Eating Out

I'm like you. I can't stand eating inside at work, especially competing for the microwave and a spot that doesn't filled with all sorts of different food smells.

I go out once or twice a week, or eat snacks at odd hours or skip. I eat so well in the evening and weekend that my loss can get slow (or delayed).

Snacks = hard boiled eggs, raw nuts, a couple toasts + cheese, etc.

I eat out a LOT. Fortunately a lot of places around here put their calories on the menu, so I can pick something lower calorie, or save half for later.

It's expensive, though.

Find a place to eat out that has something to eat within your calories. I have a few restaurants where I know I can stay on my diet. But..overall..they almost all have hidden calories and eating out stalls my weightloss.

jesiniccole wrote: »

I've been eating out DAILY for lunch., I could make healthier options but I tend not to and say I will " start tomorrow". I just hate eating at work I want to get away! What does everyone else do?

I don't eat out for lunch. Period. I have not done so for at least 12 years. It's far cheaper and healthier too, for me to make my own lunch. Plus I like to work out at lunch so I eat at my desk later, and go to the gym, or walk outside, at lunch.

I ate at a favorite "home style" diner this week. I would usually order a bacon and jalapeno omelette with cheese, home fries and toast. (~ 1,000 calories!)

Instead, I ordered 3 scrambled eggs (no cheese), steamed vegetables, tomato slices, and whole-wheat toast (no butter). (~550 calories!)

When eating out, there are alternatives to ordering the menu items as they are! Just order a simple protein with few healthy sides from the ala carte menu.

Try to find a restaurant that either (a) only has healthy choices that fit into your calorie budget or (b) (more likely) has at least one or two yummy healthy choices that fit into your calorie budget that are foods you like enough to choose anyway.

My go-to "eating out" choice when I don't have a pile of calories available is a local restaurant that makes a from-scratch club sandwich that is very tasty and very easy to deconstruct into a good recipe-builder entry. I choose not to add cheese because, to me, that takes away from the yumminess of the turkey+bacon+tomato combo but YMMV on that. I take out the middle toast and feed it to my 17 month old - who is happy to oblige. Choose either soup of the day or Greek salad, dressing on the side and I'm pretty solidly in the 500 calorie ballpark for the whole meal.

Any restaurant that will lettuce wrap a burger for you may also be a good option (as long as you stay away from creamy dressings and don't pile on the cheese and bacon). I was very skeptical about lettuce replacing the bun, but it's surprisingly tasty. I use it as an excuse to be allowed fries. (200 calories less bread means I can have 200 calories of fries. Yes, I've weighed them at home to check that the kids' serving of fries comes in that low.) But you could just use it as a way to keep the calories down while having a tasty lunch that doesn't feel like "diet food". Let's face it, an ordinary hamburger bun is kind of blah anyway. (If we were talking ciabbata or fresh sourdough, I'd be a lot less willing to trade bun for fries.)

Or you could try more traditional "healthy" options. Just watch out for dressing on salads. Always get it on the side so you can control how much you eat.

I work for a very small company - only three of us in an office (we have a lot of outside sales people in different locations as well). The three of us in the office all sit down and eat lunch together - which is nice. I pack my lunch every day. It's usually Greek yogurt and fruit, or a Morningstar Faux Chicken pattie with water.

I bring my lunch to work and sometimes will take it out to my car if the weather is nice. My husband works just down the road so we always have lunch together on Fridays. I come in early that day so I can have an hour with him (I normally just get the 30 min lunch break).

I never eat out at lunch. I always bring my lunch with me. I can't afford to go out and buy lunch every day plus it is way healthier to pack my own lunch that I weighed out on my food scale and know the exact calories of. I agree with needing to get out though, so my co-worker and I always walk during our actual lunch break and I eat my food at my desk (while working) when we get back from our walk.

I order the same thing at every place I eat at. I don’t even look at the menu. This is what I order.

Grilled chicken, with veggies, no potatoes. No sauce, just salt and pepper.

Every place has this ingredients and keeps me form stressing on what to order and losing the enjoyment of time out with friends and family.

I've been doing this more. Go out and order what you want. Get a to-go box with it, and immediately put half the food in the to-go box. Eat half for lunch at the restaurant. Eat the other half later in the week, or for supper.

Prep my lunches so I don't have the excuse. This morning I made myself make my lunch as I hadn't finished weighing out everything for the week. It's easily to fall into that loop of eating out. Such tasty fats and salts.

i thought this was going in an entirely different direction. oh well.

I generally bring leftovers or I buy the healthy choice steamers when they are on sale and buy like 5-6 of them to stash in the work freezer. And we have a lake in the middle of our office complex so I usually eat lunch at my desk and go for a walk on my breaks.