You’re on a roll with your healthy eating and you’re watching the fat loss steadily happen, but tonight… your husband wants to eat out.  When you get to the restaurant you see there are a few options that almost match your plan but you need to make a few modifications…

I’d like the chef salad please, with the oil and vinegar on the side and the apple pie a la mode.  Bus I’d like the pie heated and I don’t want ice cream on top. I want it on the side and I’d like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, no ice cream, just whipped cream but only if it’s…

– Sally, from When Harry Met Sally.

Does this sound familiar?

Ordering like Sally might be funny once or twice. But if you order like that all the time, your friends aren’t going to want to dine with you.  The good news is you don’t have to do it like that. There are ways you can ask for modifications and order healthy foods at a restaurant politely.

Don’t Apologise… But Reserve Your Judgement of Others

So many people come from a place of apology when they’re eating out and they need to modify the menu. They say things like, “On, I’m so sorry! I’m on a special diet. Would it be ok it…”

Don’t do this. Instead, be proud of your healthy living. You’re not on a diet. You’re making healthy choices consistently and if more people did it like you do, healthier options would start showing up on menus!  By asking for healthy modifications you are setting a good example for the people dining with you, showing them a better way – without looking them down or attacking whatever they choose to order.  You don’t have to look down your nose when your friend orders mozzarella sticks – and hopefully you won’t – to set a good example.  No one wants to dine with the food police. But people do pick up on subtle cues and if you can order a healthy modification without making a fuss, maybe they’ll see that they can too?

You’ll be setting a healthy example when at the end of the meal you’re the only diner who isn’t unbuttoning the top button of their pants!

Make Sensible, Delicious Choices

With each meal, you have a caloric budget and you get to choose how you spend that budget.  Would you rather have an amazing appetizer or the chocolate lava dessert? You don’t really get both unless it’s a couple of bites off someone else’s dessert (and if you’re going to do this, you should probably ask permission first!)

Just make sure your planned indulgence is mind-blowingly good. Don’t waste it on something mediocre!

If you’re at an Italian restaurant and the bread is freaking fantastic, have a piece. If not, maybe choose to pass on that.  If the chips and salsa are incredible at the Mexican restaurant, enjoy. If you prefer the flan, great!  Me? I’m spending my calories on the warm ginger cake.

Pro Tip: Look at the menu online in advance so you know what you’re ordering before you get there. If the decision is already made for you, when you get there you’ll be able to simply enjoy your time!

Eat Naked

No, I’m not sending you to the nudist colony for dinner.  Eating “naked” just means getting all your sauces on the side – this way you get to control how many calories you consume from calorie expensive sauces.

On a similar note, if you’re going to drink choose wisely.  Limit cocktails, beer, etc to just 1 or 2.  The more frou-frou the drink, the more calories it likely contains. A pina colada for example could have a few hundred calories – easy.

Screwed It Up Somehow?

Let’s say you messed up. Worst case scenario: you end up drunk, in the back of a taxi with a doggie bag of food from who-knows-where and you were kind of a food ho earlier in the night.  Don’t wait until Monday morning to get back on track.  If it was a wild Saturday night, and you’re not too tipsy to realize what’s happened – dump the junky food and tuck yourself into bed.  Get back on track Sunday morning at breakfast – and forget all about Coyote Ugly from Saturday night.  Beating yourself up won’t change what’s done and won’t help you do better.