7 - Effective Strategies To Stay On Your Diet When Dining Out

Is there anything better than finally getting off of a steady diet of junk food and onto a diet that will support and ensure healthy weight-loss? As a matter of fact there is! It would have to be eating out at your favorite restaurant. But is that experience really worth blowing the diet that you have worked so hard to maintain? Maybe it is not, but could there be a way to have your "cake" and eat it too? Is there a way to eat out without waking up the next morning with 5-extra pounds clinging to your hips?

The answer to that question is that there absolutely is a way to do this! You simply have to plan ahead. If you can follow a few simple guidelines before and during your dining experience, then you can emerge from the engagement with your weight and diet intact. In fact grab a pen and paper to take some notes and I will clue you in on how to hold it all together at the restaurant.

The process starts before you leave for the restaurant. While at your house, make a plan as to what you can and cannot eat. If you are not already familiar with the menu, look it up online and plan your dinner choices in advance. Share the details with your dinner partner and be accountable to them at dinner.

The quickest way to sabotage your diet is to go to your favorite restaurant starving or on an empty stomach. Do this and your best plans can go out the window. You will find yourself eating like a horse and ordering the biggest, most caloric dish on the menu. You can prevent this by eating a healthy snack before leaving the house. A small apple or granola bar will easily fill the void and allow you to relax, eat slowly, and totally enjoy the meal.

Once you are at the restaurant load up on vegetables. You can start with a salad. If you must have dressing, ask for a small cup of fat-free dressing on the side. If you dip your salad in the dressing rather than drenching them in a creamy, calorie-rich dressing, your caloric savings will be significant. Next you should be certain that the vegetables that you order with your main course are steamed and not cooked in fat or butter.

With your main course be sure to include a lean, protein source. This could be something like grilled chicken, broiled fish, beans, tofu, or cottage cheese. Avoid fried and greasy foods as well as red meat, both of which are high in fat and calories.

Order what you want and not what you think you should. This is important so that you do not feel deprived during the meal and indulge yourself later to make up for it. If the meal is not in harmony with your diet, then make healthy adjustments so you don't overdo it. An example be to have them broil, not fry, your meat or fish. You could also replace french fries with broccoli or a small portion of rice.

When you are dining out, be careful what you drink. Avoid alcoholic beverages as well as sweetened tea, sodas, or fruity drinks. The best choice would be ice water flavored with lemon. In fact fill up on lots of water. If you must have something else, ask for unsweetened tea with lemon. After dinner avoid coffee with cream and sugar. A hot herbal tea with lemon would be a great substitute.

The final key is to listen to your body. Eat until you start to feel full and then stop. Ask for a to-go box and take the rest of your dinner home with you. In fact more often than not that is the healthiest choice you can make when you realize that your body is more than satisfied. And let me let you in on a little secret. When you push yourself away from the table and pack up the remainder of your dinner, you will enjoy a tremendous sense of personal power and satisfaction that you would never realize eating every morsel of food on your plate.

That concludes the healthy guide to eating out. Hope you took good notes. Get the concepts in your head before you leave for dinner. Relax and enjoy the company at dinner. Make healthy choices and eat slowly. Bon Appetite! Here's to your weight-loss success!

Lindy Diffenbaugh is a Mental Health Therapist and Life Coach by Profession. She has followed the trend of Internet Marketing and the Home Base Business in order to help others move forward and get beyond the perils of the current economic threat in our nation, to a place of personal and economic strength. For more information on how Lindy can help you prosper, even in a down economy, visit, http://www.loseweightlookgreatnow.org.