Weekly Meeting Topic: Eating Out

Now here's a topic I can really dig myself into and talk about!

I loooooooooooooove to eat out! For many reasons but among them are:

1) Not having to cook food (sometimes I'm lazy)
2) Trying new things
3) Eating things I wouldn't normally cook for myself
4) Having a good excuse to have a cocktail with dinner (without having to mix it myself - again, lazy!)

But how to eat out and not gain weight and mess up my maintenance?

There are a few tools that I rely on and use often for an average weeknight or even an average weekend.

Then there are special nights out and occasions where I throw caution to the wind and order what ever I feel like (these are my cheat meals).

I will address each instance separately here...

First, the cheat meals.  This is something I try to do only once or twice a month at most.  These are special occasions only and when I say I order anything - yes, I mean anything.  And that usually includes dessert.  I must insert a caveat here - I am on maintenance! I am not trying to lose any weight and I can afford a calorie splurge once in a while.  I've learned over the years that the occasional indulgence does not make or break my healthy lifestyle.  The key word here being "occasional".

As the title of my blog says, lifetime means your whole life and when you live a whole life time of indulgences, it will catch up with you and you will gain weight.  (Hence my original weight gain in college, and each of my subsequent slip ups over the past 11 years.)

**Just as a side note - if you are going to go for the calorie splurge, make sure what you're eating is DAMN GOOD! Don't waste your calories on something that is not totally delicious and worth it!**

Second, the regular every day sort of eating out situation. This is the sort of situation where I have an arsenal of strategies to keep things in check.  All of them were mentioned at the meeting and many of them you probably already know.

#1 - If you can avoid it, don't go out to eat completely famished. Your eyes will usually become bigger than your stomach and you will probably order something less than healthy.

#2 - Do your research.  Every chain restaurant has a menu online and now days just about every local restaurant has a menu online.  Know what you are going to order before you get there. Don't look at the menu (something else may catch your attention), ignore the specials and order FIRST in your group.  Otherwise you may hear something you like better and by the time the waiter gets around to you, all your healthy resolve will go right out the window.

#3 - Imagine you are sally from "When Harry Met Sally"



And order like her! Ask for what you want and don't let anyone tell you that you are high maintenance!

#4 - Know what healthy/unhealthy words are on a menu (I won't go into that here - you know the drill. Grilled is good, fried is bad, yada, yada, yada) and watch out for salads.  Just 'cause it's served on a bed of lettuce doesn't mean it's good for you!

So that's my take on eating out.

That's what I love about Weight Watchers. It really is a lifestyle. After all, once you lose the weight you still have to live the rest of your lifetime :)