Foods

HI!,

so, this dinner with coworkers and boss came up for tonight, they decided it'll be at the steak house....I am very worried about this, I LOOOVE steak, and potatoes, and dessert, and all the delicious things they have there! help!! what can I order that's not gonna blow my calorie intake to the roof? :(

Order what you want, but dont eat all of it. Eat about 1/2 of everything and then have the other half tomorrow for lunch or dinner. You get to eat what you love TWICE!

And just make sure you dont go overboard at lunch today either

Try to get water instead of alcohol or soda when youre at dinner, that'll save calories as well and allow you to enjoy delicious food

and if you do go over, its just one day, its not going to kill you, just excercise a little more tomorrow

Hm...this would definitely be a problem for me too. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of girl.

Try substituting vegetables for the potato, or if you really really want the potato, just ask for half the serving that they usually give?

As for steak...get the smallest one possible I suppose.

And dessert is always a toughy. Maybe try splitting with someone?

I agree with pokemewithpolaris. Order a salad to come out first so you can avoid the bread (my weakness!!!). Sub a sweet potato for regular potato and get steamed veggies (which are delicious at steak houses!) Don't eat the entire steak, bring it home. And what I do, especially at work lunches when everyone orders desert, is just try a bite of everyone's!

Ummmmm, though, I love me some steak!

Thank you all!! I will do that, veggies, MAYBE half potato and the half steak! I still don't know if I can stick with the no dessert policy...but I'll try!! mmmm .

I have to do this all the time for work and it's hard to stick to your calories, but a steakhouse is actually easier than a lot of restaurants as the food is simple and the weight of the steak is usually on the menu, so you can tell portion sizes.  Ordering a salad and staying away from the bread is good advice.  Steak houses usually have a fish option or 2, and you can just order it plain, grilled, no butter.  If you have to have steak (just gotta sometimes), go with the filet mignon and ask them to grill it without butter.  It's one of the leanest cuts and usually the smallest portion, 8 or 12 oz, look up the calories before you go and know how many ounces you want to eat, then eat the appropriate amount.  But they'll put butter on it while grilling to make sure its moist, so you need to ask them not to.

About the shared sides:  order your own side of a steamed vegetables and ask for the sauce on the side, even if a communal order is being placed.  Or if its all employees work with the group to make sure one of the veggies sides has the sauce on the side.  If it's customers, I just work discretely with the waiter, order what I want, and don't go into it with the other guests.

Drink a lot of water,  as your steak was probably soaked in meat tenderizer of some kind, loaded with salt.  But you can't do anything about that.  Try not to weigh yourself for a couple days until the salt clears your system - it'll just  upset you.  Hope this helps...

Thanks Scalebeater!!! that was wonderful advice!!!

Hi,

This doesn't have to be a big deal for you. Have you heard of the 80-20 rule? 80% of the time you eat well lets say, 20% of the time you can have a little something. Order what you like to eat, and make sure you are truly HUNGRY when you get there; then pace yourself. Stop eating when you are satisfied not stuffed. Then have dessert if you must, the smaller the bites you take the longer you get to enjoy the taste. Remember the enjoyment of eating is in the taste so eat slowly & savor, so get as many satisfying tastes as you can out of your meal. Then what you don’t eat you can always carry out. Don’t worry so much about calories on this day, pay more attention to your bodies queue of true hunger and fullness.

I just want to add that water fills the stomach up & also stretches the stomach when you drink too much at once. Perhaps for this day you can not fill up on water too much. Taking small sips between bites can cleans the pallet for the next taste.

Normally at steakhouses they do have fish options .... However, if it were me, I would probably just enjoy myself and have a healthy upcoming weekend. But if you want to go calorie conscious, I suggest a shrimp cocktail as an appetizer without tartar sauce - use cocktail sauce or better yet lemon juice (stay away from the cheese toast or iceberg wedge with bluecheese and bacon!!) and either lobster tail (try to go light on the butter sauce) or their simply grilled fish entre or, as said above, if you want the beef go with the petite filet mignon (so lean!!). Skip dessert unless it's just fresh berries. Sure lobster and shrimp are high cholesterol but low cals (watch for the sauces though) ... just don't have any other high cholesterol foods for a few days. Don't worry and enjoy it, sounds delish!

Don't sweat the cholesterol in the shellfish.

At one time they couldn't tell the difference between cholesterol and other sterols. Shellfish has a lot of those harmless sterols so it got a bad rep.

Except for shrimp, nearly all of it has less than the steak, serving for serving. I don't know why CC says 3 oz. of lobster with 60 mg of cholesterol is 'very high' in cholesterol, while 3 oz. of sirloin with 76 mg is just 'high'. Even shrimp, with about twice as much, is so low in fat that the Mayo Clinic has it on it's 'good foods' list. Just step away from the butter!

Order a filet mignon.  Expensive but darmed well worth it.  It's fairly lean high quality protien and it's appropriately portioned.  Get some shrimp to go with it.  Have a big salad so you're not tempted by the appetizers.  Watch for the "extra bits" in the salad.  Have them put all that on the side so you can control it.  Salad dressing is a biggie too.  Get the potatoe and have them put the butter and such on the side there as well.  Have dessert if you want it.  Know that you'll pay for it, but if you really want it, eat it.  Just make sure that it's good enough to merit the time at the gym, on the treadmill, running, etc. that you'll have to put in to burn it off.

It's all an equation - what goes in the mouth must be worked off and then some.  Just be sure that you're willing to do the work before you eat it.

Original Post by chris1208:

Don't sweat the cholesterol in the shellfish.

At one time they couldn't tell the difference between cholesterol and other sterols. Shellfish has a lot of those harmless sterols so it got a bad rep.

Except for shrimp, nearly all of it has less than the steak, serving for serving. I don't know why CC says 3 oz. of lobster with 60 mg of cholesterol is 'very high' in cholesterol, while 3 oz. of sirloin with 76 mg is just 'high'. Even shrimp, with about twice as much, is so low in fat that the Mayo Clinic has it on it's 'good foods' list. Just step away from the butter!

Good point about comparing cholesterol in meat vs shellfish ...