How to Eat Out, Eat Healthy, and Eat Well

It’s easily one of the biggest battles you’ll face in your efforts to change the way you eat.

“How am I supposed to eat like this when I go out?  I don’t want to just eat plain chicken at a restaurant.  Should I just not go?”

Fortunately, it is absolutely possible to be social and still hold to your goals.  Sure, you can’t throw yourself headlong into a basket of nachos every time you get an invitation to meet somebody for dinner, but you also don’t have to order “plain grilled chicken… no oil, no seasoning, no sauce, no fries, please strip away LITERALLY anything that will bring me pleasure and give me whatever is left.  And an ice water.  Hold the lemon.  I’m on a diet.”

One easy thing to do before you go would be to check out the Healthy Dining Finder online to see if the restaurant you’re visiting has their information available.  Since only larger restaurants are likely to have their nutrition information readily available, you won’t necessarily find every place you’d like to go, but it’s a good first start.

In addition, we recommend that you check out the PN Restaurant Eating Guide from our friends at Precision Nutrition.  Even when you’re not able to be perfect, every restaurant is going to have food on its menu that runs along the spectrum from Worst to Best, and you just want to find things that sit as close to the Best end of the spectrum as you can.  Bad is better than Worst, Better is better than Good… you get the idea.

And remember – even if you can’t find something on the menu that’s prepared specifically the way you’d like, 99 times out of 100, all you have to do is ask.  After all, if they have the food in house, there’s very seldom any reason that they can’t make a special combination just for you.  Just remember to be polite about it… eating well doesn’t require a dramatic performance when it’s time to give your order.