Picture this - you're sitting in your favorite restaurant, scanning the menu, and you're unsure of what to choose because you are now being mindful of what you eat and how it affects your health. The siren call of unhealthy options tempts you, but you're committed to your wellness journey. How do you navigate this scenario without compromising your health goals? That’s what we are about to cover in this episode.
As a holistic health coach, my journey has given me insights into the hidden traps in restaurant menus and how you can maneuver around them. I'll share my five-step process to make dining out a breeze, without jeopardizing your health. We will explain why asking questions is vital and how to practice healthy habits right at your dinner table. Also, we'll discuss how to read between the lines of a menu, why you should order water first, and the power of customized requests.
Lastly, we'll learn about mindful portion control, and how to make informed food choices, even when faced with enticing dishes. And remember, asking for sauces and dressings on the side isn't being fussy - it's being smart. Let's turn dining out into a delightful, healthy and aligned experience. For anyone seeking extra guidance, I also offer one on one food and holistic health coaching to support your wellness journey. Together, let's transform the way you dine out.
Thank you so much for listening!
Follow me on Instagram
Book a Consultation
Visit my website & sign up for my newsletter
Picture this - you're sitting in your favorite restaurant, scanning the menu, and you're unsure of what to choose because you are now being mindful of what you eat and how it affects your health. The siren call of unhealthy options tempts you, but you're committed to your wellness journey. How do you navigate this scenario without compromising your health goals? That’s what we are about to cover in this episode.
As a holistic health coach, my journey has given me insights into the hidden traps in restaurant menus and how you can maneuver around them. I'll share my five-step process to make dining out a breeze, without jeopardizing your health. We will explain why asking questions is vital and how to practice healthy habits right at your dinner table. Also, we'll discuss how to read between the lines of a menu, why you should order water first, and the power of customized requests.
Lastly, we'll learn about mindful portion control, and how to make informed food choices, even when faced with enticing dishes. And remember, asking for sauces and dressings on the side isn't being fussy - it's being smart. Let's turn dining out into a delightful, healthy and aligned experience. For anyone seeking extra guidance, I also offer one on one food and holistic health coaching to support your wellness journey. Together, let's transform the way you dine out.
Thank you so much for listening!
Follow me on Instagram
Book a Consultation
Visit my website & sign up for my newsletter
Hola friends, welcome back to Wealthy Generation Podcasts that is WELTHY. Today, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite topics and something that really stumps my clients, so essentially, I'm recording this for them so they can actually have this as a resource. However, you're going to get to benefit from this as well, because when you're on a wellness journey or a health and wellness journey, and when you are learning about food, how it works in the body and basically how to eat almost all over again, or to eat because some of y'all don't eat or don't eat enough, one of the biggest challenges is eating food outside. So that's anything outside of the home, anything you're not making in your house or groceries you buy, whether it's takeout, ordering in, going to a restaurant, going to your loved one's house, anything like that. But specifically today, we're going to talk about when you go to a restaurant, or even you can use these tips and tools when you're ordering in or getting takeout or anything like that as well. So why do I want to talk about this? Because usually, when I start working with my clients, we start making adjustments to the food that they're making at home most of the time, or they're buying at home. That is most common. So they get really good at making meals in their house and getting groceries and just coming up with what they're going to eat at home, especially because most of the time what we're eating at home is pretty repetitive. There are not there's very few people who just make different things all the time, feel like making different meals all the time or something like that. It's pretty much a rotation. So it becomes very not easy, but very. You become very comfortable with doing things at home.
Speaker 1:Now things get a little more complicated when you start to go out to eat, especially in these places or these restaurants where they're your go-tos. You know your order, you might know the staff. It's like it just rolls off your tongue. You know exactly what you're getting there and in those places it might become just a little bit more complicated or not top of mind how to incorporate your new health and wellness habits in these areas. So that is what I'm going to help you out with today.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go through kind of a five-step process that I have learned over the past seven years of my own health and wellness journey that allows me to eat out and to enjoy food at restaurants. I'm a big foodie. I love going out to eat, I love trying different cuisines and different dishes and all that, but I have learned how to do that in the scope of where I am still feeling good in my body, I am not giving myself stomach aches and I am also enjoying my food. So that is something I want for you as well, and I'm going to be sharing this with you. Please, if you get a little bit overwhelmed, just know that you can come back and listen to this anytime you want, and don't feel the pressure of trying to remember or incorporate every single one of these tips at once. Remember, it's been about a seven-year process to learn how to do this, and I'm just kind of condensing it all here for you now, so let's start with just some.
Speaker 1:I guess it's perspective setting of what might happen when or what you might feel as I get into the five tips that I have for you, and that is that we are going to have to grow our capacity to feel like maybe a little bit embarrassed or a little bit of oh, I'm bothering people, or I don't want to be complicated, or I don't want to be that person, because what's going to start to happen is that you are going to have to build a relationship with whoever is helping you at the restaurant the server or the waitress or the person at the counter, whoever it is. I will always encourage you to ask questions and to ask for things like substitutions and what's possible and what's in the food. It might not be necessary all the time and once you go somewhere, it's probably you probably don't need to ask again, but I want you to be curious as to what is in your food, especially if the menu is not very descriptive. And I get a lot of pushback from clients of oh, that's so embarrassing, I don't want to bother this waiter or this waitress, this person who's there to help me. Hello, but you know what? Just be kind, be kind. They are human and they are working and they're there working. It's their job to help you, is their job to know the menu, is the job to ask questions for you and facilitate these conversations with the chef or whoever they need to talk to Is their job to figure it out? That's why they're there. Just be kind. That's always my approach. I always ask in a super kind way and I don't make a big deal about it if they tell me it's not possible, or when they tell me that there's an upcharge or something like that, then it's up to you to make a decision, right, okay? So already, knowing that this is maybe the kind of feelings that are going to come up with you, for you, let's get into these tips.
Speaker 1:Okay, the first step is actually to start with practicing these skills at home, and by that I mean I want you to start working at home on how you're incorporating vegetables and proteins to your meals. I want you to maybe find some ways to put that weight on the foodk bail. I'll let you know how to take a veggie approach first to your meals at home, because most of the time we have our protein set. We know if we're eating chicken, beef, tofu, shrimp, fish we kind of know that already. And the carbohydrates, we know if we're eating rice, pasta, potatoes, platanos, tortillas, pupuzas, like. We already know these kinds of things, the carby ones, but the one that gets left behind always is a veggie. So how I would train myself at home.
Speaker 1:First I would ask myself what vegetable I was going to eat with that meal, because I already knew I was having chicken and rice. All right, with what? Is it going to be salad Is it going to be broccoli, green beans, something like that? And always knowing to anchor your carbohydrates, to put to not eat naked carbohydrates, to always have a fat and a protein available when you're eating that. What does that look like? It means if you're having rice paired with a protein and a fat, whether that's avocado, whether that's the olive oil, you cook your vegetables in something like that your pasta, your corn tortillas, your pupuzas, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:Make sure that you are creating a balance with vegetables and protein. Usually, the fat can come in the way of the oil you're cooking things in, or things like olives, avocado, or maybe it's even like a fatty fish that serves a dual purpose. So, when you create this habit at home, I want you to carry that through when you go to a restaurant as well and ask yourself how can I incorporate some sort of veggies into what I'm eating? Does that look like adding lettuce and tomato to a burger? Does that look like asking for a side salad instead of the fries or ordering a side salad beforehand? Does it look like ordering a salad before your pizza? I know I'm mentioning salad a lot, but it can really be any, any vegetable that is available. Okay, so that is number one.
Speaker 1:Number two is learning what your restaurant options are. What restaurants are more aligned with your health and wellness journey? Did we move, let's say, from something like McDonald's or Burger King to a restaurant like Chipotle or Cava that is more fast? Casual is not necessarily fast fast food, right? So I want you to have a list of restaurants that have the quality of food that you're looking for and that the food is prepared or has options as to what you're looking for. Okay, and by that I'll give you an example and I think I mentioned this in the last podcast and the one before this and where, around my house, I have things like White Castle, wendy's, kfc, popeyes, mcdonald's, checkers, domino's, pizza Hut, like every single fast food restaurant, and they're completely out of my mind and zone of options, because I have decided that, unless that, unless it's an emergency, because you never say never one time I did get my only option was McDonald's and that's what I had and that's what I gave my kids. But if I have an option, that's probably not going to be my first option. So those restaurants for me are just not even an option, right? Every once in a while we get the kids Wendy's and things like that, but it's not a go to place. So I have my list of go to restaurants that fit what I want for my health, that fit my health and wellness journey and how I want to feel. So that's two making sure you have options of restaurants that are in line with your health and wellness journey and the whole, the goals that you want to the health goals you want to accomplish for yourself.
Speaker 1:Number three is learning how to read the menu. Now you might be saying, naomi, I know how to read a menu. Yes, I am confident that you know how to read, but what I want you to do with the menu is to think outside of the box. Okay, the menu is set up in a specific way to make them more money, and the way that meals are presented and the waiter or the waitress is trained to ask you questions is based on increasing their revenue. Well duh, you want your restaurant to make money and the waiter wants a bigger tip. So, of course, if they upsell, you want things or you're ordering extra things, the total of the bill is going to be higher, so probably the percentage of tip you're going to give them is going to be higher. Think about all these things right. So what I mean is two things. Think about that.
Speaker 1:When you get there, usually what the waiter or waitress asks you first is do you want to drink? Yes, I want to drink. The first thing I want is water. But you know they're asking you if you want some sort of other drink, like an alcoholic beverage that, if you're like in New York, is like $15 plus right, or some sort of other soda or something like that. But the first thing I always request is water. I always want water, even if I'm having a cocktail, even if I always want water, always want water. So that's one.
Speaker 1:Two, the way that the menu is set up is usually the appetizers, the main dishes, the sides, desserts, all of that. So you want to notice them, but that doesn't actually mean that that is the way that you are going to order your food, right, like you don't have to order an appetizer, you don't have to order a drink, all this. But guess what the waiter is going to ask you, or the waitress there, your server, will ask you oh, would you like an appetizer? What appetizer would you like? Or if you order your main dish, you're like do you want an appetizer and then, after you're done eating, they'll ask you do you want a dessert? Do you want another drink? Remember, they are being kind but at the same time they want to probably make your bill a little higher. So they can get a tip, which is fine, and you can set your server whatever you would like, depending on their service. Right?
Speaker 1:If you are going to explore appetizers, I want you to pay attention to how they're prepared. Most of the time, advertise, I mean advertisers. Advertisers is where they're very carb heavy, right, and that's one of the things that we mentioned. We want to balance out with protein or veggies first, or their deep fried, or they have a lot of sauce on it, like you just want to be mindful of how, what are the appetizer options, how they're being prepared. At the same time, appetizers can hold some true gems like skewers, ceviche, some sort of shrimp cocktail, like it. Just it kind of depends on the cuisine that you're going for and what they have on their appetizer list.
Speaker 1:Where I really want you to potentially look for an appetizer, if that's what you're interested in and in the mood for, is actually in the sides. The sides usually have some sort of veggie dish on it. Again, it depends on the cuisine. I know in Italian restaurants they have that. Some American restaurants they have veggies as a side. So I've ordered things like Brussels sprouts, green beans, spinach. There are a ton usually not a ton maybe a few vegetable options in the side section. I go to this Cuban restaurant and the side section is not where the veggies are. Actually they have one side that it's steamed vegetables, but their side is also like rice and beans and plantains and you know Jucca and things like that.
Speaker 1:So what I do as a veggie starter or as part of the meal is I order one of their salads to share with the table. Usually I'm with you know, my family and other people, so I don't order a salad just for myself, but I do order a salad for us to share, because usually my dish is just a protein and a carbohydrate, unless I get the side veggies. But let's be real, I'm getting the motorized, okay. And then for your main dishes, you want to explore and see what the side is that comes with it. Some restaurants allows you to pick a side and some don't. So let's say I'm at a Italian restaurant and I want to pasta as my main dish and it doesn't really have a protein on it, then I want to make sure that my appetizer or I'm ordering a veggie or an appetizer that has some sort of veggie or protein in it and that usually looks like maybe calamari or a salad or broccoli or something like that.
Speaker 1:You can always ask. If you have a choice as to what side comes with your dish, then that's great. You can also make adjustments to that dish. You can ask your server for a different combination. For example, there is a bar that we go to often because their bar food is really good, and whenever I order, let's say, a burger, the side options are regular fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings, parmesan garlic fries like it's just a bunch of fries and I usually ask them for a side salad as my side. It's not on the menu and it's never a problem. They actually give me a side salad. So all you have to do is ask and then I take an onion ring for my son and some fries for my other son, but it's not the main thing that I have on my plate that I'm eating. I'm also getting some sort of veggies in and I have my side salad with a burger.
Speaker 1:These are things that might bug you at first and might seem very odd, because it's not, quote on quote, the norm. We're very conditioned as to what our meals should look like, right, and whenever you go outside of that, people make fun of us. People make, might make comments about what we're doing, they might criticize us or, you know, it's not always the most comfortable experience and I speak from experience where people comment like, oh, you're always on a diet, oh, you might gosh, you eat so healthy and all that. But guess what? I'm the one without the stomach ache later on, I'm the one without feeling super pretz and without a blood sugar crash, right. So I notice all these things. You can make fun of me all you want, but I know that after I'm done eating in the way that I like to eat and I enjoy eating and the way that it agrees with my body, I will not feel sick and that, to me, is the real joke. So don't come at me.
Speaker 1:Okay, now let's talk about the adjustments that you can make to your dish. I briefly spoke about, you know, replacing a side and requesting that, or maybe ordering aside from your main dish, or maybe ordering from the side section of the menu or the appetizer section of the menu and making combinations like that. But what other kinds of adjustments this is kind of tip number four can you make to your dishes? So one of the things you can ask for, or see if it's available on the menu, is how food is prepared. Is the chicken fried, is it grilled, is it baked? Do you have a choice? Can you ask for an option like that?
Speaker 1:So oftentimes, if my kids want things like chicken tenders and french fries, I kind of have this rule where I don't want to give them double fried food like deep fried chicken fingers and deep fried french fries. I want to kind of create their a balance right. So what I normally ask for is if the chicken, if they can have grilled chicken instead of deep fried chicken, and usually the answer is yes, even if it's not on the menu. So if it's not an option, I usually have a discussion with my kid about changing the french fries to something else. I know there are tons of picky kids out here. The earlier you start these habits, the more it will flow, the more they will understand, or if you try and explain it to them. But always be patient when adjusting things such as food, because it can really be something like. That's triggering or they will get discouraged or something like that. So you always can ask how the food is plated or prepared.
Speaker 1:With that said, something that happens often is that dishes have a lot of sauce on it over it. On it, it's just sauce galore, and sauce has Oftentimes so much sugar, so much unhealthy fat. It can be super inflammatory. It can have so many GMO ingredients, such as corn starch to thicken up the sauce. So you want to be mindful as to how heavy your meal is just by the sauce. So always aim to ask for the sauce on the side, especially on things like sushi rolls, sandwiches, burgers, wraps. They just pile stuff on to add more flavor and if you just oh, salad dressing is another one and if you just ask for these things on the side, you can be saving yourself a humongous stomach ache and a lot of heaviness. Also, being mindful of descriptions on the menu that say like creamy you know things like that that say like creamy, crispy aioli those are like key words for very heavy sauces that they're trying to make appealing right. So you want to be cautious of that.
Speaker 1:Usually if a, let's say, a pasta dish is a creamy dish, I try and avoid it just because I know it will land so heavy in my belly. I try and go for something that's oil based, like oil and garlic or tomato base, because I know it just lands so much better on my stomach. So be mindful of the sauces. They should be bringing them on the side if you ask for it. I know I order this like sushi plate and to make this plate beautiful they put sauce all around it and it's really hard to get past it. And the first time I ordered this dish I did not know it came that way and I was like, oh my God. So I tried to move it to another clean dish so it would stop absorbing the sauce. And now, when I want that sauce, when I want that dish again, when I go back to that restaurant, I just tell them to bring the sauce on the side. Does the plate look like the beautiful presentation that they created? No, but I don't care, because I'm the one eating this food and I don't want my belly to hurt and I really do enjoy it the way that they bring it without the sauce or just incorporating a tiny bit when they bring the sauce on the side for me.
Speaker 1:So also be mindful of lots of cheese and dishes with lots of cheese that can be super heavy and saturated, like some pasta dishes, quesadillas, sandwiches. Be mindful of that. Oftentimes we can do without the extra, extra cheese of things, because that also creates such a heaviness and they are usually tied with a carbohydrate, like pasta, quesadillas, sandwiches. All of that. So the combination of both of those things can make you feel really uncomfortable and there's actually this confusion that you cannot tell if you're actually full or you're bloated. Okay, that is a real deal. People can't really distinguish between. They think that if they're bloated, then they're full, but then they might be hungry later on, and it's so confusing. So I want you to start paying attention. Like are you full Really? Are you satisfied? Are you not craving anything? Are you able to not eat for the next three to four hours at least, or are you craving things and wanting things and you feel really full and uncomfortable and that's probably a good sign that you're actually bloated.
Speaker 1:Another tip is in this section when you get your meal. Usually the portion sizes of meals are out of control. They are not for one person, but we have this idea that you have to eat all your food. You have to clean your plate. You can't leave any food on your plate because it's disrespectful. But guess what? You are the one that should know your body best. You should know when you're full or not, and if the portion is double what you actually need, then there should be no shame in taking a doggy back home with you or what I like to think about, as in the moment, foods Is it okay to just leave the rest of it and you don't need it at home?
Speaker 1:So I used to go to this restaurant and order this pasta dish and the pasta dish was enormous. So what I would do is, right at the beginning, when I would receive my plate, I would cut the portion in half and I would push it to the side to create a clear physical divide that I could see, so that when I was finished eating that first portion that I portioned out for myself, I got to check in with myself to see if I was still hungry or not, if I was actually full. Usually I was already full, so I would take the rest home with me. So identify already by looking at a plate, you can most likely tell if it's too much food, so you can decide what you're going to eat from that. You can physically cut it if you think that you're not going to be able to hold back. Ask for it to go container right away so that you can pack it and put it to the side and it becomes kind of that out of sight, out of mind strategy. So many strategies for portion control to help you understand if you are full and it is safe to take home with you.
Speaker 1:Now, in the moment, foods for me are things like french fries. I love french fries. Do I need to take the leftover fries home? Probably not. It's okay to let it go. They're an in the moment food. I enjoyed it in the moment. I do not need it in my house. So when it was really tough for me to stop eating, even though I was full, I would just ask the server to take the plate so that it would be off the table and I would not be tempted to continue eating when I was already full. So know the difference in the moment food. Do you really need to take it home with you? If you have food left over, pack it up and have it ready to go right away. No, no, no. Shame in that. I want to quickly touch on drinks. Okay, drinks can pile on to whatever goal you have. Just because you don't chew, it doesn't mean that it's not affecting you.
Speaker 1:If you are having alcoholic beverages and they are cocktails you want to be very mindful of what ingredients they are using to create these drinks. Usually, they're adding something that's called simple syrup, which is basically melted sugar in water, dissolved sugar in water, to sweeten your drink. They are using things like grenadine or some sort of syrup. They are adding straight up sugar to the drink, for example, in a caipirinha. They are using super creamy alcohols like calua and baileys. If you're having margaritas, they're normally adding things like sour mix. It's not even a real margarita, it's just like chemical coloring and high fructose corn syrup. Right, and also keeping in mind that liqueurs have sugars in them as well. So if you are having multiples of these drinks, they are really not going to allow you to feel well, especially drinks like, let's say, sangrias and Moscow mules, where the amount of sugar in ginger beer is outrageous. Anything with tonic water. Tonic water has outrageous sugar amounts. So be mindful of what kind of drinks you're ordering. If it looks super colorful, if it looks super bright, if it is a frozen drink. You, those are all red flags, absolute red flags.
Speaker 1:I got to the point where I just did not order any drinks at one point, like cocktails, because the places I was going to to had all these kinds of ingredients in their drinks. So I would ask for tequila on the rocks, I would ask for a side of lemons or limes and some salt or water and I would create my own drink at the table because I knew that was not going to make me feel sick and it allowed for the transition from having super sweet processed drinks. I was down for a frozen margarita, frozen pina colada, any day, baby, any day, and then I noticed how sick that was making me feel and I had to switch it up. I had to switch it up. Okay, the last tip I believe this is number five, it is move, and if I screwed up the numbers, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:The last one is your movement and your mindset. Can you create a strategy where you go for a walk after your meals? Because moving will allow you to have better digestion of your food. It will help you get the blood sugar out of your system, or like the sugar out of your bloodstream, because you are using your muscles. So I know sometimes that is not an option. But, for example, when we go out to eat, we usually leave another errand to do afterwards, like groceries, are going to target or going for an actual walk, depending on the time right. But we try and do some sort of movement after eating. If it's at home, it's a little different. Maybe you pick up, maybe you fold some laundry, maybe you wash dishes, maybe you walk around your house, maybe you stretch and move around for a little while after eating to help your body digest. And when it comes to mindset, just know, as I mentioned in the beginning of the podcast of this episode, that I know I gave you so much to think about. That is unfair to try and have the expectation that you will be able to follow every single one of these steps the next time you order food and you go out to eat right.
Speaker 1:Something that I help my clients do is if they're going to a new place. For example, my client had a work trip and she sent me the location that she was going to be in. I helped her choose restaurants to pick meals from, because she was overwhelmed by that decision and there were a lot of restaurants there that used to be her go to. So I helped her create a list of restaurants that were more aligned with her health and wellness journey. Now, or depending on the restaurants that they go to, if they know a specific one that they have an activity in, or whatever that is, we'll go through the menu together to see what options there are, because usually they come to me and they're like oh no, I'm freaking out, I don't know what to eat. It's very limited because we have this one sighted view of how to read a menu, but then when I see the menu, I see so many options and so many combinations.
Speaker 1:So I don't want you to be stressed out and have the thought that to live a lifestyle rooted in wellness, you must cook at home all of the time. That is super unrealistic, super duper, because having meals outside of your house is actually part of holistic wellness. You're usually connecting with others, you're usually resting because you don't have to cook a meal and then clean up, right. So it can be very well part of your wellness strategy. But thinking about these things, you know everything I mentioned, from the quality of food to how your food is prepared, to what. How can you read this menu in a way that's tailored to your health and wellness goals, instead of what the restaurant wants you to do.
Speaker 1:Thinking about, thinking about the ingredients that are being used in the dishes and asking for adjustments are all skills to learn when you want to be confident eating outside of your home and you can absolutely get results and improve your health while you're eating out. And there are things that you might not be able to control, like the oil that they're using or something like that, but if that's not an option for you, then don't get the deep fried food right. You know that that's going to have a lot more oil than if they just maybe like grill your chicken or something like that. So it's hard to give specific, specific guidance because, again, there are many different kinds of cuisines and, depending on the restaurant that I go to, then I pick different strategies to use. However, you can start somewhere.
Speaker 1:So the next time you go out to eat to a restaurant, especially If it's a restaurant that's your go-to, I would love for you to take a pause. Take a pause and try and actually look at the menu and see how you can better align it for whatever your health and wellness goals are Okay. Just know it'll take a little bit of work at first, but with time this is going to become second nature and you're going to be able to see it right away. You're just going to bypass the pre-programmed strategy that restaurants have on their menu and you're going to be able to make choices based on what your needs are instead of what the restaurant's needs are. Okay, all right, I cannot wait to hear how your strategies and how you're enjoying going out to eat and hopefully you feel a lot safer and a lot more calm about enjoying food outside of your home.
Speaker 1:And I have to remind you, if you're like, if your head is spinning right now, if you don't know what to do in your home and much less what to do outside of your home, and you know that you are just making super random, unintentional decisions that are last minute because you never thought about this and you're just running around. I want to teach you, I want to support you and I want to help you build these habits so they are second nature to you, so you can live a lifestyle rooted in wellness, where you feel amazing in your body, you're not having constant energy crashes because of what you're eating and you are confident in your decisions. You can walk up to any place. You can walk anywhere and know exactly what to do. This is what I want for you. Okay, I invite you to book a consultation for one-on-one food and holistic health coaching with me. I cannot wait to chat with you next week. Bye-bye.