Oh NO!

why worry about it... go out, eat and have a nice time

Olive garden has a nice under 600 Calorie menu. I personally like the lasagna primavera with grilled chicken (470 Calories) with the minestrone soup (110 calories per bowl).

cushman5279 wrote: »

Going out for dinner with my dad tonight and he wants to go to the dreaded Olive Garden where everything on their menu is over 700 calories! I am good at asking for substitutions e.g., no dressing on my salad so I can get vinegar on the side, double the veggie in place of the starch, lean meat not covered with cheese, etc. But out of all the places we could go to that place is hard when it comes to getting the healthiest options available! I'm running a deficit right now, worked out and already had lunch so I have the room in my day, but still... ugh!!!!!

... I don't understand the problem. If you have room in your day, what's the issue?

LOL olive garden? Man, one of my first meals out was Cheesecake Factory. You can do it!

cushman5279 wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I know I can do it and I know I can give myself a break and enjoy, eat what I want and still lose or maintain. It's just that I've been participating in a fitness challenge and I've been doing so good I don't want to derail myself. Although, honestly sometimes when I eat more I lose more.

I've found that too, sometimes I lose when I'm sure I've gained

girlviernes wrote: »

LOL olive garden? Man, one of my first meals out was Cheesecake Factory. You can do it!

Me too! Talk about stress!!!

Just remember that if you stay in your calories (or don't go over very much) but see a jump in your weight, it's probably from the sodium. Restaurant food is loaded with it! Drink lots of water with your meal and a little extra for the next few days.

Olive Garden has some lower calorie choices as others have mentioned. If you're worried, eat half of the meal and take the rest home for another day. My mom always asks for a box when the food is served and she boxes half up before she even starts eating.

http://media.olivegarden.com/en_us/pdf/olive_garden_nutrition.pdf

The above link is the nutritional value of everything served at olive garden. If you do your homework before you go, you will find a nice variety of things that are lower in calories. Don't know where you got the "everything is over 700 calories" mentality, but you are incorrect.

I ALWAYS check out nutritional values at restaurants before going out to eat and I know ahead of time what I am going to have. If the restaurant doesn't have anything posted online, I don't go there. I find somewhere that I can go and enjoy myself without feeling guilty for "splurging".

segacs wrote: »

You know it's also okay to order something and not clean your plate, right? If your meal is 1000 calories and you have 500 in your day, just eat half of it! Take the rest home, or share it with someone. What's the big deal?

Yep, no clean plate club when you go out.

I actually just went to Olive Garden last night for the first time cause some friends invited us out haha.

They had a section of the menu that was like under 550 calories or something like that. It's actually got a decent amount of options on it. Personally I just went ahead and shared the tour of Italy with my husband and didn't worry too much about it. I'm just putting in some extra exercise and better eating today.

I say just go enjoy yourself

You have room in your day as you've already stated, so it's not an issue at all. You're having dinner with your Dad, enjoy that time with him.

surely they have at least a soup that's not too bad. Good luck !

adge1475 wrote: »

I go there pretty often, actually (seriously, once a week, it's my sister-in-law's favorite place), and I usually get the grilled chicken with a side of asparagus. No harm, no foul, move on.

Actually there was fowl!
*ba-dum-ching!*

Sorry, I had to!

meltedsno wrote: »

I ALWAYS check out nutritional values at restaurants before going out to eat and I know ahead of time what I am going to have. If the restaurant doesn't have anything posted online, I don't go there. I find somewhere that I can go and enjoy myself without feeling guilty for "splurging".

That's depressing. It's pretty much only chains that post nutritional info online and if I was limited to the likes of Applebees & 99 for the rest of my life, I'd be a hermit.

603reader wrote: »

That's depressing. It's pretty much only chains that post nutritional info online and if I was limited to the likes of Applebees & 99 for the rest of my life, I'd be a hermit.

Agreed. Though we don't have those here and our local chains don't tend to post nutritional info either. Pretty much the only places that do are the American chains like McDonald's or KFC, which I haven't eaten in at least a decade and would be more than happy to never eat at again.

I think legislation is stricter in the USA and many states require restaurants to publish this info. But in the rest of the world, they trust our ability to look at a plate of food and not eat too much of it. (Also, portion sizes outside the US are much smaller in general.)