SactoBob wrote:Rebeccamareia wrote:My 20 year old son and I are faced with having to go out to eat for most all of our meals. .
I too would challenge that assumption. There are rice cookers, pressure cookers, bento boxes, thermos bottles, produce departments, fruit, portable coolers, - so many tools for you to take control of what you eat.
Otherwise, the best thing is to scout the restaurants and eat the same meal at the same place every time if you can find a place that will serve you healthy food. There are a lot of posts here on how to eat at restaurants and you can search those. Jeff Novick has written on this topic.
I agree with the comments offered so far. At first, it seemed a big hassle to make my lunch each day, but I have been doing that. I bought a thermal type bag that keeps everything cold and can heat things if I like it, but mostly, I eat my things cold. I have specific plastic containers to carry my lunches that fit the bag.
I carry a specific lunch each day, a decent sized salad, and a rice dish that does not vary, exept I change the type of bean. I make 4 servings of brown rice, eat some for dinner, and the rest measure out with 1 can of beans, like pinto, red, cannanelli or black beans along with salt free corn. I like things spicy so sometimes will cut up a jalapeno or add cayenne pepper, but add no salt. Dr. McDougall talks about eating a wide variety of foods but prefers people keep it simple and repetative.
So, my schedule is Oatmeal for breakfast, each day. If I am on a time crunch, I will put it in a small container and eat it later, but I make an effort to eat breakfast, including getting up earlier to do it. I carry the rice dish, salad and an apple for snack if I get hungry, and honestly, I normally don't.
If I do eat out I try to go to a place that serves plain ole baked potatoes. You have to watch that because most major chains don't. Nowadays, it's a whipped, cheese/butter/sour cream mixture. Watch out, some will put oil on even plain potatoes to make the salt stick. I have gone to Luby's and while their veggies are bacon/butter soaked, I have gotten the potatoes and gotten side of salsa or pico and been very satisfied.
I also like mexican food. I get a salad with no cheese, black beans with no cheese and corn tortillas. The corn tortillas can be eaten even on the Maximum Weight Loss (mwl) version of the McDougall program. Flour tortillas can have lard or other unacceptable items, so stay away from them. I also will get a Veggie Delite salad at subway sometimes, but it isn't as filling.
Now, keep in mind, I used to eat out lunch every day. Many times breakfast, too, and tried to be healthy about it, but let's face it -- fast food and healthy eating just don't go together. I read an article just today about the "healthiest" fast foods. One listed was chicken McNuggets from McDonalds. The sodium amount was very high and so was the fat. The healthiest from unhealthy is still unhealthy.
The best thing to do would be to read the archived newsletters, read the different forums and all the McDougall books you can to get ideas. Education is key, but the bottom line is putting it into practice, period. (Hey, I am starting to sound like SactoBob
)