Tonight, I have a business presentation at a fancy restaurant in town. Trying to plan ahead like a good healthy eater, I went to go look at the menu...

I can't find ANYTHING that would even be considered healthy or lower-calorie. The closest is probably the sea bass with the thai red curry sauce, but thai red curry sauce is actually remarkably high fat due to added coconut milk. And I don't even like curry. Some of the salads could be OK, but this is a business meeting, and the more substitutions (no avocado, no whatever else) that I make, the more a pain in the *** my clients will think I am - this was actually taught to me in a business etiquette class. Also, these particular clients think "diets are stupid" so I'd rather not be the obvious girl in the corner, picking at her salad with 20 million substitutions and dressing on the side :-)

For heavens sake, even the green beans have bacon. I'm going to have enough trouble staying away from the bread basket, much less having to navigate this ordering minefield.

Think the chicken and spinach piadine would be reasonable? Does anyone even know what a piadine IS? Or should I just pray that they have a magically low-cal special for me?

http://www.sogasrestaurant.com/menubase.html

Suggestions, anyone?

A piadine is like a thin crust folded around salad. I guess you could eat the chicken and spinach and ignore the crust?

That menu is terrible!!

PS: what is a "shallot shmear"??

Piadine is referring to the flatbread that is being used in the dish. That looks pretty good to me. That or the eggplant and braised vegetable pasta (if you can leave some pasta on the plate...restaurants always give double portions of pasta and I know that can be difficult to pass up). But, of the 2, I'd personally prefer the chicken.

I'm a pretty avid fan of calorie counting, and it can make me feel a little panicy when I don't have the counts from a meal. I can often make myself feel better by taking an extra walk as soon as I can. I don't know if that's a choice for you, but I thought I'd just throw that out there.

Good luck! I hope your dinner is a great success.

Angel Hair Pasta — $8
With sliced toasted garlic, basil, tomato and extra virgin olive

That doesn't sound so bad, pasta is fine for you as long as you don't eat it all the time.

If that doesn't appeal to you order whatever you like and either don't finish your plate or let it go as one meal and pick up on the weight loss again in the morning. One high calorie meal may just pick your metabolism up if you normally stay on the really low side.

Diets are, healthy eating on the other hand is not. But at the same time sometimes we all know that we have to bend some for clients. If you order whatever you feel like and don't finish it, it will probably be less obvious than ordering a salad with substitutions.

Part of this weight loss journy is learning how to react in situations where we may have less say over the menu than we would like.

The fresh fish tostada might be a good option. You could also have the bass with out the sauce. That shouldn't be to much of an inconvience for the chef.

Good Luck!

Thank you to everyone. Its absolutely true that as an avid calorie counter, its very freaky not to know exactly what they are putting into your dish.

When I went to go look at the menu, I was thinking to myself, I hope there is something grilled with some veggies on the side - like a grilled chicken breast and some nice vegetables - guess it isn't going to happen.

I LIKE my healthy eating, and I noticed looking at this menu that the heavier stuff I would have gone with before just didn't appeal to me...which I guess is a good sign for my weight loss, but not so much good because it means everything will be a bit heavy. Ah well.

Perspective time - this week is a landmine for eating for me, because of events beyond my control (tomorrow my partner scheduled us for a girls night for which the menu consists of pizza and chocolate fondue...but I have a plan for that, since I'm hosting (but not bringing the food)...I'm going to make a big salad and have lots of that, one slice of veggie pizza, and the fruits that go with the chocolate fondue without the chocolate, or at least, with a small amount of it). However, I will do the best that I can with what I am given (see girls night example above) and not beat myself up that I didn't do better if I can't have my perfectly balanced eating plan every day this week.

Thanks again everyone. Now lets just hope I can focus on drinking lots of water during the meal, rather than devouring the bread basket :-)

Remeber what I told you ealirer, dont be afraid to eat a little bit more! One meal wont kill you.

How about the grilled tuna?

"Grilled Rare Ahi Tuna — $23
Served with Chinese long beans, mashed potatoes, and basil pesto'"

The basil pesto sauce could add some calories but you could always ask to have the sauce on the side.

Another choice would be a salad with the dressing on the side.

"Mixed Green Salad — $6
Wiith balsamic vinaigrette, blue cheese, sweet-hot walnuts,
and dried cranberries"


I would definitely eat a good healthy snack before going so that you're not starving and staring at a yummy bread basket.

Good luck and

ok, I am not going to look at the menu, but here is what I would do in the future. Go for the salads. If there is something you don't like, eat around it. Salads are usually so big that you cannot finish it anyway. I have lost 30 lbs so far and my main staple is salads, and I put EVERYTHING on them!!! They are yummy!!!!!

Update - It was like magic! There it was, right when I got there - they updated the menu! They had a wonderful grilled chicken breast fillet (skinless!) with a mustard sauce, served with roasted potatoes and broccolini! I ate about half, avoided the bread basket entirely, and even found something for dessert - the vanilla yogurt sorbet was a teeny portion and I didn't eat the little cookie cup it came in - it was basically frozen vanilla yogurt, and SOOO tasty, yet really light.

Nothing fried! Nothing so unreasonable that I would -never- eat it at home! It was insanely miraculous.

Thanks to everyone for their support!

I know exactly what you mean! Now I hate it when I am out somewhere and have to eat something that is not healthful and would not be my choice! But OTOH our eating plans have to be something we can live with in the real world... so as others have suggested I would just order something that is the least "bad" you can get it and eat only a portion of it. Maybe eat some veggies or snack of some kind before you go so you are not very hungry.

I agree... that menu is terrible with no real options for people eating healthfully!