Navigating The Restaurant Minefield

Often times, Body & Soul members and personal training clients find it challenging to eat at restaurants if they are trying to drop body fat. Although in many cases it's just easier (and better for your wallet and body) to avoid eating out regularly, sometimes it's unavoidable.

Here are some tips from Craig Ballantyne about not blowing your entire day's calorie allotment on one meal.


The 1000 Calorie Diet Tip
by Craig Ballantyne

If you eat at restaurants, it's easy to eat over 1500 or 2000 calories per meal. Yikes! That's a full day's worth of calories in one dinner...

Pre-dinner bread & butter -> 200 calories
Pre-dinner cocktail -> 150 calories

Appetizer -> This could be a 500-1500 calorie bomb on it's own!

(Mickey's note: if you read my What the Restaurant Industry Doesn't Want You To Know post from 8-4-08, you know that some restaurant appetizers are even higher than that. Anyway, back to Craig.)

Steak -> 300-500 calories
Potato -> 150-300 calories
Vegetable -> 100 calories
Dinner Drink -> 150 calories

Dessert - 300-750 calories
After Dinner Drink - 150

And that's only if you CONTROL yourself. If you go on a rampage, you could be looking at 2500 or even 3000 calories in one sitting. Those numbers are scary.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid this dietary nightmare while dining out. Here are 5 rules to cut 1000 calories from your dining-out diet...

1) Plan ahead and avoid restaurants that offer huge portions.

2) Skip the bread. It won't stop you from eating your full meal anyways, so just send it back.

3) No booze or liquid calories of any type.

4) No potatoes. Stick to your protein and your vegetables.

5) Reward yourself with only the tiniest bit of dessert, if at all.

It's all about taking responsibility for your choices. And yes, choosing between the "Pain of discipline or pain of regret". What's your choice?

For more diet and exercise tips, visit:

=> Turbulence Training


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If you need any more info, just send me an email!

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com