Eat Lean, Eat Well

It’s not difficult to eat lean and healthfully at almost any restaurant chain—but you must be proactive. This means ordering from the “lighter fare” or “healthy choices” side of the menu—or, if these aren’t available, requesting a more diet-conscious preparation of the regular dishes, such as less salt and less added fat, and grilling and steaming rather than frying and sautéing. In the past, many of the so-called healthy meals offered by restaurants were pretty bad. I knew when I created this diet that it had to include a wide variety of foods so that boredom never has a chance to set it. Today, it isn’t necessary to trade “delicious” for “healthy.” You simply need to shift the balance in a healthier direction by eating more of the foods that fill you up with fewer calories and less of the foods that pack on the pounds. Sounds easy—and it is!

Just beware. The restaurant chains, with a few exceptions, don’t design their menus with healthy eating in mind. Quite the opposite: they load up most of the expensive dishes with fat, salt, and sugar because that’s what consumers are used to—and are willing to pay more for. You’ll certainly save money by ordering from the low-cal side of the menu in addition to saving yourself 40 to 50 percent of consumed calories. You’ll also get less saturated fat because the restaurants have to trim back on butter or vegetable shortenings to hit those advertised low-calorie limits. And you’ll find more vegetables on your plate, which are naturally low in calories. Don’t worry about leaving hungry. You won’t. Eating lean protein, healthier fats, and low-glycemic carbohydrates, such as beans and vegetables, will fill you up without overloading your system with unnecessary calories. You can even have seconds.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can gradually (and painlessly) eat well and still lose weight at today’s most popular chains. The listings and examples that follow represent only a portion of the healthy possibilities.