[Thinfor5Minutes]

My MIL is taking the family out to dinner and she has chosen an Italian restaurant. I've visited the restaurant's web site, and the safest option looks like: "Seared salmon on a bed of spinach, angel hair pasta with roasted garlic and olive oil tossed with tomato basil." I can divvy it up right from the start if the portions are huge, but my ?? is, how in the world do I calculate the points? I never use any Flex points, so do I just assume I'm using all my Flex points and not try to assign a value to it? I don't eat chicken or meat; just fish, and this looks like the most benign meal on the menu.

[morrigan]

The second week book has lots of pictures of how big a portion size is compared to ounces.

I don't have it with me, but palm of your hand = 3 oz kind of thing. Get a good idea of what a cup (or 1/2 cup) of pasta is and you can always ask the cook to cut down on the oil if you want.

[Chubbymama30]

What is the name of the restaurant? If you go to www.dottisweightlosszone.com and click on restaurants there is a list of hundreds of restaurants with the points listed for the menu items. Good luck.

[Chubbymama30]

Oh so you don't get lost, you have to scroll down on the page to find the restaurant link...there are like 450 of them...i hope the one you are going to is on there.

[Karen2112]

Try not to beat yourself up. If you are going out to dinner. Enjoy it. The fact that you rarely use your flex points allows for a fair enjoyable meal. 35 points is a lot of points and unless you are eating ribs, you probably won't use up all of your flex points in one meal. Good luck and enjoy.

[Lilion]

Throughout my losses over the last year, I've pretty much had a meal every week or two that I just didn't count. I would be good all week, seldom go into my flex points. Then, usually on WI day, my hubby and I would go out to dinner. Sometimes we'd split an entree - like fajita's at the mexican place. We'd just order 1 and twice the tortillas and split it. Sometimes we'd get a meal of our own and try to just watch how much of it we ate...taking the extra to go. Once we went to the Olive Garden and when I didn't want the low-fat entrees we just had them serve us one entree on two plates. It was some kind of chicken with wine sauce and since you got two little fillets they just gave us each one and halved the sides for us. We ate extra salad and didn't worry about the points. I've NEVER had a gain doing this. I just didn't do it often.

[Thinfor5Minutes]

Thanks for the info -- sadly, it wasn't on there. I think it's a local Mom & Pop restaurant.

[amyepfaff]

We eat out a lot, so I've started just taking the meal and dividing it into 2 (or 3) meals. I make sure I get the entree grilled or broiled and make sure the veggies aren't dripping with salt and butter.

I put the part I'm not eating into a box right away. This gives me lunch the next day and keeps me from just picking at the food until its gone.

It has helped with portion control.

Amy

[mauvaisroux]

I've had to deal with this before. What I did was not use any flexpoints for the week and then I had the wghole 35 to play with. I figured that the worst that could happen was that my entree would end up being about 10-15 points and went with that.

I picked what I thought would be the least fattening dish, skipped the breadbasket, had them put any sauce or salad dressing on the side and decided that I could either have a glass of wine with dinner or dessert but not both.

It turned out okay.