1. Pick or choose grilled protein with salad. Most restaurants have something that is grilled and the sides can be replaced with a garden salad. Avoid all fried food, bread products, pasta, or sugary desserts when eating out at major chain restaurants.
2. Ask for dressing on the side for your salad. Most commercial restaurants wreck your diet or calorie intake. Often the dressings are full of High Fructose Corn Syrup and other sugars that will spike your insulin and leave you craving carbohydrates for the rest of the day. Having your dressing on the side will reduce the portion that you use and you don't have to use the entire thing. Ranch surprisingly enough though high in fat is the lowest dressing in sugar. I actually use olive oil and vinegar for my salads at home. if out I will try and order just plain vinegar for my salads, losing all the calories and fat.
3. Savor your first few bites. Nothing is going to taste as good as the first few bites, so slow down. Enjoy them and put your fork down between bites. The goal is to eat slowly enough for your stomach to realize you are getting food so it will tell your brain that you are full.
4. Leave food on the plate no matter what. Even if it's just a bite of everything but practice this self control technique. I know you've heard to clean your plate but that's just a crazy statement to make in a country that is two thirds overweight. Don't clean your plate. Reduce the amount of food you eat.
5. Take home enough food for another meal. Order a "to go" box half way through your meal and put half of your meal in the box even while you're still eating. This will make it easier to reduce your portions.
6. Order an after meal coffee or tea drink. If your dinner companions order dessert and you feel uncomfortable getting nothing, then order a coffee or hot tea unless of course the restaurant has a fruit plate which in unlikely. Coffee and tea can be zero calories if they are consumed in their pure state. If you need to doctor them up than milk is better then cream and stevia is better than sugar. Honey is always a good substitute for sugar because of the minerals and nutrients in the honey. Local honey is best but not always available.
7. Treat and tip your server well. Waiting tables is a difficult job and people's livelihood is in the tip you leave behind. Show generosity and kindness and generosity and kindness will come back to you. If you are wondering how this will effect your weight: people who like themselves don't sabotage their own weight loss plans. When you treat others well, you will in turn treat yourself well and more than likely to stick to a plan that will bring your huge health benefits in life.
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