Eating at restaurants used to be fun, now it's kind of stressful.
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Stressful? That sounds terrible. Sorry, OP.
Also, I lol'ed at Russian roulette. Have you actually seen what happens when you lose a game of that? I have.0 -
Unfortunately everyone insisted on going to a local steakhouse no one had been to before for lunch. I got the smallest steak they offered because they said that they couldn't do the chicken without the sauce (I guess it must be premade and frozen that way?). I only took one bite of the garlic bread that they threw an entire loaf of on our plates and one small bite of the baked potato with butter. Ate all my salad, though. I can't do half at a restaurant unless I get kind of full. Honestly, I don't have that kind of willpower.
I still love to go to steak houses......I just tell them to please give me double steamed veggies (in lieu of Potato or Rice), and garden salad w/ a wedge of lemon (in lieu of salad dressing).......my motto is if your gonna have dressing on your salad then you may as well have french fries instead.
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well thats not even remotely close to the same thing.
and there isn't anything bad about salad dressing- you just can't drown your salad in it. Just ask for it on the side.
- Good lord you people are extreme.-1 -
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Consistency is the trump card. Use it.
A lot of truth to this.
That being said- I go out to eat weekly- so regularly going to high calorie places- my BF LOVES chili's (don't ask me I don't know whatever)- we do go to Olive Garden (don't be a hater- I love their salads)...
I'm still rocking out looking fabulous and not getting fat.
I eat 1650 daily which accounts for 3-4 moderate workouts a week. There is plenty of ways to work going out for a meal-
> eating lighter through the week to bank some dinner calories
> eating less through the day to give more budget for dinner
> Logging a few extra min on your cardio
> halving your portions
> sharing a portion
> grilled chicken/steak
> all veggies
> less sauce/sauce on the side.
seriously- if you're so stressed out about going for a none accounted for meal you need to take a step back and re-evaluate your mind set. It's perfectly reasonable to go out- take a stab at what you ordered- over estimate and not stall/back track progress.
If you spent half as much time worrying about what you ate Mon-Friday from 8-5 than you did on Friday from 5-10 you'd be in way better shape.- physically and mentally.
THANK YOU! i love olive garden. no shame. those bread sticks and i go wayyy back...
and the rest of the post is spot on. i would say i'm determined to lose weight, so i eat at home 70% of the time so i can better control my calories. but i don't want it all to be at the expense of becoming a shut-in. so what i do: i plan in advance with people which restaurant we're going to (99% of the time, i know the exact location of where i'm going), look up their menu, see what looks good and/or healthy, look up in MFP what the approximate calorie count is, then i either skip or skimp on a meal that day and/or work out. and if i the person happens to want an appetizer or dessert, then oh well, i declare it a cheat day and then get back on track the next meal or day. better to be a little short of your goal than to not be there at all.0 -
This whole thread is just full of sad...and little picture think...
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apparently that's now a thing.
But I mean IF they equal that- that means I get french fries and claim I'm getting a salad with all the delicious green leafies- I'm starting to see an upside to this equation!!!THANK YOU! i love olive garden. no shame. those bread sticks and i go wayyy back...
hell yes- I'm not a big bread person- but yeah- when the garlic is good.. .the garlic is guuuuuuuuuuudddddddddddddddddddddddd0 -
goddessofawesome wrote: »goddessofawesome wrote: »
Oh, I'm sorry the "Affordable" Healthcare Act.goddessofawesome wrote: »Every time I end up going out to eat at a restaurant that doesn't publish their nutritional information I feel like I am playing Russian roulette. It should be mandatory that consumers are allowed to know the contents of the food you are serving them. I have no way to log any of this stuff accurately because restaurants have a way of sneaking fats and oils into just about everything! I could have eaten an entire stick of butter today for all I know. I used to love trying new places. Now it's just a headache. I feel like such a cranky old lady getting my feathers ruffled at what should have been a good time but I can't help but wonder if I am going to regret this tomorrow. Blah.
Funny you should say that (note the bold). Obamacare has a new law in place that is forcing restaurants to put the calorie amounts on their menus. If they don't then they pay a hefty fine. The problem though is that the calories will be misleading as they are probably for one serving not the entire dish so someone will think they're dinner is 600 calories when it's only a normal sized serving that would be that amount while the entire dish could be way, way more.
ETA: To address the original question: choose something that looks like it hasn't been cooked in butter and oil like grilled chicken breast. If it comes with a side of veggies ask them how they're prepared. Steamed (with or without butter)? Grilled? Cooked in a pan with loads of oil and stuff? You can always ask them to NOT cook it in oils and butter. If that doesn't work see if you can get side salad with dressing on the side (since restaurants are notorious for drenching their salads in dressing). There are plenty of items you could choose that won't completely derail your eating and be low in calories.
Obamacare? :huh:
Mmm hmmm yeah ok.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/health-care/obamacare-s-calorie-count-requirement-gets-delayed-20140228
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/02/07/obamacares-restaurant-calorie-label-mandate-is-impossible-to-implement/
http://dailysignal.com/2014/11/25/fdas-final-menu-labeling-rule-going-way-beyond-whats-required-obamacare/
https://www.federalregister.gov/regulations/0910-AG57/food-labeling-nutrition-labeling-of-standard-menu-items-in-restaurants-and-similar-retail-food-estab
You did a lot of work for nothing... I already said Mmm hmmm ok.
Also, nothing to do with the topic of local restaurants.
Around here all the chains already have calorie information available, but I never go out to dinner at a chain, so it makes no difference to me.
You have to just figure out how to deal with it if you still want to keep restaurant meals in your life (which I most certainly do). Being careful about portion size and ordering sensibly and asking questions about preparation are all ways to do this, as well as simply accepting that it's going to be a lot more calories than if you prepared it at home, so should be worth it (which is why I'm picky about the restaurants I go to and the kind of experience I want there), so you need to eat lighter to plan or do some extra exercise or just fit it into your overall week.
For some, I suppose the uncertainty is not worth it, but I enjoy restaurants and so do my friends, so figuring out how to fit it in enjoyably was necessary.0 -
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Unfortunately everyone insisted on going to a local steakhouse no one had been to before for lunch. I got the smallest steak they offered because they said that they couldn't do the chicken without the sauce (I guess it must be premade and frozen that way?). I only took one bite of the garlic bread that they threw an entire loaf of on our plates and one small bite of the baked potato with butter. Ate all my salad, though. I can't do half at a restaurant unless I get kind of full. Honestly, I don't have that kind of willpower.
I still love to go to steak houses......I just tell them to please give me double steamed veggies (in lieu of Potato or Rice), and garden salad w/ a wedge of lemon (in lieu of salad dressing).......my motto is if your gonna have dressing on your salad then you may as well have french fries instead.
I have no idea how light the light salad dressing is that various establishments use but I use them anyway because I'm not a huge fan of salad and the dressing is what makes it palatable for me.0 -
I also enjoy olive garden, forget you haters.0
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Consistency is the trump card. Use it.
A lot of truth to this.
That being said- I go out to eat weekly- so regularly going to high calorie places- my BF LOVES chili's (don't ask me I don't know whatever)- we do go to Olive Garden (don't be a hater- I love their salads)...
I'm still rocking out looking fabulous and not getting fat.
I eat 1650 daily which accounts for 3-4 moderate workouts a week. There is plenty of ways to work going out for a meal-
> eating lighter through the week to bank some dinner calories
> eating less through the day to give more budget for dinner
> Logging a few extra min on your cardio
> halving your portions
> sharing a portion
> grilled chicken/steak
> all veggies
> less sauce/sauce on the side.
seriously- if you're so stressed out about going for a none accounted for meal you need to take a step back and re-evaluate your mind set. It's perfectly reasonable to go out- take a stab at what you ordered- over estimate and not stall/back track progress.
If you spent half as much time worrying about what you ate Mon-Friday from 8-5 than you did on Friday from 5-10 you'd be in way better shape.- physically and mentally.well thats not even remotely close to the same thing.
and there isn't anything bad about salad dressing- you just can't drown your salad in it. Just ask for it on the side.
- Good lord you people are extreme.
^All of this.
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But life shouldn't always be a worry. It should be lived and enjoyed.0 -
GiveMeCoffee wrote: »
But life shouldn't always be a worry. It should be lived and enjoyed.
I'd hardly say that my life is a constant worry or not enjoyable. There is much more to life than food. The restaurant thing just kind of really sucks for those without many calories to work with. It is a much less enjoyable experience for me than it was before I changed my eating habits around around but that's life.0 -
No life is a life I want to live where I can't go out to an amazing restaurant and order what I want off the menu and eat it without feeling guilty. Now my lifestyle has changed and I only eat like that once in a blue moon. But I refuse to give that up. Life is just too short.
Yeah I agree. But I don't think it's necessarily the case though. Sometimes I want to enjoy a restaurant meal and I don't care about calories, too. But sometimes I do, and that's when it's a real pain. And no, all places won't have a plain green salad and grilled chicken, and frankly if it's what I'm going to have to eat when I go out, why even go out? I can make it at home for less money, less calories, and much less sodium (and probably wouldn't anyway because really, what a boring meal).
And it's not even always the case of eating a 400 calorie meal. Sometimes I have 1000 calories, and I still have no idea what to get because everything could be from 800 to 1500 calories, and I'm not really craving anything anyway, so I end up picking something that doesn't look too bad and end up with a ridiculously tiny amount of food or something (sorry but I laugh at the 'put half in a box' comments - I'd much rather have more food that is less calories than a small amount of food that has a ton of calories).
So yeah, I still enjoy the random restaurant meal when I order whatever I want, maybe once a month, but people who say that it doesn't stall their weight loss are either in denial or undereating the rest of the time, IMO, because it does wipe off a week of deficit for me, pretty much (although I typically eat lower anyway to make up for those days).0 -
You have a lot life's ahead of you. Do plan for the rest of your life to worry so much of going out to eat??
That would be sad.
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GiveMeCoffee wrote: »
But life shouldn't always be a worry. It should be lived and enjoyed.
I'd hardly say that my life is a constant worry or not enjoyable. There is much more to life than food. The restaurant thing just kind of really sucks for those without many calories to work with. It is a much less enjoyable experience for me than it was before I changed my eating habits around around but that's life.
The too little to work with is most likely do to you having your calories set too low. But even if it isn't when I start stressing over enjoying a meal out I will start reevaluating what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I go out to eat at least weekly and have no issues losing weight. And I very rarely go to chain restaurants I prefer the smaller places0 -
i assume any meal out is 1000+ calories. i don't have any problems fitting that into my goals, and in the grand scheme of things, your body is going to deal with any bit extra as long as it's not every day. i just enjoy going to restaurants, so i try not to let nutritional concerns stop me from doing so.0
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GiveMeCoffee wrote: »
But life shouldn't always be a worry. It should be lived and enjoyed.
I'd hardly say that my life is a constant worry or not enjoyable. There is much more to life than food. The restaurant thing just kind of really sucks for those without many calories to work with. It is a much less enjoyable experience for me than it was before I changed my eating habits around around but that's life.
I think you are over thinking it...0 -
A law just passed requiring all chain restaurants to post nutritional info. It will go into effect next November. Privately owned restaurants are exempt. So, I generally only eat at chain restaurants, or I choose something without sauces, such as grilled fish and vegetables. With chain restaurants, I look online and choose what I will eat, logging it before I go.0
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