I’ve been traveling a lot for business in the last year, and I’ve noticed that most people totally fall off their fitness routines while traveling…

In fact, eating out at restaurants frequently is one of the biggest reasons why so many people fatten up while traveling.  It’s almost damn near impossible to eat healthy when you dine out, UNLESS you follow a couple simple tricks that I use to make every restaurant meal healthier, reduce calories, and not lose control.

Here’s a few tricks you can use to eat healthier and stay lean even while traveling on business or eating out any time for that matter…

The 3 most important things to avoid that are EVERYWHERE at restaurants are:

  • the deep fried foods
  • the refined starchy foods
  • and any sodas, juices or other sugary foods (except whole fruits, which are great)

This eliminates the major food sources that do the worst damage in our food supply – the evil trans fats, the inflammatory refined vegetable oils, refined starches and processed sugars.

This means trying to skip the table bread, skipping the french fries (that come with every single sandwich on every menu known to man), and reducing all of the heaping portions of rice and pasta that are often loaded on the plates, as well.

Instead, try to order just meat, side vegetables and a salad, asking for the vegetables or salad as a substitute for the typical fries, rice, or pasta that the meal probably comes with.

Almost every restaurant I’ve ever been to will always allow me to substitute veggies or a side salad for the fries or chips that almost always come with sandwiches or burgers.

Side note:  It always amazes me how many people scrutinize me because I eat healthy and substitute veggies for fries by telling me that I’m “not living” because I won’t eat fries…

Yet, they are always the first to complain that they are overweight and have “tried everything,” yet can’t lose weight.  I’m not sure why so many people think eating french fries equals “living it up”… I’m all for moderation with many things, but if there’s 2 things that should be almost totally removed from everyone’s diet because these foods are simply that evil… it’s fries and sodas!

Take a look at the typical difference this simple substitution makes between choosing smart and doing what most people do…

Most people will eat a meal out such as this:

  • Sandwich or burger
  • Fries or chips
  • Soda or other sweetened drink

A MUCH smarter alternative for a leaner, healthier body is very simply this:

  • Sandwich or burger
  • Veggies or salad
  • Unsweetened iced tea or water with lemon (and no diet drinks — unless you enjoy drinking carcinogenic poisonous artificial sweetener chemicals).

These 2 simple substitutions save at least 400 – 900 calories EACH time you dine out (depending on drink refills and fries portion sizes)… AND you’re cutting out the most harmful foods to your body as well by avoiding the trannies and high fructose corn syrup.

Also, it may be rare to find this in most restaurants, but if you can find some that offer much healthier grass-fed beef burgers, it’s a much smarter decision compared to grain fattened beef.

Side note:  a little-known way to eat full portions of rice, pasta and breads and actually get away with it without packing on the body fat is to make sure to schedule a high intensity full body resistance training workout before your scheduled meal time.

Sometimes it may be hard to fit the workout into your schedule right before the meal event, but if you can, the meal can be your “post-workout meal,” in which case your body can handle a higher amount of carbs than normal to help replenish the muscle glycogen depletion you had during the intense workout.

A cardio workout WON’T cut it for this… it must be high intensity resistance training to deplete enough muscle glycogen to handle restaurant portions of carbohydrates.

I hope these dining out tips help you choose smarter and healthier next time you eat out. Feel free to share this article on how to eat healthy in a restaurant with your friends below.

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