Eating at restaurants and having take-aways brought to your home is risky when trying to lose wieght or maintain a healthy lifestyle. Most fast-food, take-aways and restaurants serve very unhealthy, high fat and high calorie food. So what are you to do to make those times when you are going to eat out or order in a healthier option for you?
If you are having a kebab, skip the pitta bread and sauces (add your own, healthier, sauces) and have the whole chicken pieces off the stick, not the ones shaved off the larger piece as that is held together with fat. And eat all of the salad bits that come with it.
If you are having pizza, well, there isn't really much you can do about how bad the pizza places are for you, but you can make sure not to eat more than a couple of slices and not to have any extras with it. And don't allow yourself a stuffed crust either.
If you are eating Chinese, choose boiled rice rather than fried rice. Don't have anything battered, and stay away from heavy sauces. Chicken is probably a safer choice of meat than beef, pork or duck.
If you are eating Indian, again choose boiled rice. Most of the sauces will be bad for you, but you will help yourself by passing on the Naan bread and side dishes. Find out if any of the tomato-based sauces are made without using cream.
If you are having Mexican, remove some of the cheese on your dish, if possible. The dish will taste just as good with half the cheese as it does with all of the cheese, and cheeses used in restaurants tend to be high-fat cheeses. Make sure you have lots of lettuce and tomato with your dish and don't just leave it on your plate. Remember that the shells, whether corn or flour, are not very healthy, so either choose a dish that doesn't use tortilla shells or limit your consumption of them. Taco sauce should be safe to add to your dish.
If you are having Italian, pasta dishes are your safest bet, along with tomato-based sauces. Add some vegetables to your order, but request that they be butter-free. Make sure the dish you choose doesn't require a lot of cheese. and if all else fails, you can have a sald with the dressing on the side.
Your best bet, if you are craving kebabs, pizza, Chinese, Indian, Italian or Mexican food, is to make it yourself. There are a multitude of healthy recipes that will satisfy these cravings (some of them on my Skinny Dreaming Recipes site).
Just make sure that you do not eat out or order in very often, and you should be okay with whatever you choose to eat. One night of eating restaurant food can ruin an entire week's work of eating healthy, so, while you don't have to eliminate it from your eating completely, limiting your eating-out and take-aways is the best plan.
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