The Eating Out Nightmare

A scenario common to many of us when trying to keep to a strict diet for body weight maintenance: unavoidable client lunches, meeting friends for brunch, afternoon tea at the Ritz (well sometimes). The restaurant meal can be a difficult obstacle to overcome, try these tips for damage limitation:

Pre & during the meal, drink plenty of water. This makes you feel more full than you actually are & less likely to eat quite so much. If you do drink wine try to drink red instead of white- it has greater calorific value.

Limit your intake of bread especially if it is white and use butter sparingly if at all.

Main course, make a choice of steamed fish or grilled chicken if possible with steamed vegetables. Salad is a good option providing it is not drowned in a rich sauce.

Limit consumption of white pasta & rice as this is absorbed by the body quickly & normally distributed as fat. However if pasta is your choice, reduce the portion size you eat- roughly the size of a large orange. Difficult to find but if brown pasta or rice is on the menu try it out.

Dessert, high refined sugar chocolate, creamy & pastry dishes will do our cause much damage. Try fruit based deserts, sorbets are also a good option.

A good tip is to be considerate of portion size- smaller is simply better, it creates less physiological digestive stress and makes diet & weight control much easier.

Take longer to chew food and a greater length of time between courses, there is a rough 20min delay from food consumption to neural satiety - in other words you will not feel the effect of eating for 1/4 hour after the food passes your mouth.