· Order With Your Brain, Not Your Stomach
If you arrive at the restaurant so hungry that you're ready to chew on the waitperson's arm, you'll probably order recklessly. So, if the dinner reservation isn't before sunset, take the edge off at home with a salad, bowl of vegetable soup, or slice of toast before going out.
· Salute the Salad
Order a salad with light dressing as a first course to keep your mouth busy -- and your hands out of the basket of pecan rolls. Greens fill you up, but at the expense of only a few calories.
· Hunt For A Lean Entree
Seafood and skinless chicken breast are typically the leanest of the lean. Be careful though: Even these can be high-calorie, high-fat rollers if they're prepared with butter, cheese, or cream sauces. Look for grilled seafood, chicken, or beef kabobs: These dishes typically keep the sauce light, the amount of protein low, and minimize calories and fat. It will also guarantee that some vegetables arrive on your plate.
If you are craving beef, order a small sirloin steak or petite filet mignon rather than fatty prime rib. Stir-fry entrees are also a good choice because they usually have more veggies than meat (yay!). Pasta with a light tomato sauce is another excellent choice. Ask for an appetizer-sized portion if the pasta is heaped on a plate the size of a serving dish.
· Know the Lingo
Look for entrees that include preparation techniques such as steamed, baked, boiled, poached, and grilled. Foods topped with salsa or fruit glaze get a thumbs-up while those topped with sour cream or aioli (a garlic-flavored mayonnaise) don't. Avoid words like fried (pan-fried, deep-fried) and seared. Watch out for cream soups, scampi, and parmigianos (even the eggplant kind), which can be loaded with fat.
· Belly Up To The Bar
Alcohol is absorbed in your stomach and in the first part of the small intestine. So drinking alcohol with little food in your stomach can cause you to feel its effect more quickly. Women are even more susceptible to alcohol's effects than men: Glass for glass, women absorb about 1/3 more alcohol than men of the same size. That's because females have fewer detoxifying enzymes in their stomach and aren't able to break down alcohol as effectively.
For either sex, that large glass of wine you guzzle on an empty stomach while you're waiting for a table may numb your willpower as well as your better judgment. As a result, by the time you're seated, everything on the menu will seem to shout your name -- feeding into a potential eating frenzy. To avoid alcohol-induced overindulgence, make your pre-dinner drink a nonalcoholic sipper, and save the alcohol for the main meal -- AFTER the order has been placed. Better yet, dine out earlier to avoid long restaurant waits.
· Desert Dessert
You thought I'd tell you to skip dessert completely, didn't you?
Try splitting a dessert with a buddy, or buddies. Or, you might try balancing the extra dessert calories by ordering an even leaner entree -- or (preferably and) by walking home from the restaurant to exercise off some of the apple pie a la mode.
Sorbets or sherbet will satisfy your sweet tooth for a song. And a small scoop of ice cream may actually be one of the leanest items if your only other options are Death By Chocolate, tiramisu, or New York cheesecake (my favorite).