Dining Out Made Simple
We know that home cooking is the healthiest. For starters, we’re not loading our meals with ingredients that we can’t pronounce and preservatives to make the food last for weeks.
There are times, however, when it’s socially correct to go out and enjoy a meal with family or friends. After all, it’s fun to be waited on and skip the planning, cooking and clean-up.
(By the way, Mr. Non-Compliant is great at doing dishes. Thank you, Mr. NC.)
There are also business lunches and dinners and various celebrations. 
When we dine out, it’s easy to get swept away and lose control with all the goodies that appear on the table before us. While some restaurants inquire as to if you’d like bread, it often shows up uninvited.
And it brings along some very tasty friends: butter, olive oil, cheese, vinegar.
Then there are the cocktails, wine, appetizers, rich creamy soups, homemade pastas, desserts.
Indulging in the “extras” on occasion will probably not send your healthy eating goals out the window.
It’s the excessive number of food-centered meetings and events that tend to pack on the pounds, especially when there are several in one week.
Should you find yourself in this situation, here are some simple guidelines to help keep you from outgrowing your clothes.
Health Coach Carol’s Simple Dining Out Guidelines
- Skip the bread.
- Skip the alcohol.
- Skip the pasta.
- Skip the dessert.
- If steps 1-4 are not possible for you, choose two options out of the four—sort of like “You Pick Two” at Panera Bread.
- Whatever two you choose, make sure they are AMAZING!
When desserts are AMAZING, often a table shares a few options so that everyone can have a sample of each.
Perfect. 
Mr. Non-Compliant is a tough negotiator. Even he can handle choosing two. For example, when the bread is fresh out of the oven, he’s going to enjoy it, slathered with butter.
If he’s at a banquet hall dinner where the dessert is sitting by his place at the beginning of the meal, it’s probably not going to be AMAZING. Same goes for the bread or rolls.
These simple guidelines allow for a delicious dining experience without feeling as though you’ve overindulged.
No calorie counting. No food stressing. No outgrowing your clothes.
Bon appétit!
Much love,
Health Coach Carol
“We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life.”—Julia Child