Dining Out

One of the things I have more recently realized is that while I was busy losing weight to get to goal I didn't give myself the opportunity to practice dining out often.

I did go out occasionally however it's a rare treat.  

Of course this in part is because it's much easier to stay on plan when I cook and I do like to cook.

I can also get a lot more food for the points at home.

However I now realize that I've missed an opportunity.

I think I want to find a place of balance in dining out.  

I don't have any intention or desire to give up things I love but I need more practice at going out and finding plan friendly meals.

The above meal is one I got at a local Italian restaurant recently.  

This is one of those places where they bring endless bread prior to your meal.  

Now, I'm not usually a bread person per se but they also give you a small plate of herbs and olive oil to dip said bread in.

That is heavenly.  

So I ordered grilled tilapia with a side of veggies, hold the pasta.  

They put the lemon butter on the side as well and I didn't use any of that.

I did end up going way over on the bread and olive oil but the meal itself is MUCH lighter than the chicken cannelloni I usually order.

The meal was delicious and I didn't leave the restaurant feeling over full, physically or mentally miserable.  

I think I want to find things like this that I like so that half the time I can go out without stressing about it and stay on plan in that way. 

The other half of the time I want to plan for the indulgent cannelloni or dessert etc.  

There are some people I've seen on WW's Connect who post their meals dining out.

One lady in particular says she dines out seven days a week which is unfathomable to me.

However, she has gotten particularly good at getting very low point meals at very high point restaurants.

I think it's helpful to get ideas so that if you're out of daily and weekly points and you're going out you have options to help you feel successful.

One of the meals I saw was for a 4 pt meal at Olive Garden.  

Now that's impressive!  That place is points upon points!

She ordered a grilled chicken breast without sauce, steamed broccoli without butter and a salad hold the croutons and cheese.  She also asked for the light dressing instead of the regular as well as declining the bread.

Now, if I've saved points there is no way I'm going to Olive Garden and ordering that.  I could make that at home quite easily and would see no point in going out for that.

But, if it was an obligatory dinner that I needed to go to and was out of points for then I would definitely choose something like this.

Ultimately I want to be at a place where I might choose one decadent thing and balance it out with something more healthy like the steamed broccoli.  

That is the nice part of WW.

We get to decide how and when we spend those points.  

So here's to finding balance and success in dining out.

And, you know what they say....

Practice makes perfect!