and if you feel you need to, set yourself a limit of how much to drink – and think through how that might work out in reality. If you don’t want to drink, is it going to be difficult not to succumb to the peer-pressure? What could you do to say a definite no? You could say you’re on antibiotics, or make sure to be on driving duty?
This sounds like a lot of planning, but really, its only a couple of minutes worth of clear thought, and surely its worth investing 5 minutes of your life in order to get closer to your goals?
The other thing to get comfortable with is that it is ok to ask for small changes in most places. If the steak you fancy comes with chips and you know you lack the willpower to leave them, it is fine to ask for a salad or veg instead. If the dish you’re ordering comes with a sauce you think might be sugary or uber high calorie, you can ask to have it on the side – or not at all. Likewise if something you fancy comes ‘on toast’ you can ask for it without toast, and often its ok to ask for veg instead, especially if its already on the menu. Another change I often make is to have salads without dressing and instead to have olive oil.
Eating out should be a fun, social and relaxing thing to do. If the way you eat out at the minute isn’t like this for you and makes you feel like you’re de-railing your progress, its got to be worth spending a few minutes planning your meal out and resetting the balance on eating out.