How to Eat Out and Track Your Food – VIP #7

Elin Granstrand, Writer & Nutritionist from Lotus Health Co I would never tell a client of mine to skip a special event or bail on dinner with friends just so they can stick to a diet. Life is about living and there's no point in doing all this hard work, to be the best version of yourself, if you never go out and show it off. Your calories might not be 100% correct on the day of a planned dinner. If you go to the dinner, your weight might fluctuate for the next few days due to the high sodium intake. All of this is nothing to stress about. The world won't end if you smash a pizza, burger or big bowl of pasta. Everything will go back to normal as soon as you go back to your normal routine. Your body is resilient and bounces back, let it do its thing. The easiest way to fit a restaurant meal (or even fast food) into your daily calorie/macro budget is to plan a day in advance. Look up the menu online the night before, choose what you’re going to have and put it into MyFitnessPal (read: How to use MyFitnessPal). Now, obviously, this won’t be 100% accurate, so I always try to overestimate a little bit, just because you don’t know how it’s been cooked or how much will be on your plate (unless it's a specific fast food item that is generally the same everywhere). Once you’ve done that, you can easily plan your day (or the next few days) around that bigger meal. If you don’t have the option of planning ahead, or don't have the time because the dinner just popped up unexpectedly, just make sure you eat as well as you can leading up to that meal and after it. Aim for plenty of vegetables and lean protein (read: How to improve your health today). If you know you’ll be having lots of carbs for dinner, try to replace your carbs throughout the day with filling vegetables such as broccoli, asparagus and cauliflower. Maybe make a big, nutritious salad (maybe this one) for lunch instead of having your usual wrap or pasta. The worst thing you can do is to write off the whole day just because you know your upcoming dinner will be "bad" (btw you should never use this word to describe food; no food is bad). I've heard horror stories of people eating a lunch consisting of lettuce because they knew they were having a burger and fries at night. Don't do this! One untracked meal won’t ruin your progress, but when that untracked meal turns out to be a lot bigger than you planned because you starved yourself before it, this is what will set you back a bit. For example, planning to have half a pizza but eating the whole thing because you starved yourself before it. Think of it this way: If your car got a flat tire, would you go stick a knife in the remaining three tires? So why would you do the same thing to your body? If you take anything away from this post, it should be to enjoy your meal out and know that it won’t ruin your progress! To sum it up, here are some tips for eating out: When eating out, wherever possible try and stick to things that are easy to track in MyFitnessPal, such as chicken breast, salad, potatoes, eggs, etc. Ask for any dressings or sauces to be served on the side, so you can choose how much you serve yourself. Don’t drink your calories, save them for the meal. Choose water or a 'no sugar' soft drink. Don’t starve yourself if you are planning to eat out. Stick to a plan and eat plenty of nutritious food before and after the meal. Overestimate your food when you put it into MyFitnessPal, just to be sure. Have a GREAT time and make sure you’re enjoying yourself and the food. Elin

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