Fat traps when eating out

One of the hardest things we all struggle to do when trying to be super healthy is going out to dinner and making good food choices. We end up thinking we have made a really healthy choice but in fact we haven’t. Restaurants delight us with their menus with descriptive words so we visualize how amazing this meal is going to be, but do you really know what the words on the menu mean?

We all know that the word ‘creamy’ is just something we should not fall victim to but not all the unhealthy words are quite so blatantly obvious.

Crispy – usually deep fried in oil

Crusted – a lot of butter, oil or cheese to make the breadcrumbs stick to

Sizzling – loaded with oil

Rich & gooey – high amounts of fat and sugar

Appetizers are just fat traps. You start to think it’s completely acceptable to order a starter because there are so many of them but you end up eating way more food than you need or would usually eat anyway. Most starters are usually unhealthy anyway. Think spring rolls, garlic bread…

You think you’re being healthy because you choose the tempura vegetables? It says vegetables right so it must be ok? Nope. Tempura anything is just another way to say deep fried. You may as well order deep fried butter because those vegetables have lost all their goodness.

Having some bread with oil as an appetizer is also not the greatest. You’re consuming tablespoons of oil with each dip that being soaked up into the bread. Stick to one bit of bread and drizzle the oil on your plate with some balsamic for a better option.

Main meals can usually be quite good. Think grilled, steamed, baked and roasted for a healthier option and watch for any side dishes that completely cancel out the healthy portion of meat you just chose.

You can order dressings on the side and it’s perfectly acceptable to ask them to change your meals. I often ask for no creamy sauce or ask for vegetables instead of chips. Sometimes you can feel like a bit of weirdo asking for a change in the meal, like they are going to look at you, roll their eyes and think here we go another diet obsessed freak. A good way around this is to tell them you’re celiac if you don’t want wheat or gluten options, or be lactose intolerant so they cut out the creamy sauce. 

Probably one of the hardest parts of the menu to stay away from for me is the dessert section. But this is where the high amounts of fat and sugar are located. Just because the chocolate mud cake comes with some mixed berries on top does not make it a healthy option. If you really want something share it, but only if you want to. Half the calories of the dessert is still a whole lot more than if you didn’t really need it or want it in the first place.