Eating out this weekend?
Day 6 and the weekend is in full swing!! How are YOU doing with clean eating? Which by the way, can prove to be even more challenging on the weekends!! Social gatherings, weekends out-of-town, girls night out, football playoffs, dinner with friends – all of these can throw you off track; BUT, they don’t have to.
Keep in mind that this challenge for the 21 day period is just that; a CHALLENGE!! It’s not supposed to be easy; it is supposed to make you aware. When I have not committed myself to a challenge like this, I aim to eat clean 6 days a week and when I do, I feel fantastic!! Set your own goals and take note of what you will change in your daily life after day 21.
I have received several questions about eating out; which tends to be a vast obstacle and concern for most of us. On average, Americans eat out 5 times a week. Restaurant meals are usually twice the amount of calories and fat (if not more) than that of a meal cooked at home; and for the most part you truly do not know everything that is in your food.
Let’s look at it this way: say you decide to take the family out for pizza at Brixx (comparable to a California Pizza Kitchen in other parts of the country). You choose to order a salad because you are trying to make healthy choices; so you peruse the menu and decide on the Brixx salad with roasted chicken. Score! How bad can salad and chicken be? But not so fast……. without even thinking about it, you just consumed 840 calories and 51g of fat!!! At home, you could easily make a comparable salad of 350-400 calories.
This is one reason why I limit myself and in truth only eat out at 2-3 restaurants. At those restaurants I usually order the same 2-3 items. I want to know what I am eating, so I ask A LOT of questions; and you know what?? None of our waiters ever seem to mind! Frankly, often times as a waiter approaches our table I will give them “the warning,” that goes something like this; “ok, so I have a lot of questions – please bare with me…….” By asking the question, I know what goes in to the food I am about to eat (or not eat depending on the waiter’s answer), how it is prepared and even where it comes from. Good restaurants do not mind giving you options for organic, gluten-free, vegetarian, less oil, dressing on the side, no sauce, etc if they have them available.
I usually eat out AT THE MOST once a week. However, this week I ate out Wednesday and Friday night 🙂 ON Wednesday, Jay and I went to Eez (I realize this is so NOT surprising for our family and friends who know us). I ordered the vegetable & scallop stir fry w/ brown rice, light oil, and yellow curry sauce (1/2 the sauce and gluten & soy free). Last night when I was out with the girls, I ordered the grilled trout, kale salad and red wine. Yes, I ordered wine; and after a crazy busy day and 1.5 hours of Zumba, my body appreciated it! Both meals were absolutely delicious!!
Inevitably, we are all going to eat out. The key is to ask questions, limit the amount of times we eat out, be aware of portion sizes, and ask more questions!
Thanks to my friend and fellow challenger Angela who shared this fabulous picture with me this week! Have a fantastic rest of the weekend! Keep the questions coming – I love receiving them! 