6 Quick Tips to Keep Your Diet in Check While Eating Out

1. Get your dressing on the side
Most dressings are high in fat, sugar, and salt for very little servings sizes (think size of a ping pong ball). Get more bang for your buck with dressings that are great in flavor and have a better nutritional profile such as hummus, hot sauce, soy sauce, or balsamic vinegar. Always ask for dressing to be on the side, you are more likely to use less of it.

2. More vegetables
Vegetables fill you up due to their high fiber and high water content. The body cannot digest fiber and so it takes longer for high fiber foods to pass through your system, thus keeping you fuller longer while at the same time causing your body to absorb fewer calories. Fiber also keeps your cholesterol  in check by binding to cholesterol and literally expelling it from your body with each trip to the bathroom.

3. Ask for the bread or bun to be non-toasted.
Toasted means buttered, in most cases. The majority of restaurants will default to toasting your bread while also adding butter, resulting in more calories and fat added to your meal without you even realizing it.

4. Go open face on your sandwich 
You will not miss the top piece of bread from your sandwich. Most breads from restaurants are low in fiber, high in empty carbs and won’t do anything to help you stay full. Instead, pile on the protein and vegetables, these will fill you up more than an empty calorie extra piece of bread will.

5. Poach the eggs. 
Poached means eggs are cooked in water without anything else added to them. Rest assured your poached eggs will not have vegetable oils added them.

6. If you go omelet, ask how it's made.
Make sure to ask how the omelets are made. Restaurants may other inflammatories such as milk that may be problematic for you. And of course always add vegetables!

​Sarah-Kate Rems, NP
Co-founder, The Mindful Tech Lab - Check out all of our amazing apps to help improve your life here