5 Tips for eating out
5 Tips for eating out
Here at Three Pillars of Fitness we often have conversations with clients who believe that in order to achieve their health goals they need to give up eating and drinking the things they enjoy. This is far from true, in fact if you insist on eating only chicken and salad, you will most certainly become a socially reclosive, or at best unhappy.
Being able to achieve your health goals in an enjoyable way will mean that you can sustain a good standard of living without compromising on your health. Use the tips below to make sure that you can have the best of both worlds and eat out on occasion.
For help to create a nourishment plan that ensures you improve your health, whilst still enjoying your foods, reach out using the button below.
1. choose before you arrive
You arrive at the restaurant, you meet your Friends and order your drinks. You haven’t seen each other for a while and there’s loads to catch up on. Your Friend arrived 10 minutes before you and has chosen their food. Before you know it the Waiter/ Waitress has arrived and you’re under pressure to order food quickly. This will not be a wise choice and will likely be driven from a purely emotional perspective “just one more treat meal won’t hurt” Will it?
To ensure that you can stay committed to your health goals, download the menu and commit (100%) to your choices, based on nourishment and your fitness goals. If calories are written on the menu it’s also worth using this information to help you make the best choices.
Ohhhh, and the other thing: beware of the bread/ olives or crisps at the table. They’ll fill you up and are salty meaning the one beer that you had planned can easily become three. This is great for the restaurants profits and less good for your health.
2. don't over eat starters
You’re so hungry you could eat a horse (sound familiar?). You missed lunch, to leave work on time (so that you can have a social life). You are REALLY HUNGRY and the starters look amazing! Choose something small and, even better something that you can share -caring is sharing, after all! We often fill up on starters and then can’t eat our main (where we get most of our nutrients). Remember your eyes are bigger than your belly. haha!
3. don't drink your calories
A beer or a glass of wine after a stressful day is no problem, but one quickly becomes three. The average small bottle of beer is 150 calories (wine 215 calories -large glass). It’s Friday evening and unless you’re going to deprive yourself for the rest of the weekend, or feel guilty on Monday morning, make a choice about how much you will drink and stick to it! Compromising on your drink choices allows space for a larger more nutritious meal. Sometimes you are going to need to make decisions the support your future health.
You are eating with a friend, they drink like a fish and are always so generous buying you more drinks. Share your reasoning for your choices, who knows? a good Friend may support you or join you in improving health! If you’d like to read more about the calories and amount of exercise required to work off common drinks click here: https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/understand-your-drinking/unit-calculator
4. swap sides for vegetables
“Would you like fries with that sir?
“No I’d love a portion of salad/ steamed veg!”- How good do you feel?
It’s a sales pitch! You get to choose your side (my Irish blood tells me this is a con- your restaurant owner will tell you it’s “giving the client what they want!”- that’s another blog).
Swapping fries/ bread/ pasta for a salad or plain vegetables is a great way to increase your fibre intake, nutrients (the small nutrients - aka vitamins and minerals) and hydration. It will also mean, less calories and less processed food!
This is a smart move for your lifestyle and will support your workout plans!
5. be aware of your environment
Lastly, this is a big one!
Just because you are eating at a restaurant it doesn’t mean you have to try everything on the menu. Just because you are meeting friends it doesn’t mean you have to lose control. A better way to eating out is that it provides more choice. I bet your local restaurant has far more choice than your freezer (unless you live at Sainsbury’s). Use eating out to try healthier options which you don’t buy in the Supermarket.
Remembering your why:
How will your health support you and your Family in becoming happier? Taking a a few minutes to think about this regularly can be a game changer. Simple things like a picture on your phone can remind you, a note on your desk or a few words you can say to yourself when temptation kicks in will help you to stay on course.
-If you are eating at a Friends or Family members house, make them aware that you are working on your health and ask nicely for a small portion/ plate- doing this before you arrive is acceptable and even advisable. They love you and will want to support your choices.
These are just 5 ways which you can eat out without the guilt and which will help you to gain and retain your results. If you liked this blog, check out my feature on “How to get more motivation”. To work with me personally use the button below to get in contact or give us a call on 07713 328010
Thanks for reading. Andy
PS: Remember I’ve been there!
If you enjoyed this blog click below for my