How to Lose Weight: #5 Know Your Menus
I really don’t believe in fad or temporary diets. I believe it is important to develop an overall health plan that includes eating right, exercising, and living moderately (and if you are overweight, losing weight). I think it is important to not get stuck in a “diet bubble” wherein you can successfully lose weight in an extremely narrow or controlled environment, but can’t make it work outside of this. Basically, I am saying that fad diets and severe restrictions are doable for a short while, but not over the long haul. This is perhaps another post in itself, but I am trying to make the point that if you are trying to be healthy in the long term you need to be able to eat healthy when you eat out, and merely avoiding eating out doesn’t seem to me to be a very practical option. It may work in the short term, but in the long term, it is good to have a plan for eating out, since there are so many opportunities to do so.
First, let me say I don’t eat out a lot for dietary and budgetary reasons. When Jennifer and I visit family, we eat out more, because they pay (they make a lot more than we do). However, as I mentioned above, since it is impossible to avoid eating out, you might as well choose healthy food options when you do eat out.
My best advice from experience: check out a restaurant’s nutritional information before going out; research the menu choices so that you are able make a fully-informed choice. Walk in armed with what you should, and shouldn’t, be eating. Most restaurants post their information online. If a restaurant doesn’t, then use your head. Generally pick items that you would eat at home if you are on a health program, and avoid the foods you would avoid on that same program.
Here is a brief rundown on what I tend to get when I eat out, and what places I usually just avoid. It is just a sampling, but it does illustrate what I mention above: I have done my research. It is easier to avoid a restaurant when you pick up food and bring it home, because you can stop at multiple places depending on what each person in the family wants; if you are eating at a restaurant and your group insists on a bad place and there are no negotiations…just do your best and maybe consider it an “off day.”
- Arby’s – I often like the taste, but usually avoid it for calorie reasons.
- Burger King – I avoid it. I don’t like the food and there are few healthy options
- Captain D’s – I love it. I get the Bourbon Salmon Dinner with fries, green beans, and bread stick, or the baked fish with rice and green beans. The Salmon is expensive though. Avoid the deep fried stuff.
- Chinese Buffet – I love the shrimp dish (with vegetables; not deep fried), sushi, garlic green beans, and vegetable lo-mein. I allow myself a cup of deep-fried General Tso’s Chicken. I try to avoid most of the other deep fried stuff.
- Cici’s Pizza – I like it. The price is great (two people eat for a little over $10.00), but I have to be careful what I get. I try to eat a lot of salad, and avoid the brownies and garlic bread (according to the website, the calories are high for the small portion size). The taco pizza only has 104 calories a slice.
- Coffee Shops – For price and calorie reasons, I avoid the fancy drinks. I usually just get a good, bold, caffeinated coffee, and add some cream and an artificial sweetener. I try to avoid Starbucks because even though I love their coffee I can’t quite stomach their prices.
- KFC – I avoid it. At least they no longer use trans-fats, but it is impossible to make a “light” piece of fried chicken. A four-piece meal could easily have 2000 calories if you get bad sides and a large drink. The salads seem to be good caloriewise.
- Long John Silvers – Last time I ate there, they had one baked fish option and it tasted awful, and the portion was so small it didn’t fill me up at all. If you have one around, Captain D’s is much better.
- McDonald’s – I tend to avoid it, because I don’t like it that well, although I will get the Asian Chicken Salad if I do eat there. However, I do love one item on McDonald’s menu: the vanilla cone, which is cheap, and satisfies my sweet tooth for only 150 calories.
- Subway – I have mixed feelings about Subway. Usually it takes a footlong sub to get me full, and even then I am usually hungry an hour later. For the fairly high price of a footlong sub and a drink, and taking into consideration how poorly it fills me up, I usually avoid Subway. I know that it works for a lot of dieters though, and the fact that the foods are high in vegetables and not deep fried are pluses.
- Taco Bell – I love it. Well, I love a very small percentage of the menu. I usually get 2, half-pound cheesy bean-and-rice burritos for 2 dollars, and only 940 calories. Most dieters would probably be better off sticking to eating only one of these, but since I am very active, I usually get two. So for most dieters, this vegetarian, high-fiber, filling meal costs a grand total of ONE DOLLAR. Sorry for shouting, but I love it, especially the price. The “fresco menu” is light and tastes great too, and the fresco bean burrito is even cheaper (89 cents) and lower in calories than the burrito I just mentioned, but not as tasty.
So what do you usually get? What places do you have to avoid?
Image Taken by Jonathan (notice the mound of northern Ohio snow!)
Captain D’s allows you to order lunch portions of their dinners. This is great for us ladies, since we generally need fewer calories than men.
And don’t forget the old standby of cutting your meal in half, and putting it in a to-go box before you start. The average size of the value meal has likely doubled in the past 30 years, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2003).
News link from 2003.