EAT OUT WHAT DO I DO?

One of the most worrying points for those who have decided to change their eating habits and try to improve their nutrition is knowing what to do when they cannot follow the diet and have to eat out. In this article I want to give you some simple and very practical guidelines so that eating out is not a source of anguish and that it begins to be what it should, a quality time with people you appreciate.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

POINTCASE 1 - NO ADVANCE MEAL AT SITE GUARROCASE 2 - EARLY MEAL AT SITE GUARROCASE 3 - MEAL NOT ADVANCE IN THE CORRECT PLACECASE 4 - ADVANCE MEAL IN THE CORRECT PLACESUMMARIZING

POINT

We are going to start with the most basic and I want it to be clear and straightforward.
Everyone knows that eating a salad on Saturday night if the rest of your week has been full of junk food is of no consequence. That is, a diet is not fixed by a salad.

That is clear, but when we put the opposite example it costs much more to understand and many people believe that the world is ending, and it is not true. If your day-to-day is full of quality food (that is, eggs, meats, fish, nuts, greens, vegetables, fruits, legumes, cereals, etc ...) that you eat out on Saturday night will not have a relevant impact on your results in the medium term. Come on, adding the second part of the sentence would look something like this:

A diet is not fixed by a salad, and it is not screwed by a hamburger. It is your overall lifestyle and diet that will impact your results in the medium term.

The only way I'd do it is if you're really in such an out of date state when you're out that you've binged several thousand calories non-stop. This is not normal and is mainly due to two problems:

• Some much deeper psychological problem, for which I have no tools to fix it in this blog and that you should deal with a professional who can really help you.
• You have a shitty diet, too restrictive in both calories and food options So when you get to this event, which shouldn't mean anything serious, you are so hungry and so many cravings that you literally cannot stop eating and you cannot exercise the slightest control. To do this, stop doing this "diet" and start thinking about a restructuring to feed with feet and head should become the number 1 priority.

Leaving these two cases aside, we are going to talk about the vast majority of people who are not included in the groups mentioned above. Those who have a more or less correct diet and those who can keep a check.

That said, we will differentiate several situations in which we can find ourselves and I will give you specific and very simple recommendations for each of the cases.

CASE 1 - NO ADVANCE MEAL AT SITE GUARRO

In this case we have an impromptu meal (when leaving work, you decide to go out to dinner at the time) and the group wants to dine in a place that you know there will be no healthy option. See fast food chain pizzeria, kebab or something similar.

This is the trickiest case, because I would recommend (mainly for psychological health) that you dismiss these options that surely have crossed your mind:

1. Not to go. Let's see, if this going out to very dirty places is recurrent, it may be the case that you decide that this group of friends is not the most appropriate to go out to eat frequently. But if it is a sporadic case, I would not recommend leaving.
2. Order food in a separate place and go to the restaurant. I think it is a nuisance both for you and for others, apart from that it is likely that they will not let you in with food from other establishments.
3. Go but don't eat. Well, you are going to be the weirdo who is going to watch while everyone eats. The noises in your stomach and the drool from your mouth are probably not to the liking of other diners. Have the courtesy to let them know.

This is the case in which the previous sentence becomes more relevant. Don't worry, it won't affect your results in the medium term. Really not. Eat and calm down. You know that you eat well every day, that your diet is adequate and that tomorrow you will be "on track" again. Enjoy, have a good time and that's it.

Of course, for fans of self-sabotage I ask you please the next day DO NOT PESISE.
Why? Well, because obviously you will weigh more (you have eaten more, you have more food in your digestive system, maybe you have retained some water, ...) and if you weigh yourself in these circumstances you are going to take a bad drink.

And the fucking thing is that many weigh themselves in these circumstances knowing in advance that the weight is not going to please them, but they do it anyway to gloat in their misery. Hey, yesterday you ate more than you normally eat, that's it. Turning the page. Do not weigh yourself, do not confirm it if you are not going to be calm with the result. Point. Make your life easier.

CASE 2 - EARLY MEAL AT SITE GUARRO

In this second case we eat again in a dirty place but this time we have some room for maneuver because we already knew it beforehand. Several points above apply:

• If this is something very recurring, maybe you should not hang out with these people so much.
• I do not recommend not going, or not eating, or taking food from outside or tupperware.

That said, as we have had a reasonable amount of time to prepare, we can make some alterations prior to this event to minimize the impact of this meal. Among others we have the following:

1. Go training that day. Psychologically, the fact of having done an intense training prior to eating a less recommended meal always relaxes. If you are going to go to a place where you know that the food is very caloric… add more training volume. Without fear. Add some series here and there and let yourself be in the living room. The extra caloric afterwards will help in your recovery.
2. Reduce the food that day. We mainly talk about fat as fast food chains are famous for having extremely greasy meals. Today everyone is freaking out on carbs, but there really are a lot of fast food dishes and ultra-processed products that have a lot more calories from fat than carbs. Take for example McDonald's Sweet BBQ Bacon.We have 40 grams of fat that give a total of 360 kcal (almost half of the entire hamburger) while we have 62 grams of carbohydrates, or what is equivalent to 248 kcal. Let's not forget that fat is also extremely palatable, that it has more than twice the calories of carbohydrates and that it is very easy to reach a caloric surplus with a diet very high in fat if they are from ultra-processed products. So in my opinion, if you are going to restrict something, it should be fat mainly that day.
3. Practice intermittent fasting . If you go to a dinner, fasting 16/8 or LeanGains is your best ally.
4. Obviously, everything that you can save better than better. That is, you can ask for water instead of putting 1 liter of Coca-Cola between chest and back. You can order CocaCola Zero and you avoid putting those almost 90 grams of sugar in your body. You know, viable options.
5. Probably if you have eaten a lot in this place the next day you will wake up still satiated and / or full. It is normal and has to do with leptin levels . In simple terms, our body does not want to be in caloric surplus for a long time, so if one day you give it a very large excess, the levels of leptin will increase accordingly and will reduce your hunger. It is a way of saying "yesterday you went over, today you control yourself."

Be very careful about compensating for the day's food to "square" a dirty meal. This is a double-edged sword, because we can get to do the kaffir with the excuse of compensating the diet and end up worsening the results.

That is to say, it is not uncommon to see cases kicked in by people who believe that as they "consume a multivitamin" they have a free way to eat worse since the micronutrients are already obtained through the supplement.
It is not uncommon to see people who "like to put on sunscreen" come to justify spending almost three months a year taking 6 hours a day in the sun until they are scorched.
And it is not uncommon to see people who like to compensate their diet to include less recommended products end up consuming much more of these than if they had not compensated in the first place….
If you are clear that this is a sporadic measure, go ahead. If you use it to eat worse, we are going wrong and you have not understood the message.

CASE 3 - MEAL NOT ADVANCE IN THE CORRECT PLACE

By correct site I do not mean a site that you have to mortgage to order an appetizer. I mean a restaurant that has a wider selection of dishes, such as salads, meat, fish, etc ... In this case there should be no problem.

You have enough options to make a less healthy meal within the possibilities of that restaurant. Let's see several points that you can apply:

• If you make finger food, look for light and easily digestible alternatives and share with others.
• You can start with a salad first, which will most likely satisfy you a lot while controlling the calories as much as possible.
• As a second course you have the option of choosing something that you do not consume frequently. That is, you can choose fish if you do not usually add them to your diet, so you will take the opportunity to include something nutritious that day that you do not usually eat.
• You always have alternatives and there are small changes to make. If you want to control the maximum, for example, you can change the accompaniment for salad, or if they put French fries you can always choose baked potatoes. Be creative.
• There is always room for dessert. But you can split it with someone, so that you keep the good taste in your mouth but you have not eaten so much, better than better. Sometimes we see life in black and white and our thinking is "or not like NOTHING, or I get up to my ass and lost to the river." There is an immense gamma of gray between those two points of view, and I think that's where the balance lies.
• It has also been seen in studies that the order in which we consume food can alter our appetite. That is, if we focus on vegetables first, then a source of lean protein or more fat and then add carbohydrates, we will probably be more satiated, so we will consume less at the end of the meal.

CASE 4 - ADVANCE MEAL IN THE CORRECT PLACE

Little more to add to this case. It is the simplest of the four scenarios. We know in advance that we have this event with which we can take measures accordingly, either reducing calories on the same day or the next, we can train, we can reduce carbohydrates, we can fast, etc ...

We also go to a site that has a wider selection of dishes, so we can take the above advice as valid and applicable. So ... nothing more to add.

SUMMARIZING

Thinking of nutrition as something black or white is the prelude to many problems, such as obsession, orthorexia, eating disorders, bad relationships with food, etc ...

You must understand that life has to have a degree of flexibility and that you must allow yourself not to do everything 100% at any time without negatively impacting your results or your head. Give yourself the freedom to not always be perfect and understand that if you lead a proper lifestyle and a healthy diet for just one day doing the wrong or "not perfect" things, it will not significantly alter your results at all.

Hope it has fit.