how to eat out when you dont like salad

sneezles

Sometimes salads are more calories than eating a burger. You have to watch what you put on whatever you eat. Basic rule of thumb, eat boiled, broiled or baked. Nothing fried. And eat the allowed portion size .. approx 4 oz of meat .. lots of veggies.

That is true if you load up on salad dressing. I only use balsamic vinegar at home and never use dressing when dining out...maybe a squirt of fresh lemon.

melsinct

Two words: portion control. Eat what you like, just not loads of it.

sneezles

Anyway, I find that my best strategies in restaurants are:

1. get the fish or seafood. Even breaded and fried, fish is a better choice than most other meats.
2. Never, never, never, EVER get french fries. If the choices are French fries or chips...get the chips. Srsly. The portion sizes of French fries are typically way more than any other side you could get, making them 2-3-4 times worse than everything else.
3. If you can't stomach fish, a 6-oz sirloin is not bad. Grilled/blackened chicken is not bad. Pulled pork barbecue is not bad if you skip any white sauces. Smoked or grilled 1/4 dark chicken (thigh and leg) is not bad, especially if you don't eat the skin. But don't get brisket :sad: brisket is bad

1. Fried fish is not a better choice than grilled chicken breast! And if you don't know what oil it's fried in you could be consuming trans-fats. Unless a restaurant notes that it uses trans-fat free oil you'd be wise not to eat anything fried.

2. Don't eat either.

3. Lean meats include sirloin, round, and loin cuts. Pulled pork is made from the shoulder...high fat content. Brisket is lean and okay once it's trimmed.

jjs22

One thing I (now) hate about eating out is not even knowing how many calories are in the food. I avoid chain restaurants like the plague, and I can't yet estimate how many oz my serving of (something) was before cooking.

And in general restaurants are terrible places to cut back. Everyone knows the secrets of making food pleasing : huge servings, lots of fat, starch AND sugar. They can sell the idea of eating light, but when you actually look at the calories, its still a lot.

My experience is that often its the nicer, more expensive restaurants that (sometimes) have the healthiest options. For a skilled chef, the quality of ingredients is super-important, and they often work hard to make the ingredients themselves reach perfection without resorting to cheap tricks like heavy sauce or humongous portion size. The most amazing serving of green beans in the world, IMO, always comes from a nice French restaurant. Same for carrots and beets. I have always thought that if you really _taste_ and enjoy your food, you don't need to eat as much to be satisfied. A lot of the eating we do is sort habitual, like being on autopilot while our mind is somewhere else.

Another strategy is to just ask for something : "Is there any way I could get a piece of fruit for dessert ?" or "Could I get a raw carrot instead of the fries ?" It's not so common in America, but a smaller, independent restaurant can be a little more flexible than a corporate operation.

p.s. I got food poisoning a few months ago from one of those plastic tubs of salad (I kept it in the fridge too long.) Even though I like the idea of salad, I still can't eat it without a strong queasy feeling from that unpleasant memory !

rachy_09

thanks again to all the comments great great advice. im not a biggy on fish, im a very very fussy eater hence why i need to be on a diet because i only like the foods that i shouldnt really eat all the time but steak sirloin and chicken i love so to get a grilled steak/chicken with a little potatoes and peas or something sounds fab and then only eat half i think i can manage cheers

heathersmilez

I'm not a big fan of salads myself, not filling enough and restaurant dressings are too fatty so it get's boring with bringing your own dressing.

Personally I always get a lean protein with roasted veggies wherever I go. at Montana's Steakhouse their incredible 8oz sirloin is only 330 cals and I recently went to Mr. Greek where their side potatoes were only 140 cals (plus I had the roasted veggies) so it is possible to eat carbs out, you just have to check the nutritional info first and as a rule of thumb, avoid pastas and fries in restaurants unless it's a cheat meal since that will put you over 1000+

jenbusick

1. Fried fish is not a better choice than grilled chicken breast! And if you don't know what oil it's fried in you could be consuming trans-fats. Unless a restaurant notes that it uses trans-fat free oil you'd be wise not to eat anything fried.

2. Don't eat either.

3. Lean meats include sirloin, round, and loin cuts. Pulled pork is made from the shoulder...high fat content. Brisket is lean and okay once it's trimmed.

1) I said "most" meats. And I've been surprised, when I checked calorie counts, to find that in a lot of places the chicken is NOT a better choice than other meats -- frex, at Moe's, if you get the ground beef it's lower-cal than their chicken (neither is fried). And I've been surprised, too, when I checked calorie counts, to find that fried catfish is the best (lowest-calorie) meat on many menus, even lower than the chicken breast. Possibly because portion sizes on chicken breast are almost as unrealistically huge as they are for french fries. And most places are trans-fat-free these days.

2) Ideally, yeah. My point was that fries are just about the worst possible choice, in part because the serving size on fries tends to be massive.

3) I would have thought so, but brisket always shows up on the scale next day as a massive gain, whereas pulled pork does not. Also, properly prepared pulled pork barbecue will not have a lot of fat left in it; it cooks off. The brisket could be a sodium thing, but I do hate to see that 3-lb spike. We eat a lot of barbecue, and the best options I've found are the 1/4 dark chicken and the pulled pork (no bun). They don't set me back.