Bernie
Mon, 21 Mar 2005 13:00:49 -0800
Food Q&A 14 Tips for Dining Out on a Diet By Leslie Fink, MS, RD | 13/01/2002 Need ideas for coping with restaurant buffets? Want some good snack ideas? In our Q&A series, WeightWatchers.ca nutritionist and food editor Leslie Fink, MS, RD, answers readers' questions about food, nutrition and weight loss. Q: I am invited to someone's house for Easter dinner. I am sure we will start with appetizers, followed by salads, then the main course and finally desserts — included in this I expect will be wine and other drinks. Any suggestions on how to survive this holiday meal and still enjoy the festivities? A: It might be easier than you think to enjoy a holiday meal at a friend's house and still lose weight. You just need to plan. Set yourself up right — eating light earlier in the day will allow for cake, holiday goodies or whatever tempts you most. Don't eat so light, however, that you're starved and put away three servings of bread as soon as you sit down to the table. Have a high-fibre snack just before you go, to curb your hunger. Try something low-cal like an apple, carrots or black-bean dip or vegetable soup Decide in advance what's worth splurging on and what you can do without. Having a game plan is helpful when faced with lots of tempting items. Ask your host or hostess if they could put some salad on a plate before they dress it, and then you can plain oil and vinegar and go light on the oil, heavy on the vinegar. Or you can use their regular salad dressing sparingly. For your main course, if it looks heavy, cut your portion in half, and tell your host or hostess you filled up on salad. If your host or hostess is serving fruit for dessert, you're in luck! This should help you steer clear of the other more tempting desserts. As for drinking, alternate alcoholic drinks with non-caloric beverages such as seltzer with lemon, sparkling water with lime or diet soda. Stick to wine or beer rather than sugar-loaded, high-calorie drinks like margaritas and pina coladas or other fun fruity drinks. Better yet, have a glass of wine or a light beer. Put off having a drink until you have some food in your belly. Drink on an empty stomach and you're more like to get tipsy and forget about your intentions to eat well. Lastly, keep in mind that healthful eating is not about being "perfect." If you get carried away in the excitement of an evening and eat or drink more than you had planned for, don't sweat it. One night of over-indulgence won't rack up the pounds – just get back on track the next day. © 2005 Weight Watchers International, Inc. © 2005 WeightWatchers.com, Inc. All rights reserved. WEIGHT WATCHERS and POINTS are the registered trademarks of Weight Watchers International, Inc. and are used under license by WeightWatchers.ca Limited. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give the gift of life to a sick child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/lGEjbB/6WnJAA/E2hLAA/f8NolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> http://www.worldfamousrecipes.com/ http://www.worldfamousrecipes.com/index.php http://www.recipesrecipe.com/ http://www.recipes.tk/ http://www.healthly-chicken-recipes.com/ http://home.att.net/~quotations/ http://home.att.net/~wbaustin/famous.html http://www.worldfamousrecipes.com/chicken-recipes.html http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chicken-recipes-mailing-list/ http://quotations.home.att.net/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/world-famous-recipes/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/