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.
.
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
