Here's a fairly common scenario for me: I'm doing great, losing weight, exercising, not going over 300 calories a day, feeling super in control and proud of myself...and then I get a phone call from a friend inviting me out. It doesn't matter whether it's to breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or happy hour-my immediate thought is always the same: Fuck.
I don't want to lose my friends from blowing them off and never meeting with them, but restaurants and bars are also panic attacks waiting to happen for me. This just happened to me last night, which inspired this post. So, I've done some research and compiled the best websites and tips/tricks for surviving these calorie-laden hell holes. Hope someone finds it useful!
1. CalorieKing.com , CalorieKing App
This is by far (IMHOP) the best site for looking up menus for fast food chains and restaurants. It lists every menu item imaginable, but only for established chains...you're not going to find any local places here. Still, extremely useful.The link is only for the iPhone app, but if you have an Android, Blackberry, Palm, or Windows Mobile device you can just go to CalorieKing.com on your browser and you'll be automatically re-directed to the mobile site.
2. UrbanSpoon.com, UrbanSpoon Apps
I live in NYC, so I NEVER go to chain restaurants. I know how elitist that sounds, but it's just a fact. There are so many amazing places here there is no reason to ever go to a chain. Still, that presents some problems when trying to find nutritional information. Urban Spoon has become my BEST FRIEND. You can find local restaurants for wherever you live, and I'd say that about 80% either have their entire menu posted or at least enough comments and reviews about menu items to ascertain the kind of food and range of options.
Actual caloric information is extremely rare, but if you can at least view the menu ahead of time you can use your intuition about what will be the lowest and if you really want to do some research, google the item for recipes to get an idea of what will be in it and calculate it yourself. The first link is to the website, second one to download the App if you have a smartphone.
3. SkinnyGirl Cocktails
OK, as much as I hate to do free advertising for Bethenny Frankel (Hoppy?), this stuff is the bomb.com! I was hesitant to include it because outside of huge metropolitan areas, not a whole lot of bars serve it. Before I moved here, I couldn't find a single restaurant, bar, or nightclub in my area that carried it. In fact, I had more than one bartender laugh in my face when I asked. BUT, I decided to include it for two reasons: First, if you DO happen to live in NYC or another big city, odds are you CAN find bars that serve it, and no one will think you're crazy if you ask. Every woman is on a fucking diet in New York. Second, for those times when you get invited to someone's house or have people over, you can most definitely find it in a liquor store.
People always appreciate when you BYOB, and if they're females they probably love that it's SkinnyGirl. There's Margarita, Sangria, and White Cranberry Cosmo...and they all have under 100 cals for a full 4oz serving and don't taste like shit. Amazing.
4. Low-Calorie Cocktails and Tips
This is like the best article ever for low-calorie drinks and how to stay on your diet when you're forced to be at a bar, or even when you want to be there but don't want to ruin your whole day. It's like 3 pages long and has a ton of useful info, but you can also save time and not read any of it and just skip to the lists of calories in spirits, wine, beer, popular mixed drinks, and even mixers. Apparently TGIFriday's has a drink that has an astounding 1,100 calories in it. If you're ever there, don't order a Mudslide. Article by WebMD, so you know it's legit. =)
Additional Tips, Tricks, and Advice...
For when you are caught off-guard and have to go out to eat or drink spontaneously, when you don't have time to check the menu, or when the info just isn't available.
1. Salads are always available.
When a menu is really overwhelming to me, and I can't even begin to estimate how many calories are in the items, I just save myself the stress and get a salad. There are some things about salads to keep in mind, though:
*Stick with simple salads like house salads.
When salads get crazy they usually aren't low cal. Steer clear of salads with too much crap on them, especially cheeses.
*Don't fuck it up with dressing.
One of my biggest pet peeves is watching someone pour ranch dressing all over their salad. If you like the creamy dressings, you have to use fat-free or they totally defeat the purpose of the salad. Unfortunately, most restaurants don't have the fat-free alternatives for all of their full-fat dressings. Ranch, Creamy Parmesan, and Bleu Cheese are the most popular-so sometimes they have those in fat-free. I personally am of the opinion that even fat-free creamy dressings have too many calories, but that's something you can evaluate for yourself based on the rest of your day and your cal limit. I never use anything but regular vinegar or balsamic vinegar. 0-5 cals.
*Caesar Salad is NOT your friend.
It is NOT a low-cal salad. That is all.
2. You don't have to clean your plate.
Immediately halve your plate. Then halve it again. Once you've eaten 1/4, you can decide if you want the other 1/4...but don't stray to the other half! If you have a hard time when it's right there, ask for a to-go box and immediately get half of it off the plate. Most of my friends (good ones, anyway) know about my food issues, so they don't think anything I do is really strange, they are just happy I'm eating. So I don't have any qualms about straight up cutting everything in half right down the plate and removing it.
But I understand that not everyone has that luxury, it can be harder when you are trying to conceal that you're dieting or calorie-counting. When this is the case, it's less noticeable to go item-by-item. (i.e., start with the chicken filet and cut it in half, eat that half regularly, and then move on to the green beans, and just eat half of those, etc.) Obviously works in any order.
3. Drink lots of water.
Every bite or two, take a few sips of water. You'll fill up quicker and eat slower.
4. Get coffee instead of dessert.
If you're with a person or people who love chatting and never want the meal to end-they almost always suggest dessert. My favorite response is: "That sounds so amazing but I'm SO full! You know what, I'll get a coffee to let my stomach settle and then I'll try a bite of yours."
This way you're not making a scene, you're not saying "Oh god, I can't do dessert, too many calories," you're not making them feel bad for having something, you can enjoy your coffee and keep talking, AND you can have one small bite of whatever they order. Or not-once it comes you can always say "looks so delicious but I'm still so full, could you save a piece for me to take home for later?" Then you can just throw it out. Your call.
Just don't load up the coffee with cream and sugar. Black is obviously lowest in calories, but if you can't tolerate black coffee then use some skim milk and/or Splenda/Equal/Sweet-n-Low. Hope this helps! Ciao!
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