We all like eating out and having someone else cook, use food items we don’t stock in our refrigerators and best of all, clean up…while we chat with our friends and loved ones enjoy a delicious meal.

How to do that healthily is the challenge.

Here are some tips:

• Checkout the menu online before going to the restaurant. Not only will you be able to choose what you may like, you’ll also see the nutritional values and based on what you want to have, you can plan your other meals for the day so everything fits in to your total calories for the day
• If you know you are going to eat a lot or have high calorie options, plan your meals the day before and the day after so they have fewer calories. “Having dessert and a couple of drinks?” Next day, have water with lunch and dinner and a salad (dressing on the side) for dinner.
• Walk to the restaurant or walk after eating your meal…half a mile or more. It will help you digest and burn some calories.
• Add an extra workout session into at least 2 days of the week. This can help you stay on track by doing a 30 min walk or run.
• Try to have your restaurant meal be a lunch meal not dinner. This gives you time to digest and you can have a yogurt, couple of scrambled eggs or oatmeal at dinner time and stay on track with your diet
• Ask for a doggie bag. Eat half, save half for the next day. There is no shame in taking it home and a Yummy meal awaits you the next day!

We all enjoy eating out and sometimes we all overindulge… some planning can still make this a win and have you savoring every bite.