Tag Archives: Weight Watchers

8 Easy Steps to Eating Smart when Eating out!



This is one of my all time favorite topics. I leave and breathe eating out – and I watch my weight like a hawk. I went with Weight Watchers in Feb 2002 – lost 30 pounds by June 2002 – and have kept it off for over 11 years now. Clearly – I’m pretty pound of that accomplishment. I weigh what I weighed in High School. Rocking Grannie!

BUT – there’s a price to pay in staying slim and eating out more nights than I eat in – and I call it the menu game. And like all games, there are rules.

Step 1: Before sitting down – Choose your price point and be sure that the restaurant offers options that will work. For example – if you are thinking of spending about $20 per person – the average price for the entries on the menu should be $10 to $15. The wine, the dessert, the tip and taxes will bounce a $10 entry up to $20 in a blink of the eye.

Step 2: Choose your cuisine – A study by the folks at Tufts School of Nutrition has determined that there are ‘better’ cuisines and ‘worse’ cuisines from an average calorie point of view. Not surprisingly, Vietnamese and Japanese have the lowest average calories when their most popular dishes were analyzed, while Italian, American and Chinese have the highest average calorie counts. (Check out the exact numbers in the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine by Susan Roberts, Director of the HNRCA Energy Metabolism Laboratory. Susan Roberts also is the author of “The “i” Diet” (www.myidiet.com))

Step 3: Try not to arrive famished. This is so hard to avoid, and so critical to keeping control over how much you eat. The other day I ended up devouring almost 1/2 of a delicious milk shake because I was just too hungry when I walked in to remember to ask for water.

Step 4: Always ask for water first – and always drink it before ordering. Then you can focus on what you are ordering, and not ‘shop hungry’.

Step 5: Plan ahead – and either order a small portion – or try to put 1/2 away before you start eating. Restaurants, particularly smaller ones at lower price points, serve way too much food. In fact, those crazy folks at the Tufts Nutrition School cited above studied calorie counts and determined that average meals in 33 randomly selected smaller restaurants in the Boston area ended up weighing in at an astounding 1,327 calories per meal – that’s about twice a normal meal, and more calories than I normal consume in a day. More distressing – fully 73% of the meals they analyzed in their study contained more than 1/2 the daily recommended calories per day for an adult. No wonder we get fat eating out. So plan on take out – every time you eat out. In fact 12 of the 157 meals analyzed actually contained more than 2000 calories – the calories recommended for an entire day

Step 5: Be a fussy eater! Ask for all sauces and all salad dressings to be served ‘on the side’. That way you can control how much of the most fattening things get in your stomach!

Step 6: Don’t order what you really shouldn’t eat. If you don’t order the french fries – you won’t be tempted. Don’t ruin fish (something you should try to eat at least twice a week) by getting it fried, and if you order steak – order the small portion.

Step 7: Put your fork down between bites. This works for any meal – home cooked, or eaten out. Study after study has shown that it takes time for your tummy to register ‘full’, and it’s easy to eat so fast that you go past that point. In fact – this is why I love tasting menus. The time delay between the courses gives my body time to decide how hungry I still am.

Step 8: Carry food with you – and eat it when you get hungry! I always have a small resealable container of almonds with me. They are the perfect snack – not terribly high in calories, take effort to eat (if it goes down fast – it didn’t count is false!)

Well there you have it – 8 easy steps to eating Smart when eating Out.

8 ways to Get Skinny – by eating Eat Out!


OK – I agree – that seems impossible. But you can do it if you really really want to. How do I know – well I  managed to lose 30 pounds in 6 months following Weight Watchers with complete devotion – and I eat out almost every single night. That was in 2002 – so not only did I lose the weight – I’ve kept it off for 11 years – visiting my local Weight Watcher’s every single month. But this isn’t about Weight Watchers – it’s about my tricks of the trade, so to speak, and these I gladly share.

1) Plan, Plan, Plan. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to get a look at a menu – if you’re searching the internet you can find the menu’s for most restaurants on-line. And even if they don’t help you out by offering clearly labeled low-fat/low-calorie options – the safe bet is to go for Fish and Salad avoiding like the plague any sauces or sweet dessert. Just make sure there is a fish option (preferably grilled – not fried and  not baked) before you agree to go.

2) Have a No-No list. My No-No’s (I love this stuff – so saying no is hard) – Anything fried, Anything breaded, Any salad dressing, No mixed drinks (super fattening), No sodas except straight up soda water. One glass of wine preferably with seltzer water – tops. Notice what is not on my no-no list. I can have a bite of dessert, I can enjoy baked potatoes, and I love beef.

3) Have a Yes-Yes list and put Vegetables on the top. Veggies are always a better idea than potatoes, bread or rice, and most restaurants will cheerfully double up the veggies instead of putting on the potatoes. Your diet is bound to be better with more veggies – and your waist will thank you too. Other Yes-Yes foods – plain baked potatoes with Mustard, Salads with no salad dressing, Grilled fish, quesadilla, lasagna, edamame at Japanese restaurants. Butter is neither a Yes-Yes, nor a No-No. But Mustard is a lot better – and definitely on the Yes-Yes list.

4) Drink Water or Tea – Lots and lots of water and tea. Why? It keeps your hands busy (and out of the bread basket), and it tells your body that water is plentiful. That’s critical to weight loss because if your body decides that water isn’t going to be easy to get – your body will hold on to water like mad. You’ll get bloated, and weigh more. So drink up – as long as there’s no sugar involved of course.

5) Leave food on your plate. The more the merrier. Clearing a plate is definitely not for losers! And one bite is all you need to feel you’ve tried the dish. All bites afterwards aren’t totally necessary. A similar idea I read elsewhere – ask for that carry out container as soon as you sit down, and put 1/2 your meal in it before you start to eat. Out of sight – Out of mind. Plus less cooking for tomorrow. (I actually can’t do this – it feels gross. So I take a knife and drawn line down the middle. Then I try not to eat past the line.)

6) Don’t go out hungry. Really bad idea. You can’t stop eating if you are starving – so it’s a lot easier to have a low-calorie snack before you leave for dinner. Cuts down on how much you will order, how much you will eat – and how much you will pay. Good idea no matter what. My preferred snack – low-fat microwave popcorn at 3:30. Works like a charm.

7) Turn back the bread basket. One of the handy things about eating out in Europe is that they charge you for the bread – so it’s quite clear that not having the bread unless it is seriously special is a waist and pocket friendly idea. Here in North America we love our bread baskets – and it shows. So just say No!

8) Pick at dessert. You really don’t need or want that whole piece of whatever – so take one bite and STOP. My husband jokes that often my dessert is an extra fork. I love just getting one taste of his dessert – I feel privileged, and I cut the calories. If you are lucky and eating out with a friend who isn’t as controlled about their food – they will eat the rest. If not – try ordering a ‘finish’ that is lower in fat and calories – fruit cups are great for example. But I’d rather get a single Biscotti and a low fat cappuccino. Half the Biscotti can come home for Breakfast – and I have a very special ‘finish’ to my delicious dinner.

Just remember – Nothing tastes as good as Skinny and Energetic Feels.