The Ins and Outs of Eating Out: The Wall Street Restaurant Game Plan
You enter the restaurant and are ushered to a table of three business people, none of whom you’ve met. You want to make a good impression and you want to forward your business objectives. You’re eager to start networking. You’re in the midst of introductions, trying hard to remember names and titles when the waiter hands you a menu and asks if he can bring you a drink. This is the weakest point in a business meal for a dieter. Will you follow the crowd and order a drink, even though you don’t want one, because you’re distracted and everyone else is ordering wine and cocktails? Will you feel pressured into ordering an appetizer because everyone else is and you don’t want to sit there calling attention to yourself while the others tuck into their Frisee Aux Lardons or Crispy Calamari with Yellow String Fries.
Hold on! In the world of Wall Street Dieting, rushed, reflex decisions are too often bad decisions. The solution to these and many other dilemmas is, as always, to be prepared! A little time spent beforehand, recognizing the hurdles you may have to jump, will save you countless calories and pounds no matter what any business entertaining situation does to thwart you. Let’s look at some strategies that will transform your restaurant experience from a potential minefield into an opportunity.
- Minimize your appetite
- Limit alcohol
- Master the menu
- Avoid over ordering
- Seize the nutrition opportunity
- Mask your motives (calorie counting)
- Slow down
You’re going to learn how you can achieve each of these objectives. My Three-Step Restaurant Action Plan will be your blueprint to successful entertaining. When you’ve thought about these issues in advance, you’ll find it extremely easy to implement my suggestions. My clients tell me that once they absorb these pointers, they feel in control. In this respect, business lunches and dinners become ‘automatic’. They no longer agonize about choices, they no longer have to ‘write off’ an evening because of a dining blow-out; they actually feel more confident and effective in reaching their business goals and, perhaps most satisfying, they find that the pounds melt away.
The Wall Street Weekend: Eating Well at Home & Tips on Snacking
Snacks constitute a clear and present danger when you spend time at home. Clean Plate Clubbers, in particular, often struggle with time on their hands and all the food that’s available to them in their own kitchens. The solution? You need a snack plan. You can slot in your afternoon Fun Snack but many people find that on weekends they need filler snacks. The key strategy is to have a plethora of healthy snacks on hand and plan to eat them when they’ll do you the most good. So, say at 2 pm, you could have a fruit and then an hour and a half later, enjoy your protein bar. At 5 pm you might have some cut up pepper and cucumber and then an hour later, munch on six almonds. Yes, this is more calories than you’d normally consume but it will keep you satisfied, keep your blood sugar up and it’s ten times better than ripping open a bag of Doritos. So plan your snacks to keep you busy and full. Clean Plate Clubbers should always make a point of having their ¼ pound bags of sliced turkey on hand for the weekends. If they find that the cut vegetables, Fiber Rich, fruit, etc., aren’t satisfying them, they can settle down with a bag or two of sliced turkey.
