manchester

healthy options

food and drink

Restaurants

IS it possible? Can you aim to improve your health, your fitness and your waistline and still enjoy a meal at a restaurant?

Dieticians all agree that a sure-fire way for an eating plan to fail is to ban all the things you love the most, be that pizza or curry or even chip shop chips.

So go-ahead have a treat. But just remember your good resolutions and how great you feel about yourself when you do eat healthily. Whatever the tasty temptations on the menu try not to blow all your hard work so far on a massive pig-out.

If you have been cutting down and eating more fresh and unprocessed foods, a sudden large intake of food could actually make you feel quite uncomfortable and ill.

Here are our top tips on eating out - not pigging out:

Make your first drink a sparkling mineral water. It will leave your mouth feeling clean and your mind more resolute.
Do not touch the bread basket/bread sticks/bombay mix/prawn crackers.
Refuse anything that is fried or covered in a rich creamy sauce.
Try Thai. Foods are mainly light and full of healthy ingredients like ginger and lime juice. But avoid the satay sauce.
Where appropriate eat with chopsticks - you will appreciate every mouthful!
If it has got to be curry, have plain boiled rice not pilau and plain tikka is just as tasty as tikka massala.
Four cheese pizza is a definite no-no. Opt for vegetarian and get them to throw on more peppers and mushrooms.
A baked potato with cheese, butter and sour cream has more calories than a portion of chips.
One restaurant chain marks the Weight Watchers points of each dish on the menu - so take note.
When the pudding menu arrives - you leave. Say you don't want anything and hide in the loo until everyone else has ordered.Chew a piece of gum or suck a mint while you are there to relieve sweet cravings. Return to the table for plain filtered coffee.
Lastly, but most importantly, go to a good restaurant that uses fresh food and cooks it well. It is heartbreaking to splurge your calorie count on a mediocre meal. Bon Appetit.