1/30/10

Top 5 priorities when eating out

Tonight I'm going out for dinner. Because I've been doing quite well on the nutrition front recently, I want to get through the evening without spoiling that. So I went looking for tips and ended up at "The primal blueprint guide to eating out". It didn't look very promising, with tip nr 3 being "Don't eat". Hell no, I eat out perhaps once every two months so I'm damn well going to enjoy it! Besides, the whole point of this diet is too improve quality of life- quality kinda goes down if you have to sit there like a freak watching everyone else eat.

Tip nr 5 was to make special requests, claim allergies if need be- anything to get some primal food! But I know myself, I'd be fussing and worrying the whole time, unable to let it go and enjoy the night. Plus I'd spent the next couple hours dreading to face the waiter with all my requests.

I truly wish I could just forget about paleo for tonight, but that won't do either. I'd feel like a glutton, secretly feeling sad and guilty inside. Fretting over whether I'm really so lacking of any willpower, 'why oh why' etc. Not exactly a recipe for enjoying a night out. I'd also constantly be worrying about the physical consequences in store for me tomorrow..

So what's a girl to do? A good compromise seems the only option. I came up with a list of priorities, things most important for my mental and physical health. Keeping these 5 points in mind should get me through the night without all the fussing and worrying.

1. Avoid gluten
There are more things lining up to destroy our guts, but gluten seems to be the worst offender. Hopefully by avoiding them I'll be better able to handle some ice cream for dessert. Besides, gluten seem to make my stomach swell to twice it's original size, which doesn't make me feel especially sexy or comfortable...
So it's an old and often mentioned tip- but do send back that bread basket.

2. Get some protein and veggies
The protein shouldn't be a problem- even if I weren't thinking of my health I'd still want a nice piece of fish or a big ass steak. They don't seem to serve a lot of vegetables these days though, so I'm planning to order a salad on the side. Veggies will serve to fill me up and help me be moderate with other less desirable things. I'm also plenty indoctrinated with the 'veggies are good for you!' idea.

3. No soda
I think cola is nasty, but some ice tea or fresh orange juice is very tempting. However, since we'll be drinking plenty throughout the night I'll stick to 1 or 2 glasses of wine, water and tea. This will give me a good feeling mentally, since I'll be doing something right.

4. Portion control
I really, really like potatoes. So even though they're not paleo, I'll have some of those. But they tend to give you a whole lot of them. I'm not really good with portion control to be very honest, so I'll ask the others to keep the extra's away from me. They know about my eating habits so they'll understand.

5. Dessert
Dessert is always very enjoyable, but rarely paleo. As I said at the beginning of this post, for me paleo is about improving quality of life. For me that also means enjoying some vices that are not necessarily very sensible. During my lifetime I'd like to at least taste pretty much every kind of food in the world. So the master plan is to really enjoy it, and take a bite from everyone else's dessert too!

13 comments:

Shantel said...

I love your blog! I've been reading it a lot since I started researching a paleo lifestyle for myself.
I'm loving it so far!
Good luck at dinner!

Unknown said...

I find that avoiding gluten and sugar (if possible) is enough for me. I can use gluten-free as my "going off" paleo and I won't have the negative effects.

Kaetje said...

I ate out tonight and have managed to keep it more or less paleo. Except for the added sugar in the apple compote, and some non-paleo spices (like salt).
I just asked them to keep off the mashed potatoes. They actually gave me more vegetables instead, which was really nice. It was getting rather late after the maincourse, so I skipped dessert...

jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com said...

Awesome rules!

Rule 1, "Avoid gluten" is very important for me. It's definitely the first rule.

Rule 2, "Get some protein and veggies," yes, with no dressings or dips. And I might just ask for steamed veggies like cauliflower and broccoli.

Rule 3, "No soda," is tough. I'm trying, but I'm addicted to Diet Coke. I think the aspartame has already melted my brain cells.

The 50 Best Health Blogs

Naomi said...

Shantel, thank you. Congrats on getting through week 1! Good luck :)

Shawn, no negative effects at all? That's almost hard to belief, but good for you! I do pretty well without gluten and yoghurt/milk.. sugar doesnt seem to bother me very acutely.

Kaetje, (whoo dutchy!) Too bad you had to miss dessert ;) How has it been going since januari 2nd? It's good you're teaching those dutch dieticians something.

Jim, that's a very usefull page. Your brain can't be that melted yet :) Let me know how it goes with getting of the diet coke-crack? (It's so yuck but so are sigarets I guess)

Kaetje said...

Way overdue, but I posted an update. Will post more within a week ;-)

http://paleodiner.blogspot.com/

Kanata Chiropractor said...

I think eating a Paleo type diet is easier than people think when eating out. You can pretty much always order chicken, beef or fish and vegetables.

Larissa Dobbin said...

Whenever I'm going out for dinner in an FL mall with my friends or my husband, #1 and #2 are very important to me. I really don't wanna feel bloated after. I still want to feel light so I could enjoy dessert! LOL. Veggies are my favorite appetizers, especially salad. I rarely drink sodas at dinners. Just water.

Danny Riddell said...

Well, I'll have to take note of that! When dining out, I don't eat junk food. It will only make me crave for more. I would definitely choose nutritious and delectable dishes anytime.

Paleo Cookbooks said...

Great info! Avoiding gluten is important for some people and having a good diet gluten free can change their lives!

Sildenafil said...

Super blog and nice to read. I really liked your blog and would like to know more about the topic. Thank you for the post.

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