How to eat out healthy

It's not always easy to resist the temptations that are waiting for you everywhere along the way. This is also true when you eat out instead of at home. In the following article, we'll explain how you can do justice to your healthy diet even when visiting a restaurant.

Rule 1 - Do your homework beforehand

Many scientific studies show that people in society tend, consciously or unconsciously, to copy the behavior of other people. This fact can also be applied to eating behavior in restaurants, because as social researchers found out, previously indecisive test subjects ordered similar dishes to the people who accompanied them. For your goal of eating out as healthily as possible, this behavior can sometimes be fatal, as you order things you don't even really know what's in them. To avoid this problem, you should familiarize yourself with the restaurant's menu in advance and choose a few dishes so that you don't get embarrassed when ordering. The easiest way to do this is, of course, at restaurants whose menus can be viewed on the Internet.

Rule 2 - Start the menu with a salad

If you have the opportunity to do so in a restaurant, you should definitely start your menu with a salad, because this has numerous advantages that should not be underestimated. On the one hand, a mixed salad provides you with a variety of essential micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals and trace elements, so you don't have to worry about them. On the other hand, however, due to the fact that salads usually contain ingredients with a comparatively low energy density, they serve as a first satiety base. This, for example, keeps you from eating more than you actually intended and is beneficial for your figure. The earlier onset of satiety has also been proven to reduce your appetite for fatty foods.

Rule 3 - Treat yourself consciously, but don't overdo it

If you ever go out to eat with your friends or acquaintances, you should of course not be too demanding, because you should also be able to enjoy yourself. Consequently, you can treat yourself to something, but you shouldn't be too generous. A practical solution would be, for example, to eat a portion of French fries with your veggie burger or to drink a glass of wine with your whole-grain chicken pizza. However, it shouldn't be more than a goodie, especially in the context of a diet, because this increases the risk that you'll turn a little cheating into an entire cheat day and torpedo the hard-earned progress of an entire week.

Rule 4 - What the farmer does not know, he does not eat

This old country saying may seem antiquated to you and quite fitting for a fitness-oriented lifestyle, but there is still a lot of truth in it today. Even if most of the dishes on a restaurant menu sound fabulous, you should always be aware of the ingredients and be on your guard especially if they are inadequately labeled. The solution to this problem is as obvious as it is simple. Simply limit yourself to dishes that have as few ingredients as possible. For example, steer clear of imaginative pasta creations and instead choose a steak with vegetables and a single side dish.