Tonight I’m meeting my best friend from high school, Trista for dinner. Normally one-two times a week I allow myself a cheat meal where I don’t care what I eat. (This is acceptable on a maintainance diet.) After being out of town last weekend though for a wedding (and perhaps eating too much pizza and drinking too much wine there) I am watching my diet to get back on track with training.
So the question then becomes how do I have a fun girls night out and still keep my eating on track for the day?
1. Get in your exercise! A night out isn’t the day to take a day off! Today to make up for the extra calories I will inevitably have, I ran before work and did Yoga on my lunch break.
2. Plan what you are going to have ahead of time. Most restaurants have their menus online. We are meeting at the Macaroni Grill. I decided I was going to have the Pollo Caprese. I also know I will have a glass of wine. I entered that into my meal tracker first thing this morning.
POLLO CAPRESE Cal 560 Total Fat 22 Sodium 1530 Carbs 31 Fiber 5 Protein 60
2. Have a good breakfast so you start the day feeling full. This will make you less likely to chow on bread when you get to dinner! I had 3 eggs and 2 trader joes chicken sweet italian sausages with spinach for a 435 calorie breakfast. Take out an egg or the extra sausage if you need a lower calorie option.
3. Make a salad at home don’t order one from the restaurant. The restaurant salads are way higher in calories than you think. Most are 900-1500 calories with the dressing, especially if they have those yummy onion straws!!
For my salad I had a tuna with spicy peanut vinaigrette, sautéed zucchini, tomatoes, and reduced fat feta crumbles for 370 calories.
3. Have an afternoon snack. I had a White Chocolate Think Thin Bar
4. Stick to the plan…Remember don’t have the bread before your meal and you can go out to eat and eat well all day for 1700 calories. (Remember less if you leave out the cheese crumbles, use a lighter dressing, and have a smaller breakfast portion 🙂 )