10 Tips to Survive Eating Out - Clean Eating

One of the most difficult times of the week for staying on track with clean eating is the weekend. So I wanted to provide you all with my top 10 tips for eating out over the weekend!

1. Plan Ahead: Before I go to a restaurant I always pull up the menu online and know exactly what I will order. This keeps me from being influenced by what other people order, swayed by some of the less healthy options when I am hungry, and ensures I know that healthy options exist before entering the restaurant.
2. Remember that you don’t have to eat it all! Restaurant portions are often double what we should be eating. David and I usually share a meal when we go out but if your husband wants to eat his own meal don’t be afraid to request half your meal be boxed prior to them serving you your meal.
3. Start small and green. Start all your meals with a salad and make sure that it is topped with a low calorie dressing, use a spritz of lemon or balsamic vinegar.
4. Broth is Best: When there is no salad try a broth based soup to start your meal with. Avoid any soups with heavy creams!
5. No bread please. Remember that this is a filler and will only hurt your weight loss goal. Save your calories for the more satisfying items.
6. Clean Cooking techniques rock! Look for entree options featuring steamed or raw veggies and grilled, baked or roasted meats or fish. If they aren’t listed, ask the server to prepare it that way.
7. Zero Tolerance. You want to avoid alcohol because sugar can derail you in the most powerful way. Have sparkling water with lemon or lime slices.
8. No Desserts: Think of your plan to shed those pounds, if you can’t resist something sweet ask for a dish of fresh fruit.
9. Pre-Eat: If you doubt your ability to resist restaurant offerings then pre-eat! Then when you go to a restaurant or social event you don’t have to worry about what’s on the menu and you can focus on socializing and eating your salad or small appetizer.
10. Surrond Yourself with your Supporters: Surround yourself with family and friends that support what you are doing and are not sabotaging your efforts. They will most likely order healthier with you and support your positive decisions!

I know that it isn’t easy but it is worth it. When I am doing more strict eating plans such as the 21 day fix I stay away from restaurants and focus on inviting people to my house for dinners, hiking with friends, or going to a yoga class. There are lots of ways to stay social on the weekends without going to a restaurant!

21 Day Fix Meal Prep Tips

I previously talked about how I prepped my meals ahead of time here and so many of you asked for more tips that I decided to take some pictures of my weekend meal prep this past weekend. I just started the 21 Day Fix meal plan again on Monday so I prepped all my meals using the portioned containers. I purchased the colored ziplock baggies at Target so I could portion from my colored containers directly into them. That way I am ready to grab a few ziplock bags each morning and it is off to work, fast and easy!

For this week here is what my meals look like with the 21 Day Fix Containers:

My breakfast is super easy with Shakeology and I love not having to think about cooking something! I just add some cold brew coffee and it is like a frappuccino for less than the cost of Starbucks.

• Chocolate Vegan Shakeology with cold brew coffee (1 Red Container)

For my lunch, I picked up a rotisserie chicken for $5 and portioned that out for my salads along with some spinach. So with my $5 chicken and $4 organic spinach I had all my lunches for the week for under $10 and didn’t have to cook! David grilled us a steak and we cut it up and portioned that out as well. I like to mix up between chicken and steak for my salads.

• Spinach with either chicken or steak and a balsamic dressing (1 Green Container, 1 Red Container, 1/2 orange container)

For my dinner prep, I was super excited to find already diced sweet potatoes at my grocery store. When I got home I threw them on a baking sheet, sprinkled them with a little cinnamon, and then put them in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Then I let them cool and portioned them into my yellow containers and baggies. Now I just have to heat them up as a quick side with my dinner. I don’t mind having the same sides for dinner but I like to mix up my proteins for my main course.  David is out of town this week so having most of my meal prepped is great since cooking by  myself just isn’t as much fun.

• Main (1 Red): chicken, steak, salmon, tilapia, turkey meatballs
• Sides: sweet potatoes (1 yellow), spinach salad (1 green, 1/2 orange)

My snacks are super easy. I tend to stick to whatever fruits are in season and some nuts. I have been having a piece of fruit as my mid-morning snack and then nuts as my afternoon snack. Yes, I eat 5-6 times a day and lose weight. This plan keeps you eating throughout the day and really helps to stabilize my blood sugar which is huge since I tend to pass out. Side story, I totally passed out at work when trying to do the ‘low carb’ diet, yeah those trend diets are not for me!

• Peaches (1 purple)
• Grapes (1 purple)
• Peanuts (1 blue)

And that is it! It is pretty basic but measuring out all my food ahead of time makes it really easy for me to grab my lunch and head to work quickly. I know that my working Mom’s also find this super helpful since their mornings tend to get crazy!

If you are interested in trying the 21 Day Fix for yourself and want more meal planning tips, recipes, and tools then you should join my upcoming challenge group starting on July 20th. There are limited spots so fill out your application below to be considered for a spot.