Can You Dine Out Regularly and Still Lose Weight?

Do you ever hear those common fitness sayings and roll your eyes and think “well if it were my JOB to look great then sure I would do that”? I can relate and the one saying that I want to address today is…

“The more you cook. The better you look.”

Here are three things wrong with that statement when it comes to efficient, sustainable weight loss for the busy woman.

It assumes that we know WHAT to cook for weight loss and that all we have to do is cook more often.

So many of us have been battling our weight for a long time. We know the calories in nearly every food. However, the weight loss strategies that were heralded as the best way to lose weight are oversimplified. We can cook low calories meals every day and still struggle with sustainable weight loss.

It assumes that there aren’t higher and better uses of our time.

Times have changed a lot. Many of us work outside of the home with very little change in our responsibilities inside of the home. The bottom line is our time is stretched thin. While cooking everyday may be ideal for weight loss, there are many other priorities that demand our time.

It assumes that we don’t have a life that REQUIRES that we eat outside of our homes frequently.

Many of us have regular business dinners and networking lunches. Then there are those that also travel frequently. In those cases, eating a meal that we cooked is not always an option.

It implies that we can’t eat out often AND look fierce too.

This is probably the biggest reason that this statement makes me want to scream. The bottom line is that we DON’T HAVE TO choose. It is totally possible to eat out often and still look and feel fierce.

The sad thing is that I used to buy into this way of thinking. I would abstain from meals at business meetings (surefire way to turn everyone’s attention from your idea to your diet). What’s even worse is I would even encourage my super busy, working, travelling clients to eat from home as soften as they possibly could. But, what ALWAYS happened was…

They couldn’t always eat home cooked meals, felt doomed with weight loss because of it, AND therefore made far worse choices at restaurants because all of the support and tools were based on eating at home.

Here’s what I wish I knew about dining out and weight loss when I started my journey.

Eating for weight loss can happen anywhere.

There is no magic to home cooked meals. When you know what to eat, you can get it from anywhere- even several gas stations.

The key to a Figure Friendly meal is to make sure you have enough fiber (from veggies) and protein.

This single guideline has transformed my eating and the eating of my clients. This one simple guideline makes it easy to identify Figure Friendly meals anywhere.

When you eat your protein and veggies first, you really can eat just enough of the other stuff to feel satisfied and not sabotage your results.

It took me a while to catch on to this strategy but it works very well. If you find that you struggle with stopping at a reasonable portion of rice, potatoes, or other starches, try this. Changing the order in which you eat your foods could be the one change that makes the difference. This way you are almost full and it takes less willpower to stop.

Sauces and oil aren’t ideal but if you stick to the other strategies, a little sauce is really no big deal (#NBD).

When we place too much focus on ordering a meal as clean as possible, we run the risk of not liking it. If you have ever eaten a super healthy meal at a restaurant only to go home and raid the pantry, you know why this matters. In the grand scheme of things, if everything else is right, this won’t matter.

Ordering from the diet menu may save you some calories. But, if you don’t enjoy it, you will just eat more later.

You don’t even need any clarification on this one, do you? How many times have we “been good” at the restaurant only to eat everything in sight an hour later? Too many. That’s why ordering what you like and sticking to the other strategies is a much better long term strategy.

Here’s How This Looks In Real Life

Here’s my meal from Cheesecake Factory last weekend. It is one of my favorites and with just one simple substitution, I was able to keep the taste and save my waist… hold the rice and beans, double broccoli please.

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So, if you are anything like me and you enjoy a few meals out each week, use these strategies to support your weight management and lose the guilt and worry.

If you understand all of this but want an easy go to list to pick from, download my Favorite Figure Friendly Meal Orders. On this list, I share ten of my most frequently ordered meals. You can use my list as a starting point to make your very own or just eat what I would any time you need to dine out.