Tips For Dining Out While On A Weight Loss Diet – A common comment I hear from people struggling with diet or weight loss is: difficulty handling social events or eating out.
In my 10 year struggle with diet and weight, I have definitely found eating to be a struggle! I remember times when I ate a shake at home before going out to a restaurant for dinner. I would sit and watch my family eat at a restaurant because I couldn’t handle the calories and stress of restaurant-food.
Tips For Dining Out While On A Weight Loss Diet
Other times, I always made sure to be in control of where we went out to eat – mostly only very healthy or ‘green’ restaurants.
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When I allow myself to eat out, I allow myself to truly enjoy the food I’ve ordered – constantly stressing about calories and spoiling my weight loss progress. I would often come home because I wasn’t eating what I wanted.
It was so stressful! I envied people who ordered what they wanted and went through their days without thinking about how to undo it.
If you can relate, when I talk about common pain points related to eating out, when you’re struggling with your relationship with food or trying to lose weight.
It’s me to a T! I love to eat out but don’t want to because – calories, lack of control, destroys progress! But going too far this way leads to unruly territory – excessive dieting, stress, guilt. We don’t want it, we don’t have to go there.
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If you’re on a weight loss journey, here are my tips that have helped past clients lose weight and still eat out – all taught in my Sustainable Fat Loss Course!
We’re not going to put your entire life on hold to lose weight. We’re not going to freak out. Yes, you may want to lose some weight but it’s not going to take over your life. It’s a new leaf—a new approach to weight loss that’s no rush, no deadlines.
Know that weight loss isn’t linear—there will be periods of ups, flats, and downs. So, if you’re eating too much in a week or two, you may not be losing weight. Even so. Ideally, your weight loss strategy isn’t ‘hard’ or it feels like wasted progress.
Ideally, there are some small, healthy changes to your strategy and changes to your lifestyle – so even if you gain weight from eating out more often, you’ve still made some healthy changes.
Episode 224: Q+a
At SFL, we start by looking at your non-negotiables when it comes to losing weight. What are you not willing to sacrifice to lose weight? One can enjoy restaurant food for you.
Another is that you refuse to cut chocolate. How do you make sure you’re honoring non-negotiables fairly?
E.g. Yes, you don’t want to cut out sweets, but you smartly understand that it can be difficult to lose weight and stay healthy while eating chocolate all the time.
Or when it comes to restaurants – you might decide to go out 1-2 times per week instead of 4 during your weight loss journey. But when you go, promise you’ll enjoy it!
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We don’t want you to fear restaurant food after losing weight because you’re afraid it’ll set you back. or during travel. If you’re afraid of restaurant food, it doesn’t feel very stable.
Eventually, you’ll find all the restaurant food high in calories, you’ll avoid going out, and you’ll feel like you’re eating out of control. So if you start to see yourself going down that path, I recommend pausing for weight loss.
It’s something I talk about in SFL – whenever you don’t feel like you’re in the driver’s seat – hit pause. Regroup. Bring back the cool feeling with restaurant tours. Figure out your game plan for how you can fit it into your fat loss journey and do it right.
Further! Remember that eating out doesn’t necessarily add more calories than maintenance. Things are always in balance. You won’t feel hungry in the morning thanks to a big breakfast. Or maybe that extra fuel will make you move more the next day – even subconsciously.
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We like to look at the words here with care (exact words from a customer) – ‘anti’, ‘like’, ‘junk’ food. Obviously everyone has their own meanings with words, but, to me, it refers to control happening – primarily mind control.
Hopefully with food freedom – you’ll get to the point where certain foods elicit such a response – they’re irresistible, tempting. Food is just food. Yes some are tastier than others and some your body may crave more of. But overall, we mostly want to be in a place of balance.
Now if you’re trying to lose weight, I understand that you may dial back certain foods or meal amounts. (Hint: Don’t always do this to lose weight – even simple things like getting enough and good quality sleep can greatly impact the weight loss journey).
We want to make sure that if you dial in certain foods / amounts, that’s all you start getting into this mindset of forbidden foods, temptation, can’t resist, can’t control. We want to make sure you can still go to restaurants and enjoy what you order.
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Unfortunately, anxiety about going to social events/restaurants can become overwhelming and you may withdraw completely. The thing about anxiety and control is that it makes you believe it keeps you safe. ‘If we don’t go, nothing bad will happen, we won’t feel anything bad’, it tells you.
But once you become isolated, it makes your world smaller and smaller over time. You are less likely to experience discomfort and recover from it.
My tip here is to learn how to regulate your nervous system – use the power of your body to calm your mind in stressful situations. It’s a lesson we’ll cover in detail in the 30-Day Reboot—nervous system regulation is an often overlooked tool in healing food relationships.
Of course, sometimes even the work of your nervous system does not help and there are events that cause so much anxiety that you feel even more uncomfortable. Ideally, we want to learn to resist this – life is not always safe and easy. We need to learn how to channel these feelings and get our needs met as best we can.
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Another important lesson in the 30-day reboot is emotional regulation, where we learn how to deal with challenging emotions and situations. If this is relevant to you, I recommend checking out the syllabus.
If you’re avoiding social events mainly for body image concerns—you’re afraid of what others will think of you, or you don’t like the way you look and want to hide from the world—this may feel like the best solution, and actually hiding is the worst.
You say, ‘I am unworthy. I must be hidden from the world. I don’t deserve happiness, fun, connection. I truly recommend checking out Body Love Academy to make a deep inner transformation.
Even if you don’t like the way you look, it’s vital to treat yourself with the same kindness and respect that you love your body.
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You can’t hate the version of yourself you want. The journey will be loving and kind. What do you deserve? You deserve to see, go out, have fun, make friends and memories.
So there we have it – my tips for facing social events or restaurants. All the courses I mentioned are in the show notes, so scroll down and click to learn more about the 30 Day Reboot or SFL. As always, I’m here to answer any questions or concerns you have about the subjects – weight loss tips from a certified health coach @ IG. Simple tips to help you achieve your goals without “dieting”.
Eat Whole Foods – When grocery shopping, choose foods from the earth, not the factory. Stick to the perimeter of the store where you’ll find produce, meats and fish, dairy products and all fresh foods. The more you shop the perimeter of the store, the healthier your shopping trip will be. After that, you can head to the aisle for rice, beans, and other healthy staples. For more information on eating whole foods see my post on How to Eat Healthy Without “Dieting”.
Be prepared! – Food preparation is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle. You don’t have to worry about not having healthy food on hand when you’ve done a little prep work before. For great tips on meal prep and how to get started, go ahead
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