Reading time: approx: 8 minutes

LenDentonThrive Letter #14

The Dining-Out Edition

This week is all about eating smarter as you dine out guilt-free!

But first, here’s a quick preview of what’s in the LenDentonThrive Letter #14:

• The Big Idea - Everyone enjoys a nice meal at a good restaurant. In this week’s newsletter, I’ll show how you can dine out without sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

• Tip of the Week - A quick tip or strategy to help you improve your health, fitness, and life.

• News You Can Use - I’ll share two or three useful items from my reading stack for you to check out later.

I’m glad that you’re here! We have a lot to cover in eight minutes or less, so let’s get started!

1. The Big Idea - Eating Smarter While You Dine Out

Everybody likes to eat out, right?

According to a study by QSRMagazine.com, nearly 163 million Americans (64% of adults) eat out at least once weekly. Almost 50% of U.S. adults say that dining out is an essential part of their lifestyle.

And, if you travel for business, you know that eating out is an essential part of every trip.

So, if you’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle or lose weight, you might be asking yourself how you can continue to enjoy restaurants without sabotaging your weight loss.

The good news is - you can do both!

With careful planning, you can eat smarter and enjoy a restaurant meal. Let’s begin by looking at the hazards that you need to be aware of when you eat out.

The Hazards of Dining-Out

One of the reasons that people enjoy restaurant meals is because the professional cooks and chefs at our favorite eateries are probably better cooks than we are. Or, they may have access to better or different ingredients than we do.

Whatever the reason, the food typically tastes better at the restaurant. But, the better taste often comes with a hidden cost that you need to be aware of if you want to eat smarter while eating out.

Here are four dining-out hazards to be aware of:

1. Hidden Sugars and Sodium - One of the reasons that restaurant-prepared meals taste better is because the cooks add liberal amounts of sweeteners and salt to their dishes. People like sweet and salty tastes, and so most restaurant dishes contain much more sugar and sodium than you’d typically serve at home. This is especially true for items such as sauces, dressings, and condiments. But, you’ll also find sugar in surprising places like fresh breads.

2. Desserts - Everyone likes a little sweetness at the end of a nice meal. But most people don’t realize just how calorie-intense some restaurant desserts actually are. Some desserts have so much sugar that they have more calories than the entire meal you’ve just eaten.

3. Beverages - One of the best parts of a restaurant meal can be the bottomless beverages. Every time your drink gets a little low, the server tops it off. But, depending on the beverage you’ve chosen, such as a sugary soft drink, this pleasant custom can add hundreds of calories to your meal. The same goes for alcoholic drinks. Both mixed drinks and craft brews can add 200-500 calories with every round you consume.

4. Serving Sizes - We live in the age of Super-Sizing Everything! This definitely applies to American restaurant serving sizes, which have doubled in recent years. Note: American serving sizes are also 2-3 times larger than servings in most other countries. This is partly due to America’s relatively low cost of food, as well as marketing strategy (bigger servings tend to sell better). This also means that the calories in a restaurant meal have also risen in proportion to serving sizes.

Putting these four factors (hazards) together means that an everyday restaurant meal could potentially contain more calories than a person would need to consume in an entire day. For example, a typical restaurant meal with appetizers, main course, side dishes, dessert, and a few drinks (cocktails or draft beers) could easily total 3,000 to 4,000 calories!

Next, let’s look at the Eat Smarter way to enjoy a delicious restaurant meal without all of those calories.

The Eat Smarter Approach to Dining Out

Eating Smarter is all about making better food choices. Here are six strategies that you can use to enjoy a healthy meal at practically any restaurant…without sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

1. Plan ahead - Planning ahead is one of the best ways to ensure that you’ll have an enjoyable meal. You can check the restaurant’s menu online before arriving so you’ll know your best menu choices in advance. If you can’t find any healthy choices on the menu, you might be able to suggest going to a different restaurant.

2. Avoid Red Zone Foods - Avoid Red Zone Foods in your menu selections. Red Zone foods are those items that tend to spike our blood glucose levels shortly after we eat them. The reason for this is that these foods are made up of simple carbohydrates that our bodies are able to quickly digest and convert to sugars. Our bodies respond to this excess glucose by converting and storing it as fat. For the list of Red Zone foods to avoid, see the Tip-of-The-Week below.

3. Focus on lean meats and good carbs - Choose lean meats like beef, chicken, fish, and lamb. Choose green vegetables roasted or steamed. Fill up on these selections.

4. Share desserts - most desserts have high-calorie content. Share a dessert or “get just a taste” to limit your calories.

5. Order sauces on the side - most restaurant sauces have a high-calorie count. Ask for the sauces to be served “on the side” to control the amount you add to your dish, and to control the calories.

6. Skip high-calorie beverages - Choose light beers or sugar-free drinks over regular soft drinks, sweet teas, or craft brews. Remember that most cocktails have a high-calorie count.

I use these six strategies whenever I visit a restaurant. The more you practice this, the better and easier it becomes. You’ll be able to curate your own list of favorite meals at the various restaurants that you visit regularly. Make this a part of your Eat Smarter tool kit!

Healthy Examples

Applying the six Eat Smarter strategies shown above will help you find a healthy, enjoyable meal in almost any restaurant setting. Here are some examples of Eat Smarter meals from different types of restaurants.

Example 1: Steakhouse:

• Entree’: Lean Ribeye 6-10oz

• Side Dishes: Salad, Roasted veggies, or Baked Sweet Potato

• Dessert: None or shared

• Beverage: Light beer (1-2)

• Things I avoid: bread and regular baked potato

• Comment: Salad dressings on the side

Example 2: Mexican:

• Entree’: Beef or Chicken Fajitas

• Side Dishes: Black refried beans and grilled veggies

• Dessert: None or shared

• Beverage: Light beer (1-2)

• Things I avoid: tortillas and chips

Example 3: Seafood:

• Entree’: Grilled Salmon or Swordfish

• Side Dishes: Salad, roasted veggies

• Dessert: None or shared

• Beverage: Light beer (1-2)

• Things I avoid: Fried fish, French-fried potatoes, hushpuppies (okay, maybe just one!)

Example 4: Italian:

• Entree’: Seafood offering

• Side Dishes: Salad, roasted veggies

• Dessert: None or shared

• Beverage: Sparkling water or a glass of wine

• Things I avoid: Pasta and bread

Example 5: Fast Food (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, etc.)

• Entree’: Entree salad with grilled chicken

• Side Dishes: none

• Dessert: None

• Beverage: Water or tea

• Things I avoid: Burgers, buns, and french fries

Want to Go Deeper?

Do you want to dive deeper into ThriveAge and what it can do in your life? If that sounds like a smart move for you, then consider subscribing to the LenDentonThrive Letter. It’s totally free!

As a bonus, new subscribers will receive a free .pdf version of Chapter 1 of my upcoming new book, The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight, Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life).

ThriveAge is the roadmap to your custom-built ThriveLife!

2. Tip of the Week: Six Red Zone Foods to Keep Off of Your Menu

Finding delicious, calorie-conscious menu selections when dining out can be tricky. The key to finding tasty offerings without busting your waistline is to avoid Red Zone Foods.

Here are the six Red Zone Foods to avoid, and where you’ll most likely find them:

1. Sugar - found in desserts, sauces, dressings, condiments, beverages

2. High-Fructose Corn Syrup - usually found in commercially-prepared desserts, dressings, and condiments.

3. White Flour - found in breads, pastries, pasta, cakes, and creamy sauces.

4. White Rice - found in Asian and Mexican dishes

5. White Potatoes - found in mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and french fries

6. Corn - found in tortilla chips, tortillas, and cornbread

You can read more about Red Zone Foods here.

3. News You Can Use

Here is some “news you can use” from my research:

1. Top-10 Tips for Eating Out - Here are some healthy tips to follow the next time you’re dining out. Thanks to our friends in Canada!

   Reading time: 2:00 minutes

   https://www.unlockfood.ca/en/Articles/Dining-Out/Top-10-tips-for-eating-out.aspx

2. Here’s a great quote from Atomic Habits author, James Clear:

   “Goals are for people who care about winning once.

   Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.”

   Think about how this applies to your efforts to lose weight, get fit, and stay fit for life. Systems for the win!

Follow me on the socials for daily tips and strategies for living your ThriveLife:

I’m Writing A Book!

I’m a busy Over-50 Guy who has spent the past ten years building a practice of personal health and fitness that relies on real food and smart exercise instead of crazy diets and killer workouts. This process, called ThriveAge, helped me to lose 70 pounds and keep it off for going on ten years. Now, I want to share what I have learned with other Over-50 Guys. So, I wrote the book!

In The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight, Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life), I share everything I’ve learned about the principles and practices necessary to create and sustain a healthy lifestyle. I call it my ThriveLife.

New subscribers to the LenDentonThrive Letter will receive Chapter 1 of my new book for free. To get your free copy of Chapter 1, just subscribe to the LenDentonThrive Letter.

Thanks for your time and attention. Have a great weekend. See you next Saturday!

Thrive & Prosper,

Len

Hey, Before You Go…

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See you next Saturday!