This Friday, I have plans to meet some friends at Olive Garden. Does anybody have a suggestion on what some of their healthier choices might be?

I'm not an Atkins girl (hence not anti-carb), but I hear horror stories about the all-you-can-eat breadsticks. I typically follow a "Mediterranean diet", with more seafood than red meat, lots of vegetables, and fewer refined carbs.

I figure it would be good to pre-plan my food choice rather than open the door for another runaway meal. Thanks in advance ...

Their garden fare is supposed to be low fat and some items have calorie counts posted. They are all still pretty high. If I was you I would get a salad with lite dressing and half the meal and save the other half for lunch the following day. Have fun!

The have low-fat items marked on the menu, and you can get low-fat salad dressing rather than the dressing the salad bowl comes with automatically. Also, you can go to www.calorieking.com and look up the nutritional info for a lot of their dishes. Remember that one of the best ways to control intake at a restaurant is portion control -- Olive Garden is one of those places where an entree is easily 2 or 3 (or more!) times more food than a person should eat at a single meal.

Plan ahead and visualize refusing the bread sticks, practice what you will say even... Good luck and let us know how it goes...

I agree with funniegrrl - go to calorieking.com, click on "browse fast foods", and select Olive Garden from the "choose a brand" drop-down menu. And definitely fill up on salad.

try finding the olive gsrden web site glen

They have a pasta with an awesome fresh tomato sauce that's reasonable calorie-wise. My advice is to get a to-go box immediately and put 1/2 in it and enjoy the rest, along with a salad with lf dressing and no breadsticks.

Thanks so much for the tips!

I've opted to go with a low-fat (though high-calorie) entree of shrimp primavera. It has 700+ calories, but I am going to follow the advice of Pat and order a to-go box when I get the meal. Olive Garden also offers a whole-wheat pasta substitution, so I am going to opt for that. I think I am going to choose their minestrone soup (164 calories) instead of salad ... it's soup weather here in Minnesota. I can't skip on the breadsticks, I just can't. But I can limit them to two or three. And I'll probably have a glass of wine. It won't be a low-calorie meal, but it's better than my usual non-planned meals at restaurants!

Great go on the planning and good luck. Please let us know how it goes, good or bad...

Well, we went last night and here's what I had:

4 breadsticks
1 bowl of minestrone soup
½ of the shrimp primavera entree
1 glass of wine
2 glasses of water

I forgot about ordering it with whole-wheat pasta. I drank only one glass of wine with the meal, and I had 1-2 extra breadsticks because we sat there for quite a while.

For breakfast, I had peanut butter toast and lunch was a side salad and about 15 peanuts in the shell, so I think the calorie balance was OK on the extra breadsticks. I should probably plunk it into fitday.com just to see. I did notice a binge-like tendency when I was there, because I'd had such a small lunch and breakfast.

Thanks, everybody, for the advice!

phantastica - I think you did pretty good considering everything... For ME eating very little before an occasion is the worse thing I can do, because like you say it leads to bingeing when you get to the occasion. I now will have a protein shake or even a salad with some protein. The protein keeps me full till the meal actually arrives, it also keeps me away from the dang breads!

I definitely can see the strategy in eating something a little before-hand! I did feel myself go into "binge mode". It's one thing to go in with an appetite, quite another to go in starving!

that is a good idea especialy when people are goib to buffet so your stomach don't get bigger than your eyes. glen

phantastica -- I have the same problems you do and have found that planning is really important, as well as eating something satisfying beforehand. I think you did great, and maybe next time, 1 or 2 less breadsticks... as long as you're feeling in control, that's the important part!

One other thing I am trying to think about -- to reprogram myself actually -- is that going out with friends can be about the people, and not just the food. It sounds odd to say it, but I do overly focus on the food.

I know your trip to the OG has already passed, but I have a good idea for the next time anyone goes.. usually I save ration out my calories for the day so that if I go to the Olive Garden I can get their "Chicken Giardino" for lunch - 460 calories - or the dinner version - 560-600 calories. However, it's fillng and you could always take some of it home, it's delicious.

If you don't want to save a lot of cals for the meal, though, just order the Kid's Grilled Chicken entree. I've done it before and they don't mind. It comes with a tasty chicken breast, a small side of noodles with tomato sauce, and broccolli. The whole thing is just 350 calories.