3 Tips for Making a Healthy Choice at a Restaurant

It was my birthday last weekend and I did one of my favorite things… I ate.

I didn’t overeat, but I ate most of the foods I love that I don’t eat on a regular basis (because they wouldn’t be considered the “healthiest”).

I’ll admit it, my birthday was on a Saturday, but I “celebrated” all weekend.

The weekend was over, but I had a lunch date with a friend the next day on Monday.

The temptation to continue indulging was easier than ever, however I knew I had to get back to my healthy eating routine immediately that Monday.

If I let myself go, even just a little at lunch, it could make for a slippery slope the rest of the week.

Thankfully, I have some great strategies that I used and that I teach my clients that help them make good choices when they go out to eat too.

Using these strategies, I was able to feel good about my lunch choice, which ultimately led to me getting back on track this week.

Here are my 3 Tips for Making a Healthy Choice at a Restaurant.

I hope you find them helpful!

Keep this important principle in mind:

You want to make as many decisions as possible ahead of time about what you’re going to eat.

Here’s what I did to prepare for my lunch date:

First, the restaurant I chose has outstanding salads – you know, the kind of salads you actually prefer over the sandwich or burger or pizza.

I was off to a great start – I knew I was getting a salad, which leads me to Tip #1.

TIP #1: Choose a restaurant that has healthy options that YOU LIKE

Next, because I have been to this restaurant many times, I know that they bring you these delicious (but not on my healthy eating plan) “poppers” – which are pretty much these cheesy, doughy muffin-things.

These “poppers” come with your salad in a basket for the table to share.

Here’s the second tip…

TIP #2: Do your research – if it’s not a restaurant you frequent, look up the menu online or use Yelp to know things like this ahead of time –

Does your salad come with a muffin?

Your sandwich with fries?

Your combo with a soda?

So far, for my lunch date, I accomplished:

TIP #1 – I chose a healthy restaurant

As well as TIP #2 – I knew I wanted a salad and I knew it came with “poppers”

Now to the most important tip of all…

TIP #3: Create a “No Matter What” statement (AKA a “Black-and-White Goal”)

Because “poppers” would be a “splurge” for me, I knew I wasn’t going to eat them, so what I did was make that decision before I went.

This is also known as a “black-and-white goal”:

“No matter what, I will only eat a salad.”

This implies that everything else is off the table – whether that’s “poppers,” dessert, etc.

Now, here’s another little tip when creating your “No matter what” statement – create it based on what you WILL do, not on what you won’t.

For example, I could have said:

“No matter what, I will NOT eat any poppers.”

I might as well have said, “No matter what, I will NOT eat any delicious, cheesy, doughy poppers,” and repeated that mantra over and over again in my head.

But guess where that could lead?

To me “convincing” myself that they’re just too delicious for me to resist!

So again, try to make your “No Matter What” statement (AKA your “Black-and-White Goal”) about what you WILL do, not what you are trying to resist.

What would have made it easiest was to just tell the server not to bring the poppers in the first place.

If I were by myself, I would have done this, but maybe my friend wanted some, so I chose not to.

Executing on these 3 Tips helped me get back on track after a weekend of birthday-indulging.

After lunch, I felt good about myself because it’s a great feeling to be in charge of your food choices.

And you can do this too.

Try to incorporate these three tips the next time you go out to eat:

1. Choose a restaurant that has yummy, healthy dishes that you actually like and want to eat.
2. If you don’t know the restaurant already, look up the menu and decide what you’re going to eat (do this when you’re NOT hungry and definitely don’t wait until the server hands you the menu at the restaurant).By the way, it’s rare I don’t know what I’m going to eat before I go to ANY restaurant. The Internet makes this easy. Make this a new practice; you’ll be glad you did!
3. Create a “Black-and-White Goal” (AKA a “No Matter What” statement), and most importantly, STICK TO IT!
   
   Think about how you want to feel about yourself afterward – proud, accomplished, in charge, healthy, etc.

Finally, don’t get me wrong, you don’t always have to make a healthy choice when you’re at a restaurant or anywhere, but when you want to, these strategies work for me and my clients, and I know they will for you the next time you go out too.

It’s Your Turn to Take Care of You,

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