Eating out

[Rebeccamareia]

My 20 year old son and I are faced with having to go out to eat for most all of our meals. Where can we successfully go to stay on the McDougall diet and what should we order. My son is severely overweight and I must do something now. He has been having blackouts because he is trying to diet and is actually afraid to eat so he eats nothing. He has started drinking Herbalife shakes and smoothie king because they claim to be diet and they are tasty. I know this can't be healthy. Please help. Thanks.

[sigma957]

I have to ask, why you need to eat out so much? If you have a kitchen and some pots and pans you can do this yourself. Buy some canned beans, brown rice (even instant would be fine), some potatoes and some condiments like BBQ sauce or salsa. I saw in another post of yours that you don't have good produce in the stores. Then go with frozen veggies. There should be several different single bags of corn or broccoli and some of the mixtures out there are very good.

[veggiecat]

about eating out is no oil...You can get a lot of different veg dishes at thai,japanese,vietnamese,chinese,indian,mexican,salad bars[ruby tuesday,golden corral,sweet tomatoes]Some chains are veg friendly...pei wei,pf changs...http://www.vegcooking.com/ChainRestaurants.asp has a list of ideas...

[SactoBob]

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.

[txjack]

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 )

[Faith in DC]

I'd also encourage your son to eat, not drink his meals. We get a lot of satisfaction from chewing and it's part of a healthy digestive system. Those shakes and smoothies can hide a heck of a lot of calories too.

Hopefully the eating out is a temporary situation. Just keep it very simple.

[Vanilla Orchid]

I'm going to believe you when you say you need to eat out. Sometimes that's actually true, and here are some things I have done when I was in that situation:

The Elephant Bar:

Order the vegetarian pad thai, and ask that they leave out the oil and the eggs.

Macaroni Grill:

Order the whole wheat penne pasta with pomodoro sauce, and ask that they leave out the oil. Order a salad with no dressing and either bring your own oil free dressing or use plain lemon or vinegar--or nothing.

Most steak houses will serve you a baked potato without toppings, and serving of vegetables without butter or oil and/or a big salad.

Most Mexican restaurants will make you a veggie burrito. Most don't have brown rice, though. Be sure to decline the cheese, sour cream and guacamole, and ask how they cook their beans. They can also make you a salad with lots of veggies and beans.

Any good vegetarian restaurant should be able to make you some kind of dish without oil or dairy.

You can get oatmeal and fruit for breakfast at many restaurants. One that comes to mind is Mimi's.

At Starbucks you can order oatmeal. It's instant, but not bad in a pinch if you let it sit long enough to really "cook". And they will give you a little soy milk for it if you ask. They also usually have some kind of fruit cup you can buy as well.

When all else fails, go to a grocery store and buy some fruit and veggies you can eat raw. Some grocery stores have microwaves you can use so you could bake a potato or sweet potato. No utensils required--just wrap in a napkin.

And, best of luck!

[dlb]

I like to stop at Ruby Tuesdays while traveling. They have great salad bars (as long as you stick with the plain veggies and use the vinegar for dressing) and you can get plain baked potatoes. Prices are usually decent too.

Donna

[toadfood]

Jeff once wrote a post about the "Wendy's Mini" -- said you could get a pretty nutritious meal out of their side salad (no dressing) and baked potatoes (no "butter" or sour cream). He suggested two of each for a hearty meal.

About burritos -- flour tortillas are actually very high in fat. If you haven't seen an ingredient list for the tortilla, skip it and eat the beans and rice. At Chipotle, you can get a "burrito bowl" -- rice, black beans, salsa, and romaine lettuce. That's my go-to dinner when I'm out somewhere and haven't brought anything from home. I ask for extra lettuce.

At P.F. Chang you can get a "Buddha's Feast" that is steamed veggies, tofu, and brown rice. Make sure you ask for steamed, not stir fried.

A lot of Chinese and pan-Asian restaurants have sushi. I have found that 4 or 5 vegetable rolls make a good dinner. Ask them to use brown rice if possible, but white rice is not the end of the world.

[Faith in DC]

I've seen Buddha's feast at Mom and Pop chinese restaurants also. some have brown rice.

Moes you can also get the inside of a plain tofu, bean, rice burrito in a bowl. I add lettuce and tomato and cilanto.

[Steve]

I agree that eating out is dangerous.

However, I found the following

Wendy's is good for side salad (carry your own balsimic vinegar) and baked potato.

You can order a plain rice bowl from Jack in the box with just soy sauce. Of course it is white rice.

My favorite is the subway veggie with lots of just vinegar and pepper, no cheese of course.

My favorite is Taco Tote, but this is not available everywhere.

Steve

[txveggie]

Do you have a Soup and Salad place? We went there this evening and they have a great salad bar with fat free dressings and they have baked sweet and regular potatoes and often have a low fat vegan soup (this evening it was split pea, yum!).

[Rebeccamareia]

Thanks to all of you that offered suggestions to me. You see, my son and I live in a rented room and we are not allowed to cook in the room. We do not have use of a kitchen. I see that some of you doubt the situation and that is somewhat confusing to me, there are many different situations in the world. Anyway, we do have bananas, apples and grapes in the room to eat. My son has been going to Herbal life Shake it up and they make him a shake in the morning. I am not real thrilled with that. I am looking forward to using your suggestions. Thank you all.

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

Rebecca, when I eat out and am not sure of the restaurant, I order one or two baked potatoes with no butter or sour cream, and a salad with no cheese or croutons and have them bring me vinegar only, not oil-and-vinegar. Wendy's has been mentioned, and that is a good choice too. Subway is one I have used in the past but got jumped on for the bread which has oil in it. So if I go there again I would order just a salad with vinegar on it.

I carry small pop-top cans of garbanzo beans (the only kind of bean I can find with a pop-top) to put on salads if I need to, because sometimes there is nothing to order but a plain salad and I need beans or potato or rice or something to eat with it. Plain raw vegetables are not enough to keep me satisfied for very long.

Can you have a microwave in your room? If so, there are those frozen vegetable mixes that you microwave right in the bag, get the ones with no seasoning or sauce. You could also microwave potatoes, sweet potatoes, and instant brown rice.

[toadfood]

I thought of another one -- Panera bread has a vegan black bean soup that is pretty good and low in fat. You can get a piece of whole grain baguette (good) or an apple (better) as your side. The soup is kind of salty, though.

Good luck, Rebecca! I hope you are in a better situation soon -- all that eating out must be very expensive, and restaurant food tends to be too salty.