Can you Eat out and Still Maintain Your Weight?

I am floored by how astonished people are when I tell them that I sometimes eat out three or four times a week! With business meetings, that lunch out (because your sleep the night before was more important to get to then making your lunch), or just plain being human and having a social life, sometimes, it will add up!

It actually happened this week. So I thought I’d share with you how you can still eat out five times (count ‘em, five times) in a week and be O.K. with it.

People sometimes associate eating out with making poor choices. Right then and there, you are manifesting a negative turnout. Take a look at that sentence again – “People sometimes associate eating out with making poor choices.”  The key word here is “choices”. We know that restaurants and grocery stores need to cater to human demands in order to stay in business. We see more “health-nut” restaurants pop up, or fads appear through the street windows, and I don’t think it will stop any time soon. However, we need to look at how these people are marketing their products to make sure they are not leaving you powerless (completely different blog post on all of that). You have power in the choices you make and by seeing this first, you will become better at making the best choices for your health on a daily basis that won’t leave you with a “fearful” outcome.

You can go to the healthiest restaurant and think you’re making the best choices, but deep down, they’ve hidden a little something-something SOMEWHERE. So be mindful of those heavy cream sauces, the salad dressings, the “multi-grain”, or rather gluten-free options, and that “no-sugar added” dessert. To boot, the sodium in most places is much higher than what you may add at home, so just a forewarning.

So how did I do it? Well, here was my strategy!

Tuesday night was dinner with a dear friend at Eden Trattoria, which was planned about 2 months ago! A while ago I ate at this restaurant with another friend and she ordered the Basa with vegetables and potatoes. It has now become my go-to at this lovely Italian-style eatery. I find there to be a little extra seasoning on the fish, (salty), so I kindly ask the server to go light on the seasoning. With a half plate of veg and probably three-quarters of a cup of potatoes on the plate, it was the perfect meal. Satisfying and delicious. The bread basket did come out in the beginning, and I had one slice WITH my meal – key here, with. If you go to town on bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar before your meal even comes, you may want more and have a harder time gauging when you are feeling full when your meal comes. It’s protein in a meal that helps to do that, and bread doesn’t often have much of that!

Wednesday night was more of an impromptu dinner on the flip side of the city, in Port Credit at The Shore – Grill and Grotto. I’d never been, so wanted to check it out. A full menu of choices, some heavier and some lighter, and in the end chose I fish again – a Red Snapper in Cajun seasonings. The dinner came with lemon-infused potatoes and vegetables – fully complete. The description on the menu (read this people!!) indicated a sour cream dill sauce which I knew would go lovely, but I wanted to enjoy the Cajun flavours more, so I asked for it on the side. You go out to a restaurant to be served. A day off from the kitchen – don’t be scared to ask questions and inquire about substitutions. Sometimes they can’t be made, but you’ll never know until you ask.

Friday came along to a long overdue work meeting at lunchtime.  As I set myself to order, I was truly craving a salad. Crunchy greens, so I hit the Bier Market up for their “Vitagreens” salad with chicken and dressing on the side, because it’s good, but creamier, and I find it’s always too much. AND I had sweet potato fries too (shared). I wanted something starchy so I made the complex carbohydrate choice. It was a busy day and I was on my feet for the rest of it, and felt fueled until I had to prep dinner at home. If you follow me on IG, that’s when I made the zucchini noodles with pesto, shrimp, and baby scallops! A great dinner made at home!

Then came Saturday – an adventure was scheduled in the books with a trail hike with special family! After one quick hike, an ice cream was in order! And then after the 5+ Km hike we made our way to Spirit Tree Cidery for the loveliest thin crust pizza. I honestly felt like I was in Italy! It was such a great dinner, while we overlooked a wonderful apple farm! Eat to fuel (or in this case re-fuel) and satisfaction as opposed to feeling stuffed like a Thanksgiving Turkey!

And then finally Sunday! Another planned good-bye/birthday celebration with family that I was not going to miss. This one had us out for brunch at Cora’s – breakfast foods. They’re all great for you right?! Well, not always, so choose wisely! I personally was coming off of teaching one-and-a-half hours at the gym too, so this was actually my lunch, and boy did I enjoy it! I hear time and time from clients who feel great and energized throughout the week when their “diet” is great, and then Monday hits and they feel sluggish. When we talk about food eaten on the weekend, it most often involves eating out twice or thrice with some not-so-great choices and possibly a skipped meal or two somewhere too. Well, food is energy remember! So how you fuel your weekend will determine what your Monday is all about. An egg-white omolette with veggies, rye bread and potatoes did just the trick….and half of a cannoli to celebrate the birthday girl too. To be honest, that cannoli was sooooo great, but I was full at that point, so my better half did a good job polishing it off!

Why am I telling all of you this? Well, because life is about living. Eating out will not go away but there are choices each and every one of us can make. No you can’t always get healthy (or “better-for-you”) options at all restaurants, but you can always ask to have a meal done up your way to please your palate. At the end of the day it’s about the choices you want to make. So here’s your cheat sheet!

• Choices – what choice are you going to make for a balanced meal. If you’re hesitant about a menu, check it out online before you head there. If you’re going out with friends and trying hard to maintain balanced meals, ask if you can choose the restaurant and go where you’re comfortable with, OR tap into that intuition and feed your body what it is asking for.
• Eating slowly! Remember it’s a social thing. Enjoy the company you’re with and put your fork down in between bites!
• Drink water – even if you’re enjoying a glass of wine! Always ask for that glass of water to ensure you’re staying hydrated and not solely filling up on wine, beer or cocktails
• If you arrive and are quite famished, and decide to include an appetizer, try to choose one with protein in it! This will help set your satiety gauge, and if you can’t finish your meal when it comes, perfect — lunch the next day! Carbohydrates are needed, don’t get me wrong, but don’t fill our satiety gauge as well and if they’re the processed type, could leave you wanting more.
• It’s O.K. to leave some food on the plate, or ask for a take-out container
• It’s O.K. to ask the waiter to not bring the bread basket out
• Eat balanced throughout the day! Don’t skip because you know you’re eating out. It may result in you eating more. If lunch is at 12 and dinner reso’s not until 7:30 – get a snack in there around 4:00 with protein and fibre!
• Eating out is not a “Cheat day”! When you use it, you automatically manifest a “cheat”, which by definition to Merriam-Webster means “to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud; to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice; to break a rule or law usually to gain an advantage at something; to take something from (someone) by lying or breaking a rule”. A night out is a date night, social evening, celebration. Try to look at it that way!

So, how are you going to bring a new perspective towards eating out? Often when we deprive ourselves of something or tell ourselves we cannot have something, we want it more. Do you have food rules? Are they making it harder to live your life? Or do you feel when you eat a cookie it goes right to your hips? Manifest it and it becomes….but appreciate the relationship with food and what it does for our body, heart and soul, and you will create that relationship that each and every one of us deserves.

For myself, I do workout most days. Whether training or teaching, it’s a part of me, and I do it because I feel great and I love it! I call it my medicine too. The relationship I used to have with food and fitness did not used to be healthy when I was struggling with an eating disorder – I will be the first one to be honest about that. But now it improves my mental health. I feel strong and able and when I fuel with best choices for my body and the activity that comes along, I can go longer and stronger. Making that connection has been a journey, but I am thankful for the roadblocks and stumbles that helped me get to this point.

Food is energy – so yes, differences will arise for breakfast, lunch or dinner and how your intake should look like, and also what your activity or workouts look like and the time of day they’re at! It’s about your personal goals too, and not being too hard on yourself. We are aiming to improve your life and energy. When I started writing this piece, I watched a video from a dietitian colleague, Casey Berglund with Worthy and Well, and It really resonated with the thought I was putting into this piece. When I told Casey about the post I was writing, asked her if I could include it for all of you – so here it is!

Enjoy and Keep Living!