Tips & tricks: choose "healthy" when eating out

If it’s a special occasion, a meeting or if you are on vacation in a hotel…every body eats out once in a while.

Sometimes it can be difficult to stick to our healthy diet when we aren’t preparing our food at home. It’s hard to choose a more or less healthy dish out of all those delicious sounding stuff on the menu, I totally understand that.

But...

…today’s blog post will help…

Introducing the new "tips & tricks" series....I’m giving you a few tips how to choose dishes wich are delicious but won’t sabotage your healthy diet when eating out.

I did this blog post while I was on vacation in Tyrol, Austria.

Just for your info: It was really awesome. Mostly sunshine, nice ski runs and a really beautiful hotel.

I booked half board, which means there was a buffet in the morning and in the evening a four-course meal composed of salad (buffet), soup, a main course (you could choose out of four to five dishes) and a dessert.

I will give my tips on the base of the dishes which were on the menu throughout the week.

Here we go:

I gonna start with breakfast.

The hotel offered various types of bread and breadrolls, ham, cheese and other spreads in the morning. Moreover there were fruits, compote, veggies, yogurt, ham & eggs, some cake and croissants as well as orange juice on the buffet. 

Tip 1: try to take at least one bowl with fruits and veggies

I recommend eating a bowl of fruits/veggies or compote first to fill you up. If it’s possible prefer entire fruits. If there is only compote sprinkle with a little bit of muesli to get your daily fiber.

Afterwards when moving on to bread/breadrolls...add even more vegetables. A few slices of cucumber or tomato taste delicious in combination with ham and cheese.

 

Tip 2: Go wholegrain/multigrain!

When it comes to bread and breadrolls choose wholgrain or multigrain ones. But…look closely! A few seeds on it don’t mean wholegrain. If there’s no information you can always ask the waiters.

 

Tip 3: choose “healthier” spreads and toppings for your breadroll/bread

I know that there aren’t always good options. But try to take lean ham instead of cold sausages and some kind of lean cheese.

If there’s no information here is a little hint: Older cheese tends to contain more fat…and luckily you can easily say which one is the older kind. Cheese turns from white to yellow while maturing. In fact this means if you pick a type which is more on the white side it’s probably a low fat one.

Tip 4: Skip the sweets!

Try to avoid all the sweet stuff. When eating croissants, cake or sweet spreads (i. e Nutella) you gonna get hungry shortly after breakfast. If you crave something sweet go for more fruits.

Tip 5: healthy snacking

Avoid eating nothing until dinner. You will eat less and healthier at dinner if you had a little snack around lunch time.

Since I was skiing I took a cereal bar or a nut bar for with me. Sitting down in a nice little restaurant enjoying a cappuccino and nuts/a nut bar/a cereal bar keeps me full until dinner and gives me energy for the other half of my day.

Now…let’s move on to dinner:

Tip 6: salads & soups

I personally, am much more a fan of salad than of soup. That’s why I always ate a huge bowl of salad and skipped the soup. But I recommend eating at least one of them to fill you up.

If there’s a salad buffet choose cucumber, carrots, toamtoes, cabbage or similar stuff. Try to avoid potato or noodle salads...these kind of salads were commonly marinated with some sort of mayonnaise or other fatty dressings. And...you will get your carbohydrates as a side to your main course anyways.

Speaking of dressings: Make your own. Already marinated salads or pre-made dressings tend to contain a lot more oil and other additives than you would use. When mixing the dressing on your own go for olive, walnut, flax seed or pumpkin seed oil.

When it comes to the main course there are a few things to care about.

As I mentioned before there was a choice out of 5 different main dishes. And…luckily it was possible to order a smaller portion. (But since my brother is quite a hungry person I always ordered the big one and gave him half of my food.)

Here are some examples of our daily menus and what I ordered.

Tip 7: the side dish

Choose dishes with vegetables instead of noodles or potatoes as a side.

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Tip 8: avoid deep fried stuff

Choose dishes wich are grilled, cooked or oven baked instead of deep-fried stuff.

Tip 9: Go vegetarian!

There’s always a vegetarian dish, which contains a great amount of vegetables most of the time. 

Tip 10: lean meat is the key

Prefer lean meat, such as chicken or turkey instead of pork or beef.

Tip 11: portion control

Just because it’s on your plate it doesn’t mean you have to eat every little piece. Take the smaller portion or just leave it if you aren’t that hungry. (...to consider my special case…you can give it to another person as well!! :P )

Let’s continue with the desserts:

I wasn’t able to choose a dessert in my hotel. If that’s the case you can always eat less or cancel it (…or give it to your brother :P )

If you can choose…keep in mind:

Tip 12: Go fruity!

Same as with the main course: Choose desserts with a lot of fruits.

Tip 13: lean dairy

Prefer desserts with lean dairy products such as curd or yogurt instead of heavy cream or similar stuff.

If there’s a little whipped cream on the side…count it as decoration…you don’t have to eat it.

  

Tip 14: fillings & toppings

If there’s cake choose a type without filling/topping or go for a fruity topping instead of butter cream.

I hope all my tips were helpful!

Let me know if you wanna read more of the "tips & tricks" series....

...enjoy your dishes and your vacation!

Kisses from Tyrol

Andrea