Sit Down Restaurant Meal Suggestions

knoelledi
knoelledi Posts: 91 Member
in Food and Nutrition
We just walked out of Chili's at lunch today because even the 'healthy choice' menu items were loaded in sodium. The waitress told us we could get things unmarinated, etc but couldn't find anything worth it, or anything that we couldn't just make at home. We travel for business a few times a year and this gets tricky. I've never tracked sodium before so this aspect is new.

Does anyone have suggestions for sit down restaurant meals? I know the sodium will always be a bit higher in a restaurant but would like to eat more than just the house salad. Note: I don't eat anything that swims.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Replies

  • meridianova
    meridianova Posts: 438 Member
    that's going to totally depend on the restaurant, your way of eating, and your macros.

    i completely agree that sometimes restaurant eating can be tricky since you've got no control over what's used and in what quantities. i would have never known that IHOP puts pancake batter into their egg mix for omeletes had someone not pointed it out years ago.

    as far as avoiding sodium goes, if you're not cutting back for medical reasons you can try to offset it by drinking more water to help flush it out, and if it's a once-in-a-while thing it may not be as bad. other than that, cuts of whole meat (steaks, chicken, pork chops) that don't involve a sauce could work if you ask them to have a light hand with the seasoning. steamed veggies can be a good option too since restaurants generally won't do too much to them.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    Note: I don't eat anything that swims.

    I've seen cows swim, pigs too. I've never seen a chicken or a turkey swim though.

    Do they swim?
  • knoelledi
    knoelledi Posts: 91 Member
    I do believe chicken and turkey are water phobic. Maybe I should put I don't eat anything that could live with Spongebob (and no I don't eat squirrel regardless) :wink:
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    :laugh:
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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  • motofairy
    motofairy Posts: 33 Member
    This link may be helpful: http://www.ihelpc.com/best-restaurants-for-low-sodium/
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    In my experience of tracking for the past 16 months, Chilis is THE WORST chain restaurant for sodium and calories overall. Insane. I had spicy shrimp tacos there a year ago with a black bean side and I know the calories for my meal (even leaving 2 tortillas uneaten) were around 1,100 and sodium off the chart for my whole day. So not worth it.

    I still love to dine out and prefer ethnic restaurants myself...like Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, or Mexican. I usually leave behind all or some of the rice, beans, and/or noodles served and just guesstimate my logging. I figure it is not a huge issue since I am not eating there every day. And I truly enjoy my meal and generally don't order something I could make at home easily. Usually when I'm on a road trip, business trip, vacation, whatever...I look forward to trying new spots that are not the chains I can get anywhere :-)

    If I do go to chains, I try to prelog or at least check out their menu beforehand when possible. Sometimes I wind up choosing something that sounds like the worst option (Steak N' Shake double steakburger, plain, is a go to for me under 400 cal).
  • sweetpea03b
    sweetpea03b Posts: 1,123 Member
    As a rule my hubby and I don't eat out a lot because it's hard to control the calories and its more expensive than cooking at home. But... if you're traveling and don't have a choice, I usually pick something on their "lighter portions" menu... and most of the time, don't finish my meal.... that usually manages to keep the calories reasonable. As for the sodium... I try not to drink my calories so I drink almost exclusively water.... if you drink enough of it, the sodium will get flushed out anyway. Get a good sweating work out in for good measure :)
  • Joannah700
    Joannah700 Posts: 2,665 Member
    Check out www.healthydiningfinder.com too - it has some good resources and you can research a place beforehand.

    Most restaurants will have a grilled chicken steamed veggie option - it's going to be higher in sodium but it will typically be still doable.

    If you're going to a fancy restaurant - filet mignon, steamed/grilled green beans are typically on the menu. Just use willpower to ignore the mashed potatoes or other items they serve on the plate. You can do it.
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
    Unless you are eating out in restaurants all the time, this is a non issue in my book, unless you have high blood pressure.

    As far as weight loss goes and general health, the odd high salt food is not going to hurt you or your weightloss. I do it all the time. Its fine. The weight goes up for a day or two, then it comes down again. What's the big deal?

    If you want to choose healthy meals, make sure you choose meals with a lot of vegetables in them.
    Better restaurants, will serve better quality food all around as well.

    have a soup - which will help fill you up. skip the bread.
    Have your meat if you must, then some vegetables on the side. (probably avoid the saucy dishes and go for the straight steak types though a lot of sauces do not contain a lot of calories when well prepared. Or choose the vegetarian option sometimes.
    have a glass of wine.
    Finish with a small serve of cheese. Its seems to put the finish on the appetite at the end of a meal i find. Its what the french do and they know a thing or two about eating. Serving should be about 30grams or 1 ounce. No need for bread really.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    I'll go the crazy route and say ignore sodium. Do you want to load up on it 365/24/7? Of course not. If you get a ton in one meal "a few times a year" on a business trip is it going to wreck your health? Of course not. Calories are way more important to focus on.

    +1

    Unless you have a medical reason to limit sodium, I wouldn't actually worry about it, especially since it's pretty infrequent. I don't even track sodium - my waistband and rings let me know when I've had too much :laugh: . And, even in the worst situations, after a couple days and a couple extra glasses of water everything is back to normal. :drinker:
  • 2BeHappy2
    2BeHappy2 Posts: 811 Member
    We recently ate at Logans Roadhouse 1 salad in itself looked really good while I wanted the meat off another salad.
    W/ the 1st salad it had a rainbow of different veggies starting w/ a plate full of mixed greens, tomatoes, shredded carrots, mushrooms & cucumbers.
    The 2nd salad only came w/ the basics, pieces of steak, shredded lettuce, bacon, blue cheese and blue cheese dressing (which I don't care for).
    The problem was the 1st salad was very eye appealing w/ the different colored veggies BUT it came with cut up fried chicken.
    The 2nd salad came with small pieces of steak but the salad itself was rather plain.
    Yes, they charged me a couple dollars more but I got the colorful salad w/ the pieces of steak replacing the friend chicken.
    It also came with cheese and dressing.
    I asked for cheese on the side which my husband used for his potato and I initially I dipped my fork into the dressing for flavor on my big veggies but as I continued to eat, after awhile I was just eating my salad plain.
    Theres 227 calories in 1 roll w/ no added butter so unless you can fit it in, IMO, that's just too many calories to give in!
    Besides, that salad was satisfying, you wont hardly miss it.
    I believe that O'Charleys has a Black & Blue Salad but its rather plain (IMO)!
    Chopped up greens, a few pieces of cut up steak, blue cheese & blue dressing.
    I don't recall how many calories were in 1 of their rolls (w/out added butter).
    I really enjoy/love salads but for me there needs to be something more to it not just for eye appeal but to keep me satisfied and full.
    If you have a smart phone you can look these place up before/while getting there.
    Im sure you could make a suggestion on where to go based on your findings of what fits for what youre looking for!
    If you can find out ahead of time, you have more time to check up on various places in the area youre going to be at, that way you don't feel rushed to find out menu information.
  • knoelledi
    knoelledi Posts: 91 Member
    Since we've cut out the pop, it's either water or unsweet iced tea as far as drinks go. When we traveled the last time, we ate at Denny's for breakfast but pre-chose our meals. Lunch was a well researched food cart (we shared one meal). We don't have Thai food in our area and this place had a million Thai restaurants. We ate half of our meals and then had the rest the next day. I went over slightly on my sodium.

    When I looked at the lighter menu at Chili's, the steak and broccoli was 1020 in sodium!

    O'Charley's is pretty bad as well with sodium, we did a look on that as well a few weeks back.

    We do have a local chain here that's pretty fancy and I was pretty good regulating the sodium and calories I used to eat a ton of their bread but cut that out sadly.

    It would just be nice to have on hand one or two meals at the big chains we can get without being frustrated. I'll let up some on being the sodium nazi. I am going from eating out 1-2/day to going out once every 1 1/2 weeks or so.

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