Restaurant Nutrition Fact: Eating Out Can Be Healthy!
Admittedly, my family eats out A LOT! My husband and I both work full-time, so we enjoy not having to fix meals. Plus, we like the social interaction of eating out with friends. For those of you like me who enjoy eating out but don't want to feel guilty about eating poorly, here are some things I do to make eating out healthier for everyone in the family.
Restaurant Nutrition Fact #1: KNOW WHAT YOU ARE EATING!Restaurant Nutrition Fact #1: KNOW WHAT YOU ARE EATING!After we decide what restaurant we will be going to, I will go and look at the nutritional information online. It helps me to really see the number of calories and fat in items before ordering. If it says something has 1700 calories (which often it does, believe it or not!), then I stay away from that item. I can't trust myself to guess correctly on calories on my own. I have to see the numbers or I will easily order an entire days worth of calories in one meal!
CLICK HERE TO FIND NUTRITION INFORMATION ON YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS WITH DIETFACTS.com! Restaurant Nutrition Fact #2: WATCH PORTION SIZE!Generally, restaurants will give you far more food than what a normal person should be eating. But, because we are used to portion sizes being so large and we are told as children to clean our plates, we tend to eat everything given to us at a restaurant. This can lead to regular overeating and weight gain.My husband and I usually split a meal whenever we go out to eat. Or we save half our meals for lunch the next day. (Ask for the "to go" container to come with your meal, that way you aren't tempted to over eat!)
Couple of other quick ideas for when you are eating out:1. Order water or iced tea (no sugar) instead of juice or soda. You will be amazed at the number of calories you will save! No need to drink extra calories.(It takes approximately 1 mile of running to burn 100 calories. You do the math on how long it will take you to burn off the calories from a coke!)
2. Teach your kids to eat healthy at restaurants too. Instead of ordering fatty foods from the kids menu, order a healthy meal from the adult menu and split it between your children. Or if your child is young enough, split your healthy meal with your child and save yourself some cash!!
3. Personally, fast food restaurants are the hardest places for me to get my daughter to choose healthy foods.But, they are making it easier by offering
healthier choices.
There are even fast food restaurants opening now that offer
organics!
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