Today we're going to talk about just eating out. Because sometimes that can be stressful for people who are concerned about blood sugar issues, and other health issues. So I'm going to give you a couple of hints that will be really helpful for you. Here's the first one. When you eat out if you have the opportunity pick restaurants that have a variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as if you're doing animal proteins, animal proteins that you like as well. Pick restaurants like Mediterranean restaurants, Asian type restaurants usually are very accommodating to say Hey, would you mind taking this out?

Or can I have an extra serving of fruits and vegetables or whatever it is that you want? That will help you try to do replacements if they offer french fries, see if you can get sauteed vegetables or a side salad. Those fibers will help you to keep your blood sugar balance. The other thing you can do is you can actually find places where you generally tend to eat out at lunch or a dinner, bring the menus home, look at the menus and literally circle the foods that you can eat. So the next time that you go to those restaurants, or you order from those restaurants, you're making choices, and you're making choices that fit your eating plants. So those are things that you can do when you're eating out.

When you're eating out with friends. I know sometimes people feel embarrassed about having different food options than their friends wanted. You can actually go to the waiter or waitress on the side and say, Hey, you know what, I have some dietary restrictions. I had a couple of questions for you about the menu. If you don't want to talk about it in front of your friends, get the information that you need to make the best choice possible. Remember, you want to make sure that there's protein on your plate, whether it's animal or whether it's a vegetarian plant based option, as well as having half of your plate fruits and vegetables.

So really talking about substitutes will make a big difference in making your plate look that way. Another thing when you're eating out is asked about the portion sizes. I was amazed when I went to a restaurant and I just decided to get some salmon and some broccoli, and they had a baked potato and so I ate that and I asked about the salmon thinking it would be three or maybe six ounces and they said it was nine ounces of salmon, that three times the portion size of what is recommended. So when you ask for the portion size, and you know what it is, you can actually ask them to bring out half of it and to box half of it so you can actually eat it at a later time. And that way you won't feel tempted to over eat. The other thing is alcohol.

So sometimes when you're eating out you might decide to have alcohol and one glass might be fine. But when you start having two or three classes, from a blood sugar perspective, it's gonna throw off your blood sugars. So you don't want to actually drink a lot. If you're with a lot of friends and everybody's drinking, again, talk to the waiter or waitress, pull them to the side and say, you know, I'd like to have a separate bill that I'm not going to be drinking tonight, I just want to pay for my food. That's one way that if price is a factor for you, the people that are drinking are paying for the alcohol, you're not drinking, you shouldn't have to pay extra for it. And it might actually cause you to be more comfortable with having your meal and having just paying for that that you're not drinking.

So there you go, options in terms of eating out the other. I hope that that was helpful for you. Go to the handout to see some other tips and ideas that you can think about in terms of eating out and staying on your options.