How to order out and not ruin your nutrition!

I feel like this is one of the most common complaints I hear from people on restrictive nutrition plans.  I can’t eat out.  I don’t have a social life.  I feel so bored with cooking.  Well, what are you waiting for?  Stop hiding indoors and start living your life!  Here are 5 Tips to Menu Navigation!

Don’t Assume – Assuming a salad is the safest way to go.  Normally what you think is a few hundred calories is 1200+ calorie bomb in salad clothing.  It’s not always the best way to go. 

Watch out for dressing and sauces – You can always control the total calorie by reducing size and keeping dressing on the side.  Dressings are one of the fastest way to add 100’s of calories.  2 tbsp ranch is 180 calories.  A carafe of ranch is 600 calories added.  Makes a big difference!

Focus on Protein First – Pick out what protein you want first.  Chicken is going to be a lower calorie and less fat whereas beef and pork will have a higher fat level.  After that you can fill in the blanks.  If you have vegetables or sweet potatoes that’s great.  Sometimes its rice and others.  Just make sure you focus on the protein first.

Don’t add liquid calories – large coke is 310 calories.  With refills over the course of the meal, you can add 620 – 930 calories from sugar.  That with a high calorie meal can blow your numbers out of the water.

Give yourself Grace – Mistakes happen.  Sometimes they aren’t mistakes.  But if anyone tells you that one meal will ruin weeks of proper nutrition, they are lying to you.  You should be able to live your life without that fear.  No grace equals a slippery downward slope of not wanting to follow anything.  We call it the F-its.  We don’t need a case of the F-its.

The key is to have a plan.  If your plan is to eat what you want, skip this article.  But if you want to stay close to plan, these 5 tips will help!