Deft Dieting: How to Stay Healthy Even When Eating Out

There are so many cheap options for eating out these days that we’re venturing out more and more, but at what cost to our wellness? Eating out more often has been linked to obesity, so how do you guard your wellbeing against weight gain while still enjoying being wined and dined?

 

1. Do your research: Most restaurants, at least the chains, will have their menus available to view on their websites, so get in-the-know before you go! Work out the healthy dishes and pick your favourite before you even leave the house – and stick to your decision once you’re in the restaurant. If there are establishments you visit often, collect their menus so that you have them to refer to.

 

2. Choose the right table: While sitting by the window or near a TV in a restaurant can be a fun distraction, this actually causes you to eat more. In all the commotion, it’s easy to lose track of how much you’re eating, and you end up shovelling it in. Whether you’re making a reservation or just walking in, as for a quiet spot so that you can enjoy your food more mindfully.

 

3. Order first: Even if you have the best of intentions, you know you’re going to buckle the minute your friend orders something temptingly decadent. Place your order first before you start doubting your healthy choice.

 

4. Get the details: Menus don’t always include every single detail about every single dish – they’d be 20 pages long if they did! Therefore, it’s important to ask the waiter about these details before you commit. How is the dish prepared and with what ingredients? Can the dish be modified or changed to a low-fat or low-calorie option? What comes with this meal and can you make substitutions? How large are the portions? You can request that the food be made with minimal salt, butter and oil, for two portions of veggies instead of chips, and if a particular dish can be broiled or baked rather than fried. You might have to choose something else, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

 

5. Stop snacking…: The appetiser menu always looks so appealing, but giving in to temptation causes to do real damage to your waistline before the actual meal begins. Not only are appetisers loaded with fat; they also take your appetite away from the healthier main meal to come. Either push the free basket of bread to the other end of the table, or ask the waiter to remove it.

 

6. …Or only snack: While munching before a meal is a big diet no-no, certain appetisers can be excellent choices for an entree. Normally, you’re not hungry enough for anything more than a starter-sized meal anyway, so why bother ordering a big, chunky main meal. If one appetiser is just shy of enough to satisfy you, order a side salad to bulk up the meal – just make sure you don’t order anything fried or covered in cheeses, oils and cream sauces.

 

7. Be savvy with your salad: A salad is often the healthiest thing on the menu, but additional ingredients can turn your salad from your best friend into your worst enemy. Plenty of fresh greens, beans and veggies are good, but limit your use of high-fat dressings or toppings like cheese, eggs, bacon or croutons. The best dressings include vinaigrettes or a generous squeeze of fresh lemon, and you can control how much you use by ordering dressing on the side, and drizzling it on yourself. Alternately, dip in your fork before using it on the leaves, and you’ll have a little dressing with every bite.

Categories: Appetisers, dish, main meal, meal, nbsp, order, order first, salad, salad dressing

Appetiser Alternatives: Sinful Sides and their Divine Rivals

Everyone loves a bit of an appetiser before the big event, but unfortunately you’re often not thinking when you start snacking on a bowl of crisps and dip, and suddenly your diet is out of the window. However, you can still offer fancy appetisers while taking care of your wellbeing, so let’s take a look at the worst snacks for your wellness, as well as a few healthy alternatives that will still impress everyone round the table.

 

1. Onion Blossom: While fried onions displayed in a nice ring certainly looks good, the only thing that will blossom will be your waistline. According to Joan Salge Blake, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, ‘It’s good to start off with a vegetable, but once you fry it, you’re frying in calories.’ Instead, why not try vegetable kebabs? All you need to do is skewer your onions with red and green bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and courgettes. Then, brush the kebabs with a garlic and herb marinade, and grill. Gorgeous and impressive appetisers with only 40 calories per kebab – what’s not to love?

 

2. Cheesy Chips: This is a favourite side dish whether you’re at home or eating out but Blake warns that appetisers like these can ‘take over the meal. Some of them have more calories than the main entrée.’ In fact, such an appetiser can contain up to 2,100 calories, 150g of fat, and a whole day’s worth of sodium (2,300 mg). Rather than wasting all your sinful calories on the side dish, Blake recommends using appetizers to work in healthy foods you might be eating too little of. If you don’t get enough seafood in your diet, seared crab cakes offer an appealing alternative to chips. Even with chilli sauce – which is absolutely divine – a typical crab cake has about 300 calories, 16g of fat, and 800 mg sodium.

 

3. Loaded Potato Skins: Again, with all the fat, salt and calories in this side dish, you can end up doubling the amount you’d eat in your mail meal. Blake cautions, ‘You’re taking a potato and adding saturated fats,’ which makes filled potato skins as fattening as they are tempting. If you can’t resist a potato skin, the trick to enjoying these is to have just one. However, you might be equally tempted by a similar, but healthier, side; stuffed mushrooms. Stuffing mushrooms instead of potato skins helps keep the portion size down, and cuts your calorie count down from 150 to 50 in each. You can still fill them up with cheese and bread crumbs, and even chow down half a dozen without damaging your diet – I’d call that a win.

 

4. Fried calamari: As we’ve covered, seafood is nutritious and including it in an appetiser can be a great way to get more of it in your diet. Although squid is more than qualified as a healthy inclusion in your diet, when you bread it and fry it in oil, you’re drenching it with calories and fat. Without sauce, a typical restaurant portion contains about 900 calories, 54g of fat, and 2,300mg of sodium. Therefore, you’re far better off going for a classic shrimp cocktail. Shrimp cocktail is very low in saturated fat and calories, as well as being a refreshing source of omega-3 fatty acids, which helps to promote healthy circulation. Whether you’re ordering it in a restaurant or making it yourself at home, the best way to keep your shrimp cocktail calorie count low – at 120 calories or so – is to stick to tomato-based sauce.

Categories: appetiser, Appetisers, blake, calorie count, calories, Cheesy Chips, diet, potato, Potato Skins, shrimp cocktail