If you want to lose weight one of the first things you need to do is to start reading the label. Not just at the grocery store but also at restaurants. Many restaurants now provide nutritional information for their dishes which will help you make smart choices about what you eat. If the restaurant doesn’t have something you can look at there, check their website, if they have one, before you go.
A perfect example of this can be found at Pei Wei Asian Diner. Since beginning my diet I have tended to gravitate towards salads on the assumptions that they will be healthier than anything else on a restaurant’s menu and at Pei Wei that means I get the Asian Chopped Chicken Salad. Only when I looked at Pei Wei’s nutritional information it turned out that the salad wasn’t quite as healthy as I’d assumed. Like all of Pei Wei’s dishes, a single bowl is considered two servings and each serving contains 410 calories with 28 grams of fat. That means that the Asian Chopped Chicken Salad contains more fat than any other dish at Pei Wei except for the Mandarin Kung Pao, Sesame Steak, and Orange Peel Steak. So much for the salad being the healthiest choice on the menu. Now looking at the nutrition chart you’ll see they also have a line for the salad without dressing which reveals that most of the Asian Chopped Chicken Salad’s fat and calories comes from its sesame-ginger vinaigrette dressing. So the salad with no dressing is actually pretty healthy. If you have to have dressing on your salad consider asking if they’ll substitute the lime vinaigrette, which has less fat, for the sesame-ginger dressing.
Another place I like to eat is Red Robin Gourmet Burgers where I frequently get the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad. Now I knew it has some unhealthy things on it but still, its salad so how unhealthy can it be? A visit to the Red Robin website today told me. The Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad is 870 calories with 55 grams of fat, about the same as Pei Wei’s Asian Chopped Chicken Salad. Their Apple Harvest Chicken Salad is slightly better at 812 calories and only 44 grams of fat. Still too much fat. What about their Simply Grilled Chicken Salad? Surely that is healthy? Well, with 2 oz. of lite ranch dressing it’s only 670 calories and 32 grams of fat. That’s better but it is still my entire daily allowance for fat. Does this mean it’s impossible to eat healthy at Red Robin? Not at all, you just have to pay attention. For example you can get the Ensenada Chicken Platter and as long as you don’t use the salsa-ranch dipping sauce its only 535 calories and 18 grams of fat. Similarly you could get the Blackened Chicken Sandwich, asking for a whole grain bun, no mayo, also for 535 calories and 18 grams of fat. (Just don’t forget to also substitute a side salad, no dressing, or melon slices for the bottomless fries.)
Where available always look at a restaurant’s nutritional information. It will help you make smart choices in what you eat. An informed decision is always better than one based on assumptions that may or may not be correct.