| Get With the Program! Basics |
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| The healthiest vegetables are always green. Greens are undoubtedly healthy, but vegetables and fruits in other colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, and purple—all bring different nutrients to the table. You’ll get the most antioxidants, vitamins and minerals if you keep your plate colorful. |
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So much of life these days revolves around eating in restaurants, and there’s no question that eating out can make it harder to lose weight and maintain a healthful diet.
At home you have control over what goes into your meals. In a restaurant, you can also have control, or at least a lot more control than you may think. I want you to seize that control so you can enjoy dining out without undermining your commitment to the Program.
It would be great if every restaurant had a pamphlet revealing the fat and calories in each dish, but that’s a rarity. Mostly, you’ll have to wing it, but I think you’ll do fine if you follow these tips.
 Before You Go Out the Door
• Plan ahead. I have a drawer that’s devoted exclusively to menus from restaurants in my area. Leafing through them helps me think about what I’m really in the mood to eat so I don’t end up going someplace just because it’s convenient and end up having a meal I didn’t really want in the first place. My menu stash also lets me figure out what I’m going to order before I get to the restaurant. That might sound unusual, but planning ahead really allows me to stick to my resolve. I think it’ll help you, too.
• Do your homework before you go on vacation. Just as you plan what you’re going to eat at home, prepare an eating strategy for when you’re away. Look through guidebooks to find restaurants with healthy selections, and if you’ll be staying at a hotel with a concierge, call ahead and ask him or her to fax you a menu at home.
• Don’t let yourself be pressured into dining out when you don’t want to. Instead of meeting friends or business associates for dinner, try a tea parlor or a wine bar. Order just a flavored tea, or a spritzer (wine or juice cut with carbonated water) or some mineral water. Or skip the food altogether: Go to the movies and stop for tea afterwards. Alternately, consider entertaining at home so you can make a healthy meal.
• Eat a little something before you go out. Have a small piece of fruit, some raw vegetables with fat-free dip, or a whole-grain cracker with a little nut butter to take the edge off your hunger. There’s nothing more dangerous than contemplating a menu full of dietary land mines when you’re ravenous!
Once You Get There
• If possible, avoid getting steered to the bar. Ever wonder why, when you show up for your reservation and the restaurant isn’t full, they say your table isn’t ready and ask you to wait at the bar? Restaurants make more money from the sale of alcohol than they make from food, so they want to give you as much opportunity to drink as possible. But alcohol has a lot of calories. If you don’t want to give it up altogether, at least drink it in moderation. If you feel obliged to order something, make it a spritzer, a glass of water or non-sparkling mineral water. Remember, carbonated water doesn’t count toward your daily quota of eight 8-ounce glasses of water.
 • Decline wine and other alcoholic drinks. As soon as you get to the table, your server will undoubtedly come around to take drink orders, and may seem disappointed if you don’t order an alcoholic beverage. Again, don’t be pressured into ordering something that’s not on your program. Lately, a lot of restaurants are also pushing bottled mineral water; yes, they overcharge, but it’s healthy and you’ll be much better off if you opt for a non-sparkling variety instead of alcohol or soda.
• Say no to the bread basket. You think to yourself, “I’ll just have one piece,” but then you can’t resist a second, and when your soup comes and you need something to mop up the last few drops, you have a third. Suddenly you’ve eaten three pieces of bread, and the main course hasn’t even come yet! After that much bread you’ll probably feel pretty full, but you’ll probably end up eating your whole main course anyway (instead of taking half of it home, as you should if you’re full). Make bread a non-issue. Decline the basket altogether, or ask your server to bring you one piece when your entrée comes.
• Bond with your server. To get what you want from the kitchen, it helps to have a good relationship with your server. Make eye contact, explain what you want, ask questions. I frequently request to be in a particular server’s section because I know he or she will be receptive to my requests. It’s this person who’ll be able to make sure the vegetables I ordered are touched with olive oil not soaked in butter, and that my fish is grilled, not pan-fried.
• Don’t be afraid to order OFF the menu. The restaurant has everything you see on the menu—even if it’s not always in the combinations you’d prefer. For instance, if a restaurant serves omelets, it has egg whites. If you prefer an egg-white omelet to whole-egg omelet, order it. If I see spaghetti with olive oil on a menu, I know it has olive oil—so I ask my server if they could grill a chicken breast with olive oil instead of sautéed in butter. Want spinach in your pasta? If it’s served as a side dish, they can toss it with noodles. Better restaurants will accommodate you—they want you to leave happy.
• Split dishes with your dining partner or order creative combinations of appetizers. The portions at most American restaurants are ridiculously large. So do yourself a favor: Much as you may be against it on principle, pay the split charge (if the restaurant has one) and share a meal with someone at your table. You’ll actually save money since you won’t have to pay for two entrées. Sometimes you don’t even need to order an entrée at all; you can have a perfectly wonderful meal just by ordering soup and one or two appetizers. Many finer restaurants will also reduce entrées to appetizer portions if you ask. You may get some flack for ordering lightly, but just ignore it. Order the amount of food that’s right for you.
After Dinner
• If you wish, have a healthful dessert. Opt for frozen yogurt, sorbet or, best of all, fresh fruit. Better yet: Instead of ordering from the dessert menu, suggest going somewhere else. When you order immediately after dinner in a restaurant, you haven’t had the chance to see how your body feels. By the time you drive (or preferably walk) to the next place, you may realize that you’re not even interested in dessert any more.
For more information check out my books Get With the Program! and The Get With the Program! Guide to Good Eating.
The Get With the Program! Guide to Fast Food & Family Restaurants will be out in January, 2004.
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