secretly eating healthy at restaurants?

I ate at Friday's last night - they have some menu items that they list as under 750 calories & under 500 calories. I had the "Sizzling Chicken & Spinach", it was a boneless chicken breast with a balsamic glaze served over leaf spinach & sautéed yellow squash & zucchini, with a side of a mozzarella/tomato salad. It was a decent sized portion & it logs at 400 calories. It was good enough that I would order it even if I wasn't being careful about what I'm eating......

This sounds delicious - I wonder if it's available at the UK TGIs

It WAS delicious, & they also had a steak & spinach version, along with a chicken & shrimp version. Hope you can find it there :-)

Make your choice without saying anything like, "I can't have THAT, it's too many calories" or, "I have to pick the healthiest thing on the menu." It makes people feel self-conscious about their own selections. Just choose, order, and say nothing. It's nobody's business.

That's maybe the biggest issue for most people. A few years ago, before I was committed to a healthier lifestyle, I had a friend who was trying (successfully) to lose weight. She used to make a fuss about not being able to order anything at certain restaurants and it really drove the rest of us nuts. No one cared that she ordered healthy things, but when it became a point of contention as to where we could or couldn't eat, we definitely cared.

I just tell my friends that when I get stressed, my body can't handle highly processed food, which is mostly true. They don't question it. Sometimes I make up a white lie about why I'm stressed out. Also, I don't know what size you are, but I'm petite so if I tell my friends I need to pack away half the food, they don't think it's weird.

No need to lie about why you're stressed out--tell them that you get really stressed out when people hassle you about your food choices.

"Businesses should be less convenient for customers. Customers are lazy."
"All healthy food sounds the same - dieters should just order dry grilled chicken salads all the time."

You have no concept of how a business market is supposed to work and frankly, you seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a sustainable healthy lifestyle is. If customers aren't happy, businesses fail. Customers who are monitoring their food intake don't need to be punished with boring food.

Lol that's the same thing I got, glad I don't heavily associate with persons who feel that if I don't order dry grilled chicken all the time I'm lazy and asked to be fat.

The reason restaurants don't put calories on the menu is that most of the food they serve is so caloric that people would be horrified, because most people do not know how much calories the average person eats. You may know that the average person should eat around 2,000 calories. That doesn't mean you know that 6 coconut shrimp can be 800 calories. Or buffalo wings may be close to 1,000. And that's just appetizers.

If more people know, more people will be able to make more sensible choices. That said, businesses don't HAVE to do something that may hurt their bottom line. They don't HAVE to (and quite frankly they shouldn't) be nice to you and help you help yourself at their expense. If they do, it's going to be as a result of agitation and public pressure. So ultimately it's our choice.

I have that problem too. My college friends like to EAT. So, I usually order a relatively healthy menu item, like a grilled chicken sandwich. If it comes with fries or chips, I just try to REALLY enjoy them and count them towards my points for the day. For me, the question isn't always eating healthy, it's eating healthy when I can and trying to enjoy the splurges.

Also, to the OP, I totally get what you're going through even though I'm kind of embarrassed that I succumb to this kind of peer pressure. I've been achieving moderate success eating in moderation and working out a few times a week. Don't restrict the types of food I eat, will usually eat over (way over) my goal on weekends and some other days but in general pretty controlled and I don't feel stressed or like I'm missing out at all. It's great!

I have a friend is also trying to lose weight but is not achieving as much success. She is often disparaging of my efforts, and if we go out with friends she'll say something like, "Ughh don't get all the vegetables [I don't even like salads!!]. Watch out guys she's eating healthy, blahhhh she's on a diet!!". No matter how many times I say I'm not on a diet, I'm restricting portions and watching macros and eat ANYTHING I want within reason...it goes in one ear and out the other.

I get embarrassed by this and sometimes find myself overcompensating and eating things I didn't plan for because 1) I don't want to draw attention to my choices like I'm trying to be better than others and 2) I don't wanna make her feel bad by her choices? I don't think she means anything horrible by it but it does stress me out.

It's easy to say, don't worry about their opinions, but I know what you're going through and I have a problem with making other people feel bad (EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT MY FAULT!) So irrational. Anyway I understand!! Only solution is to be strong and get over it. We must not let other persons' opinions of us change our course of action!!

I can't help but wonder, would they harrass you if you were 100 pounds heavier and ordered dessert?

My friends often bug me for trying to order healthy at restaurants >.> Any ways I can do it in secret?
Are there some meals at chain restaurants that, despite not being listed under the 'fit' list, are healthy?

Fajitas

My friends often bug me for trying to order healthy at restaurants >.> Any ways I can do it in secret?
Are there some meals at chain restaurants that, despite not being listed under the 'fit' list, are healthy?

Tell your friends to STFU and enjoy your company.

"Businesses should be less convenient for customers. Customers are lazy."
"All healthy food sounds the same - dieters should just order dry grilled chicken salads all the time."

You have no concept of how a business market is supposed to work and frankly, you seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a sustainable healthy lifestyle is. If customers aren't happy, businesses fail. Customers who are monitoring their food intake don't need to be punished with boring food.

Lol that's the same thing I got, glad I don't heavily associate with persons who feel that if I don't order dry grilled chicken all the time I'm lazy and asked to be fat.

The reason restaurants don't put calories on the menu is that most of the food they serve is so caloric that people would be horrified, because most people do not know how much calories the average person eats. You may know that the average person should eat around 2,000 calories. That doesn't mean you know that 6 coconut shrimp can be 800 calories. Or buffalo wings may be close to 1,000. And that's just appetizers.

If more people know, more people will be able to make more sensible choices. That said, businesses don't HAVE to do something that may hurt their bottom line. They don't HAVE to (and quite frankly they shouldn't) be nice to you and help you help yourself at their expense. If they do, it's going to be as a result of agitation and public pressure. So ultimately it's our choice.

Please substantiate the bolded. I'm sure the high cost and many restaurants with constantly changing menus has nothing to do with it at all.

Oh I have nothing at all to substantiate the bolded. Sorry for disappointing. But in response to your point about menus, I'm reasonably sure that most large chain restaurants change their menus pretty frequently, due to new products coming out or being discontinued. I think that if there is a set date for implementation of the policy the cost of it should be absorbed easily. My gut, which is almost always unsubstantiated, tells me that concerns about menus and other costs is a red herring. Unfortunately my gut has no statistics or peer-reviewed double-blind heavily-vetted non-controversial scientific studies readily available so I wouldn't bother asking for any.

Ah just making things up then, gotcha. You do know there are restaurants other than chains, right?

Actually I didn't. Didn't have a clue until you just made that statement. Clearly if I had known, I wouldn't have qualified the word "restaurants" by adding the words "large chain" in front of it. Because mom and pop restaurants (hey, what's that mean?) usually have lower calorie menu options while refraining to include nutrition information in respect of the remainder of their menus. And of course they're major players in shaping policy debates.

ETA: I'm sure the reason a majority of smaller restaurants don't include nutrition info is because they don't know and don't care to find out - and people don't push them on it. But that is another made up statement so feel free to discount.