It’s Thursday, but I’m still thinking about a ridiculous experience I had at a restaurant last weekend.  We were at a new trendy – but casual – neighborhood place for dinner. I scanned the salad offerings – dismissing the vinaigrette-dressed roasted beets (not my favorite) and the “southwest” (loaded with refried beans and cheese) – and zeroed in on the mixed baby greens with creamy buttermilk dressing.  I asked my server (“Mike, I’m happy to be taking care of you tonight”) if I could please have the mixed baby greens with the vinaigrette instead of the buttermilk dressing.  “I’ll need to check with the chef,” he told me. “Our menu clearly states, ‘no modifications’.”  Huh?  After a few minutes he came back – with attitude.  “The chef said he’ll make an exception.” Looking down his nose at me, I half expected him to add, “… just this once.”

Now let’s be clear. I wasn’t asking for something not on the menu.  And I wasn’t messing with what could possibly be thought of as a ‘signature dish’.  And, I was pretty sure the greens hadn’t been tossed in buttermilk dressing ahead of time – no restaurant would do that unless they wanted to serve a soggy mess.  I just wanted my salad with a different dressing.

Before you even walk into a restaurant, you probably have a pretty good idea of what’s going to be

on the menu – you might even have some idea of what you’d like to order.  And if you sharpen your menu reading skills – and know what adjustments you can reasonably ask for – it shouldn’t be a struggle to get what you want in a restaurant. 

Restaurant dining: 6 tips to help you get what you want

Keep your usual pattern in mind

• If your usual dinner is protein and veggies, don’t bother looking at the sandwich or pasta offerings.  You should be focusing on the entrees (mains), the salads, the soups and the sides.

Look at how the item is prepared

• Once you’ve narrowed things down to your protein entrée and some form of vegetable, look at how the items are prepared.  When meat, fish or poultry is described as “crispy”, “breaded”, “crusted” or “golden brown”, that’s just a nice way of saying, “fried”, “greasy” and “fatty”.  Look for baked, broiled and grilled instead

Before you even walk into a restaurant, you probably have a pretty good idea of what’s going to be

on the menu – you might even have some idea of what you’d like to order.  And if you sharpen your menu reading skills – and know what adjustments you can reasonably ask for – it shouldn’t be a struggle to get what you want in a restaurant. 

Restaurant dining: 6 tips to help you get what you want

Keep your usual pattern in mind

• If your usual dinner is protein and veggies, don’t bother looking at the sandwich or pasta offerings.  You should be focusing on the entrees (mains), the salads, the soups and the sides.

Look at how the item is prepared

• Once you’ve narrowed things down to your protein entrée and some form of vegetable, look at how the items are prepared.  When meat, fish or poultry is described as “crispy”, “breaded”, “crusted” or “golden brown”, that’s just a nice way of saying, “fried”, “greasy” and “fatty”.  Look for baked, broiled and grilled instead

Next, look to see what it’s served with

• Are there sauces on the entrees or the veggies?  Are they heavy gravies, or butter sauces?  Is there a light tomato sauce or wine sauce?  Even if the sauce sounds light, ask for it on the side so you can control how much you eat.  Same goes for salad dressings.

What side dishes come with it? 

• Many restaurants offer the standard “meat, starch and vegetable” meal.  If that’s the case, ask if you can skip the starch and have double the vegetables.  I’ve noticed that more restaurants are offering everything a la carte, which makes the process a lot easier.  You can pick your entrée and then order a few vegetable dishes on the side.

How large are the portions? 

• Many in the restaurant business know that their customers want value – in other words, a lot of food at a reasonable price.  Keep in mind that portions are often larger than what you might want – or need.  If you’re not sure how much you’ll be getting, ask your server.  If it sounds like more than you want, you can either split your meal with a dining companion or plan to take some home.  You can also look to the appetizer (starter) section of the menu – a lot of times you can put together a satisfying meal from a few small appetizer offerings

Ask nicely and be reasonable

• I did, and I was.  But I think my recent restaurant experience was unusual – and I did get what I asked for (although it came with side of snide).  You don’t want to ask that a menu item be completely revamped, but reasonable requests -  a sauce on the side,  a vegetable instead of a potato or … yes, even  a different salad dressing … isn’t asking too much.

Still hungry for more?  See my  smart ordering in restaurants article for more tips on how  to keep your diet in check when you’re eating out.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD. Susan is a paid consultant for Herbalife

 

January 1 is right around the corner – which means it’s time to dust off that list of diet resolutions you made last year (and the year before that?) … and vow to tackle them again. It’s our nature to look upon the New Year as a time to start fresh. It’s a time of promise and hope – we promise ourselves we’re going to eat right and get into shape… and we hope we can stick with our resolutions. But we don’t. Often it’s because our diet and lifestyle “to-do” list is a mile long – and it’s just too hard to make that many changes all at once. We’re creatures of habit, and it just takes time for new habits to take hold.

Diet Resolutions for 2014 – A Stepwise Approach

Make a Few Small Changes Every Month

So here’s a suggestion for you. Go ahead and make that to-do list – but just don’t try to make all your changes at once. In fact, I’m going to suggest that you tackle just three small changes in January – another three in February, three more in March and so on until the end of the year. And here’s why. If you work on establishing just three new habits for a month, you won’t be overwhelmed with trying to focus on too many things at once. And by the end of the month, the three new habits will be part of your routine, and you’ll be ready to take on three more changes in the following month.

Keep Your Diet Resolutions Going All Year Long

Suppose that those three changes you make in January cut out a total of 100 calories a day from your diet. That might not sound like a lot, but let’s say the same thing happens in February and March and April and May. Five months into the New Year, you’ve made a total of 15 small, sustainable changes to your eating habits, and you’re now saving 500 calories a day – enough to lose up to a pound a week.

Think about what you’d like to work on first. Maybe you’d like to cut your fat or sugar intake. Maybe your portions are just too large or your problem is that you don’t eat enough fruits or vegetables. Maybe you’re an emotional eater and you want to work on that. Then determine the three things you plan to do in January and get to work.

Three Small Diet Changes a Month

Let’s say you want to cut back on your sugar intake. Your diet resolutions for January might be:

• I will have fruit for dessert instead of cookies
• I will cut my soda intake in half
• I will switch from pre-sweetened yogurt to plain yogurt

Maybe eating too much fat is your problem. In that case, your January diet resolutions might be:

• Instead of chips or fries with my lunch, I will have a side salad instead
• I will switch from regular salad dressing to low fat
• I will have my coffee drinks made with nonfat milk instead of whole milk

If it’s portion control you need to work on, your January resolutions might look like this:

• I will use smaller plates when I eat at home to control my portions
• When I go out to eat, I will ask the server to put half my meal in a take-home container and serve me the rest
• I will weigh and measure my food portions a few times a week to make sure I’m staying on track

Maybe this is the year to take a different approach to your diet resolutions. Make a few changes, give them a month to ‘settle in’, and then build on those changes month after month. True, this stepwise approach isn’t the complete diet overhaul that you may attempt every January (and abandon by February) – but what have you got to lose?