There are a lot of good, inexpensive restaurants in our area (some are ridiculously cheap), so even on our tight budget we can often eat out nearly as cheaply as eating at home.
Eating to lose weight, at most restaurants is a challenge, but if I fail it's usually because I chose to, rather than because there weren't any options. My "default" meal is broiled steak, pork chop, fish, or chicken with extra salad instead of potato. I tend to avoid asian food at least three to four days before my Monday weigh-in, because the sodium tends to cause significant water retention.
So when hubby and his friend John wanted to go to the local chinese mega-buffet yesterday, I wasn't going to go along, but then decided that I could do pretty well, if I stuck to low carb options (however, in the back of my mind, I wasn't too optimistic of my ability to stay on plan).
I've really been avoiding large buffets, because they were always a major weakness in the past, but I think I have found my new favorite, "low-carb friendly" restaurant. I didn't even pout (much) at avoiding the crab rangoon and general tso's chicken.
I was shocked at how many good low-carb options their were on the buffet. My only obvious carb choices (I think there might have been a bit of sweetener in the marinade on the grilled ribs) were a couple pieces of sushi and a fried gyoza. Even the sushi and little gyoza dumpling were lower carb choices than I expected when I chose them. The proportion of filling for the sushi was large compared to the rice and were filled with egg salad and shrimp. The gyoza was a pork and shrimp sausage filling with green onion, with a thin rice paper wrapper about the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Even though I knew I made good choices, and drank extra water throughout the day, I was expecting at least a temporary water weight gain from the meal. Got on the scale this morning and I'm down a half pound from yesterday. Looks like I'm going to have a good weight loss tomorrow night at my TOPS meeting.
I'm starting to feel (as I never have before during a weight loss attempt) that some of the stategies I'm using are becoming true habits - behavior I do almost without thinking.