Lean and Hard

Restaurants are trying to outdo each other. Who can pack the most calories onto a single plate of food? Yes, it's true that many of them have a little something for those who are trying to be lean and hard, but easy they make it to sweep these aside in our frenzy to grab the heavy stuff!

Check out this article from USA Today Money:

If you plan to chow down tonight at a big chain restaurant, there's a better than nine-in-10 chance that your entree will fail to meet federal nutrition recommendations for both adults and kids, according to a provocative new study.

A whopping 96% of main entrees sold at top U.S. chain eateries exceed daily limits for calories, sodium, fat and saturated fat recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reports the 18-month study conducted by the Rand Corp. and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

That's right. A single entree has more calories than the number you should be eating in an entire day. So what can you do? Never eat out? Well, many of us can eat out a lot less if we want to, saving money and our health at the same time. But meeting friends and eating out together is a special thing to do and no one wants to give that up entirely.

My suggestion is this: Limit the damage. If you resist the temporary desire for the biggest thing on the menu, you can even eliminate the damage altogether! Your opening move might be to avoid going out to eat while you feel you could eat a horse. Have a light, healthy something right before you go out. Then, when you get to the restaurant, you're not ready to slaughter a poor equine to feed your face.

A second move would be to order from the starter menu, but even then you need to be wary. Restaurants have wised up to this move, and I think many starters today are bigger than whole 4-course meals used to be. Choose wisely. Salads or soups can also be a great choice.

It's sad that eating healthy has to be such a battle in our modern, restaurant-chain swamp of a battlefield, but it is what it is. The lean and hard warrior, though, can fight and win this war.

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