Episode 32: Practical & Easy Dining Out Tips
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Episode Transcription
Participant #1:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Upbeat Dieticians podcast. Hello, guys. Welcome back to the Pod. In today's episode, we are talking all about dining out, so it's going to be another episode of hopefully not tangible. What's the right word? Like usable tips and tricks? Kind of like our grocery episode we did a few weeks ago, so we're not debunking anything. Really. It's more just giving tips on the best way to reach your health goals when you are dining out. So a little bit about why this episode matters, like why we think that dining out should be discussed. Dining out is, in our opinion, a really great experience. It's a way to connect with friends and family, and it does not need to be a cause of guilt. I know I used to feel that way. If I would ever go out, I would just either restrict a lot and get something I didn't even enjoy, or I would feel super guilty if I got something that was like not on my diet or whatever. And as you guys know, we don't do diets here, so it is literally impossible to ruin your diet by going out to eat. Yeah, and eating away from your house is not only a common, even if it is like a common activity, we can make it fun. And there's a way that you don't have to constantly eat a specific way, like we are going to give you tips on how you can make choices that have vegetables and a solid protein source. So you're still going to get a well rounded meal at times. And of course, it's okay if you don't have a vegetable like, one time you go out. It's not the end of the world. But hopefully these tips will help you if you are trying to be not as I don't want to say healthy. You know, I don't like the word healthy, but if you're indulging, that's great, do that. No guilt there. Or if you want to just eat more like a typical healthful nourishing meal, we'll go over how that would look. Yeah, I think that's the thing is, there's no right or wrong way to do it. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Let's jump right into it. This episode structure is very simple. We're just going to talk about some different tips. Very straightforward. Go over some common, like meal ideas or meal options that we've seen at popular restaurants. That could be good options for you. And then, as always, we like to have a bottom line final verdict at the end, as you guys know. So first tip is, don't skip meals before eating out to save calories to eat what this is going to do. You're going to starve yourself throughout the day and then you're going to binge when you eat because you're starving your body for this entire day, so it's desperately in need of calories, and suddenly you put food in for yourself. You're probably going to eat too quickly. You're probably going to overeat. And then after you're going to feel really gross. So eat normally throughout the day before eating out, you don't need to do anything wild beforehand. Agreed. If we wait too long to eat or we restrict for too long, it makes it really hard to eat mindfully, like Emily said, you get the food in front of you and then it's like, no matter how hard you try, no matter how much willpower you have, you're going to eat as much as you can because you've been restricting for so long. Right. All right. Our next little tip is to try to choose a restaurant that provides a wide variety of nutritious choices and allows you to customize your order so it meets your needs. This would definitely be in the case if you are looking to have a more nourishing meal, you're not looking to indulge or have more of a fun meal, if you will. I don't know. The lingo is kind of hard in this episode, I think. But if you are looking for a more nourishing meal, this would be what you could look for. It has a lot of different choices. You can customize your order like a Chipotle kind of thing, for example, where there's, like, a ton of different things to choose from, you can really make it your own and make it in a way that suits your needs. Right. And it's like if we're going to someplace to get pizza, get pizza. I feel like it's almost like if it's something regularly that you need to eat out for or you're not going for a specific thing, that's when, like, almost a nutrient dense esque meal would be that, yes, that's exactly what I've been trying to say. That's perfect when you could say nourishing, it like it alerted something in my brain. That's perfect. Yes. The next tip we have is eating is a wonderful time to bond with other people. Additionally, that being said, connect with your family members if you are able to sit down and enjoy a meal with them. This is such a nice time, especially with I feel like everyone has such busy schedules because this can be friends as well, but really recreating that at home mealtime experience when eating out can be so beneficial rather than focusing primarily on the types of foods you're eating. Not only will that help you enjoy the entire experience, but I feel like it'll also strengthen that bond you have with your loved ones, because what better way than to bond over food? Yeah. And what I also want to say with this one is that if you do go out, do try to do it in a way where you get to sit down, because if you're getting food and eating it in your car or I don't know, you're on the road or whatever, that's okay. Once in a while. Of course, that's just how life goes, and that's absolutely fine. But it will really help you to be more mindful and tune into your queues and actually enjoy that time with family if you can do a sit down experience rather than on the road or whatever. Absolutely. I forgot about that. I'm glad. Have you mentioned that? Yeah, I forgot that sometimes people have to go elsewhere. I work remote. I don't go anywhere. They're all very new experience. I've only been hermit mode lately. Yeah, I don't leave the house. All right. Our next one is to check out the nutrition information the restaurants provide before you go so you can make informed decisions. So this is back to what Emily had clarified what I was trying to say. Where if you're going to a place just like on a regular old day just to get a regular old meal. If you want to try your best to look at the information they have, you can kind of see how many calories, how much protein if they have, like, veggie rich options or whatever before you go. Right. And it's fun to look at menus. I feel like I love it. I've already planned out. You guys didn't know which probably don't. I'm going to visit Emily this weekend. I'm so excited, and I've been planning out all of our menu choices already. Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like this is also something to note that there's a fine line between checking the nutrition information beforehand and then also obsessing over it and making choices over obsessing over, like, grams of fat or something like that. I've seen that happen. So there's definitely a fine line with us. Even if there are innocent intentions at first, continue to be reflective of your intentions behind checking that information. Yes. I think the why behind why you're looking at that is important because you're allowed to look at that. They're there for a reason. And as dietitians. Of course, we want you to know what you're eating and make a healthy, informed choice. But if it is an obsessive behavior or anything like that, then that's something to think about. Yes. So our next tip is we kind of already talked about a little bit is to eat mindfully, make sure you're really savoring your food and taking those first few bites are always going to be the most satisfying, because it's like there's a lot of anticipation around ordering this different food. Typically, it's a food that people are excited about. Make sure that you are listening to your hunger cues, though. And if you are no longer hungry, do not keep eating. You can take home leftovers. I've never had a restaurant not do that. Well, that's not true. But I've had one restaurant I'll let you take leftovers, but they disclosed that beforehand. So you knew it going in. But don't be afraid to take on leftovers. Not only can you experience, I know it's not as fresh, but you can still experience the meal again. And that way you won't override those satin EQS telling you to kind of stop eating. Yeah. I love leftovers. I think I said in another episode before that I will repurpose them. Like if I got steak and potatoes, I would make that into, like a steak and egg scramble in the morning. That's what I like to do, because I agree it's definitely not as fresh. And so I don't know, it can be fun to just recreate into a new dish if you want to. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Next tip, we are chugging along here. Next one is you can always order your toppings and sauces and dressings on the side, because those are usually our most calorie dense parts of the meal. And so if you are trying to have a little more control over that, you can always order those on the side, and then you have that again, that control over how much you're using up all those. So again, not that you have to worry about portions calories, all of that, because eating mindfully is what's most important. Listening to your hunger cues and stopping when you're full taking home leftovers that sort of thing. But if it helps you to eat more mindfully, feel free to get those things on the side so that you do have that control. Yeah. And also it helps you control how much like saucers, which is each of your bites. I do this a lot with salads because I get really annoyed when they pour it on top, and then the bottom of the salad doesn't have any dressing, and I'm just upset about it. But if you have it on the side, you can either dip. Actually, this is a question for you, Hannah. When you eat your salad and it's dressing on the side. Yeah. Do you dip your fork into the dressing first, then eat the salad or do you stab your salad and then dip it into the dressing? If I am doing it on the side thing, I definitely do fork in the dressing and that dressing fork goes in the salad. Okay. Same that you do, too. I've never actually thought about doing the other way. I didn't know that you could even do that. I feel like it'd be more messy because probably some leaves would get left behind. There's just leaves in your dressing, and then it just keeps adding up. And then there's just, like, one piece of leaf that's, like, drenched and dressing. Right. So I feel like that's the more controlled way of doing it. Yeah. But if you're feeling crazy, I guess you could do both ways. Feeling wild. Yeah. That's funny. Our next tip is to choose smaller portion sizes overall. If you know that you might tend to overeat a little bit and you want more of that portion control section, you can choose, like, the lunch size. If they do like lunch versus dinner, you choose the lunch size. You can also choose, like, appetizers to eat. Appetizers are not just for before the meal, you can order appetizers as your meal, which is super fun. I do that all the time. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Plus, there's so many fun ones to try. I'd rather sometimes that's the move. So of course, that's the move. Bobby says that all the time your Gen Z is showing. Right. I've been spending too much time on social media. Right. But of course, if you would like leftovers, though, that's when maybe choosing a larger portion, it could be better. But if you don't like that, if you don't want to bring home leftovers and you want more control that portion. Go with the smaller size. Yes. Agreed. All right. Next one, try to select items that are baked grilled broiled poached or steamed. Those are kind of like the buzzwords or keywords for a leaner cut or not a leaner cut, but like a lower calorie option. Lower fat option. Those are the words to look for versus, like fried crispy breaded. Now, again, you can enjoy those foods. Get free. That's great. But just so you're aware of the terms that do mean, like lighter, lower calorie. That sort of thing is that baked grilled broiled poached, steamed. That usually means they don't add oil to it. They don't Fry it like it's pretty cut and dry. Yeah. Really. I must add that. Yeah. That's pretty straightforward. All right. Next tip is share appetizers and desserts with your friends and family. This is nice. In the case of if you don't want to eat an entire piece of cake, then you can share with other people. But you're still getting something sweet in and still enjoying that food on the other side of it, though, if you would like to try multiple appetizers or multiple desserts, that's when family style can be very nice, because then you can try a little bit of everything and you don't have to feel the need to finish everything of that one thing you got. That's what Ross and I do almost always is we get an appetizer to share, and then we each get our meals usually, and we always split those and sample each other's. And then if we get dessert, we'll always share that, too. That way we get to try everything. Yeah. All right. So much sharing it dining out. Yes. Make sure you like who you go with, so you don't mind sharing it. Oh, yeah. But I don't know how often you're going out to meet with people you don't like. That's a huge problem. You got to figure out. I would say maybe, like, at work meetings. That's true. I also probably wouldn't recommend sharing a meal with your boss. Yes. Depending on your relationship with them. If they're really cool and laid back, they'd be like, oh, let's split some apps. But if it's more of a serious meeting or if it's even a client meeting, God, why not? I know we're here to, like, I don't know. I've never done a business meeting over lunch. I mean, no, we're dieticians. Yeah, we should do that. Why don't we that'd be fun. Like, oh, we're here to discuss your mortgage or something. Like our podcast guests. We can do, like, over lunch. We have to live in the same city. We can have a good brainstorming session about the episode, and then we would record it later. Okay. It'd be a bigger time cruncher for all of us. That's okay. Yeah. If we fly them in and also fly them where we live 4 hours apart from each other, like Maryville, Indiana, meet them halfway. Actually, not a bad idea. You guys always get to hear our behind the scenes business conversations if you can't ever stay on top. Yeah, we'll just have to live in the same place. I feel like that's easier than us driving, like, two and a half hours. Yeah. Like, once a week for fly out our guests. Yeah. Not only are we paying for the flight and the food, the flight on the same day they'll fly there, fly back, even though they probably only live, like, an hour or two away. Anyway, we don't have that many friends in faraway places, but also we'd also be paying for our gas to drive 5 hours. This makes so much sense.
Participant #1:
We need a CFO. We need a financial guy. Yeah, because we're supposed to be Ross. I'll let him get on this. Yeah. Tell him we're flying people. We have a proposal for you. Ross, what do you think? Can the fund support this at this point? Yeah. I don't even know how that came up. Oh, we were talking about sharing a meal with. Oh, yeah. I don't even know. Anyway, you guys get what we're saying. Yeah. You don't have to share a meal. Don't feel obligated. But if you like the person and you're close with them, by all means, if you feel like they would say no, then I would say, don't ask. If you don't feel comfortable enough for that person, don't let them be the one to ask you. Then you decide yes or no. You don't have to say yes. Yes. That's a good point, too. If someone wants to share a meal with you, you don't have to share. Yeah, I have had that honestly, where I don't like what the other person preferences. And that's saying a lot because I'm not a picky person. Yes. And I just don't like what they're going to choose. I'm like, no, I want my food. I mean, we're dieticians like people have to know we know what we like. Yeah. In particular, not picky particular. I'd like to think I have a refined palette. I would say so I know what's good and what's not, but also it's very subjective. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, we only have a few tips left. Let's get through those. So our next one is when we've kind of already pushed on a little bit, but oh, my gosh, I can't talk today. It's like had a stroke. Oh, my gosh. Okay. If you know that you tend to binge or overeat at restaurants and you really struggle with that, like we said, I think one of the first few tips is eat a small snack before. I think we said earlier is don't save calories. But this kind of goes more so into, like, what to do. If you do struggle with that binging, you just knock before you go. That way, you don't feel as hungry. Yes. Very easy, very simple. So the next tip is don't be afraid to ask questions about how the food is prepared or if you can make any types of substitutions. This is especially if you know, you have any type of sensitivity to food, or if you want to know more about the meal in general, like, you see a funky word that you don't even know what it means. Don't be afraid to ask. They are there to ask to answer your questions. But of course, I feel like also, I'm going completely off track. No, Hen and I both have an extensive food service background. So be nice to the food service workers. Yes. Coming from dietitians and also previous food service workers, because I feel like they take they deal with so much so respectfully, ask them questions. And if they don't know, don't get upset with that. Choose something else. If it's really going to be that much of an issue. Yes, they are there to help you and to quite literally serve you. But it doesn't mean they're there to, like, get ridiculed and take your crap that's just not their job. So don't be mean to them. Yeah. Think of that. For example, if you have a kid that's your child or that's someone's child that you are bullying, leave them alone. Yeah. And rant. I could have got way worse, but I think we held it together pretty well. I have a lot of opinions about how food service workers are treated, but that is not for the solution. Yeah. Same. Okay. Actually, our last tip here we are wrapping up with these. So try to give yourself plenty of time to eat, so at least, like, 1520 minutes. I know it can be easier to do if you are with friends and family as you're talking and everything. It's a good thing. The reason it's so helpful to eat slower is this helps you recognize when you are feeling full so that you can put a stop to it. Get leftovers if you want to bag it up, take a home, whatever. So if you're on your own eating food from a restaurant, it might be a little more challenging. So really try to challenge yourself to take that 1520 minutes, at least to do it. And I would say too, if you are with friends or family eating a meal, it can be hard to hear those cues as well, since you're like, in the moment talking about whatever. So try your best to think about that, too. Like if you're not able to be as mindful because you are caught up in the conversation, just try to think about that as much as you can. Don't get obsessed and like to work up about it. It's okay to eat past your fullness, but it's just good to be aware that we should be thinking about that. Yes, it's a very good point to make. So now another fun section where we are going to go over some fun options that you can typically find at popular restaurants. So also, Hannah, let me know if you don't like any of these. I was going to say, do we want to just blow through them real fast? I feel like I do not much Besides listing them off. Yeah. All right, let's look good. I like preread them. They'll look good. I like Yay. So get ready. Get your pen and paper ready. So of course, you can reload. I mean, yeah, but yeah, get ready to write all of these down. So number one, grilled lemon chicken is a good option. Number two, blackened salmon with vegetables. Number three, any type of quinoa bowls, power bowls or whatever with a protein source and more veggies. Number four, a loaded vegetable omelet with fruit and English muffin or whatever other side you'd like to do with that. Number five. Mediterranean salad. Also, I'm just going to include in here any types of salad with, like, a protein source and a fat source are great, because get your veggies in. Yeah. Number six. Shrimp scampi is a nice cost option because you at least are getting a protein source along with that carbon number seven. Grilled chicken sandwiches are always a very easy way to go. Number eight. Any stirfry? I feel like you can. Really. I've never not said not to get a stirfry. Lots of veggies. Yeah. Number nine. I don't even know if it's right in point. Throw in for hamburgers. I typically say get some veggies on them. This is more of a probably not as nutrient dense, but if you don't want to make it higher in calories, I would say like, try to get a single Patty, try to get more vegetables on it. But of course, if you're having a hamper, enjoy your hamburger. And the last one, I forgot what number it is. Fish tacos. Who? I love fish tacos. Same. Honestly, I think all tacos. Just try to again beef the veggies up there if you can. Yeah, cool. Of course you are not in any way limited to just these, but these are just some approved ideas we have for sure. Yes. Eat whatever your heart desires. But you are looking for a little more. Nourishment, those are all really great ones. Cool. Okay, so bottom line, as you guys are probably gathered, enjoy your food. Like when we're eating out, it is often to maybe celebrate or just like, have fun. And if it's not that's okay too. Like if you are just eating on a Wednesday night because you have a busy day at work, that's great, too. Enjoy yourself. But you also can make healthy choices if you want to. And here is how you kind of can do that. Yeah. Next. Other last summary point is you might have noticed a theme with a lot of the examples provided. But try to add some sort of nonstarchy vegetable if you can. These are typically like leafy Greens, broccoli asparagus anything like that. Biggest thing to note. Starchy vegetables are like potatoes, winter squash stuff like that. But trying to add a vegetable when you can not only will be good for fiber, but also help fill you up. And if you want to be a bit more like, oh, if you wanted more nutrients, vegetables are a great way to go. Yes. And typically sometimes I feel like restaurants. No fun ways to make vegetables taste better, so even more. I don't know the word incentive to try it. I think it's a good word. You can learn a new way to Cook a vegetable from a restaurant. Chefs have a lot to teach us. They have so many tricks and can make sometimes boring things taste good. Yeah. I honestly challenge you if you don't love veggies to either go to restaurants and try them in different forms, because eating raw asparagus is not fun. But if you do make it in some oil and some spices and bacon, that's delicious, in my opinion. Try some new stuff if you guys do go out to eat, see if you actually might like something that you don't previously think you liked. Yeah, absolutely. And then, of course, like we've already said, too, don't feel guilty. Go out to eat. Enjoy yourself. This is a fun thing. Yeah. That's really all I got to say about that. I guess it kind of already hit that nail in the head a few times. Absolutely.
Participant #1:
Cool. So on to the fun section of today's episode, and I'm excited for this question a lot because I'm very hungry right now, so I'm very excited to talk about food. So the question is, what is your favorite fast food restaurant? And I don't think we've already done this question. Okay. I don't think so either. It's like I always go first. So I want to hear from you first today. All right. I'll go first. I'm like Hannah today, and I actually have two answers. So I will say my favorite fast food restaurant overall is fertillo's, and that is because I have been born and raised in Chicago area, so I feel like pertillo's cheese sauce runs through my veins. Not actually. Yes. You probably wouldn't be alive if that was. No, I would not be alive. No, I would not be. Okay. But one of the best things I know, coming home from Purdue, every time I come home, I would hit up over Dillos, and it just was like, the most incredible thing in the entire world, and it tasted like home. My other answer is I would say Pertillo's overall is the best one or my favorite one, not the best one. This is not a competition, but my other fast food restaurant, my favorite one. I'm saying this one because it has never let me down. Not to say fertility has not let me down. But I feel like I'm a more frequent flyer at this is Culver's. I feel like that's also because of partially where I'm around because I'm very high up north in Illinois, like I'm already near Wisconsin, but I'm not associate Wisconsin. Don't do that. No offense, anyone who's in Wisconsin, there's a weird rivalry between Wisconsin and Illinois people. I don't know. It's mostly I feel like with football, but they don't like us, and I guess I just showed some hostility. So I'm really not. I think we know why. But Culvers never missed it's. Always good. And I could have so many different things from there. Their burgers, though I would argue, like, potentially the best burger I've ever had. I mean, yeah, they're really good. I also have two answers, of course. But you guys already knew that because I had to take a burger place for sure. I love a hamburger, cheeseburger, bacon, cheeseburger or whatever. And I was going to say five guys. But then you said Culver's, and that's a tough one. I'd have to do a side by side to make my final answer, because I can't, like, off memory, tell you. Which one's better because they're both so good in my opinion. So I guess I have three answers. So for a burger, I definitely agree with Culver's. And I also love five guys that's also just so greasy and delicious. I just love it. And they have good fries, and they give you so many fries. Oh, yeah. I will say call versus fries are not good. Really. I don't like cocout fries, in my opinion. I know it is. People love Culver's fries. I don't like them. I don't like pickle cut. I mean, I do obviously eat them. What kind of fries have they have? Like the seasoned ones? Like you're just like regular shapes. Like the steak fries. Yeah, I see this actually leads into my next place, which is chick filet. That's one of my other favorite things. I love the waffle fries. I think those are second to five guys, and I just love, like, a chicken sandwich from there. I think that's just like a go to for me. I think if I had to rank them, I guess this is kind of given my favorite, but I couldn't leave out Chickfila. I would have to say five guys in Culver's and then Chickfila, because I do like a burger more than a chicken sandwich, but they're both delicious. Well, what's your favorite fast food Fry place? Like your favorite fast food fries? Pertillos. Okay. There's a crinkle cut, aren't they? Yeah. Okay. I didn't love theirs either, because we have a pertillo's now. I told you that, right. We have one here in my area. Yeah. I think we've talked about this. I think I'm getting some deja voice, like we've discussed. I remember you didn't like the fries, and I was like, take it very personally. I like everything else. I like the cheese sauce. That was really good. Yeah. The sandwich I had was good. The fries are good. I just don't like the crinkle cut in general, very often. Right. Which if you're not going to like that style, then it makes sense that you're not going to like porkillo's. Yeah, just fine. Which is fine. Hey, you don't like peanut butter, so I guess now we're eating. I do like peanut butter. I just don't eat it ever. Well, I like porkillo's fries, but I don't eat it ever. You just said you didn't like that. No. Well, I eat them, but I wouldn't seek them out, just like you wouldn't seek out a PB and J. Okay, that's different. Pb and J is different than just peanut butter. Yes, that's true. Yeah. Don't mind. I'm wrong. Whatever. Just like, toward peanut butter jelly. I feel like anyone would so understandable. They're really good. Yes. Should we get for pillows this weekend?
Participant #1:
Think about it. I was going to say I was like, Is there a Chicago? This is very weird. I don't know if I've ever seen a pertillas in downtown Chicago, but also, I've never gone to downtown Chicago seeking out of Portillos because they have a change in the suburbs. Normally, let's say if there's one accessible, we can go. But I feel like there's so many other restaurants like Luminal Nadis that are much more like you need to eat. That also fun fact. Hannah will have eaten Luminal Nadis. You haven't had it before, right? No. Tomorrow or Saturday. So two days from now, when you guys hear this, I will have had it. I'm so excited. You have to do, like, a food review. I was telling Hannah I would die for the whole night. She did say that those were her exact words. It's so good. Well, if you guys want to see my adventures, I guess you won't be hearing this till way after I actually eat it. But TikTok and Instagram, I always post my fun foods. Yeah. And if you didn't check it, go back right now and check it. Oh, yeah. I'm sure I'll have, like, a highlight somewhere. Yeah. Or if it's TikTok, you can just, of course, go back and look. Or I guess Instagram too. If I do a whole post, you'll find it. You'll see how much it's somewhere on the internet. Yes. Or if you guys are loyal fans from the beginning, you'll already know. Yeah, but if you're new here, this is the first episode you found. You're probably a little bit confused. We're so glad you're here. Yes. Thanks for joining us. Okay. I feel like we should wrap this up. I agree before we go on about other things because we can discuss this. We asked, like, four different questions and the bonus questions. I know. Okay. Cool. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, everyone. If you're new, thank you for coming. If you are returning Todd member. Thanks for your diligence and loyalty. I don't know if Diligence is required to be a listener, but we hope you enjoyed this episode and took something useful away from it. And of course, let us know if there's any other episode topics you'd like for us to cover, or we can do another, like eating out part two. Yeah. You'd like that if there was something drastically missed, but let us know you can DM us. You can email us whatever it is, we will respond. Otherwise you'll hear from us next week.
Participant #1:
Okay. Yes. We know you guys like these more useful tips. Hopefully this kind of struck a chord. Yeah, we'll see you next week. Don't question it. Let's just finish this thing. Okay. All right. Bye. Okay. Bye.
