How to Stick to Your Diet While Eating Out

Trying to stick to your diet while eating out is like an exercise in temptation. Can you resist the various temptations that will present themselves? The temptations start the moment you walk in the door. The smells of your favorite fat laden foods are wafting through the air. Once seated, the friendly waitress may as well be Satan in disguise as she hands you the menu of doom. With pursed lips, you look over the options before you and feel a little growl from your belly. What can you do?

Relax. Sticking to your diet while eating out isn't as hard as you might think. Are you going to be tempted? Sure… that's why all those pretty pictures of those beautiful artery clogging meals are plastered all over your menu. But you have resolve and after reading this, you will also have a plan.

How to Stick to Your Diet While Eating Out

Investigate the menu before you go out

If you know you are going to be eating out, take a look at the menu ahead of time. Many places have their menus posted online so this shouldn't be difficult. If they don't, look at the menus of similar restaurants. Decide what you want after looking over the menu. Yes, you may face temptation at home while you look, but you won't be immersed in the smells of the meals around you. By planning ahead, you don't even have to think about it or look at the menu when you get there. Just order and enjoy.

Eat before you go

Maybe it sounds strange to eat before you go to a restaurant, but you will be full and won't be so tempted by the meals. Aside from that, it's also a trick used by royalty in the past. Many members of the royal family would eat something healthy before attending a meal so that they would look as if they were so omnipotent they didn't need much to survive. While this might not be your motivation, it can still help you to keep to your diet more effectively. Just make sure you eat something healthy before leaving and not something just as bad as what is on the menus to come.

Try a new healthy dish

It is possible to find a healthy dish at a restaurant, so sticking to your diet while eating out may actually mean learning about some great new diet options. If you want to try something, just ask them to limit the sauces or seasonings. A lot of time healthy foods like salmon are served at restaurants, but they are overcome by sweet sauces that are worse for you than a cheeseburger. You can ask for food without sauces or breading so that you can have a full meal and still not break your diet.

By following these three simple tips you can save a great deal of calories, frustration and stress when you go out to eat. Just keep in mind that you are in control and that no temptation of food can overcome that without your allowing it to. Revel in that control and you will be successful.