Eating healthy is a recommended lifestyle choice from parents, coaches and even doctors. It is easier to have healthy home-made options, rather than studying a menu like an encyclopedia, asking the waiter the calorie count.

Even though eating out is not ideal for health nuts, it is necessary – birthdays dinners, dates, or girl’s night out. When it is impossible to avoid eating out, it can be hard to find healthy options on a menu. Also depending from household to household, finding a good diet can be hard. Especially when parents get home from work late and students struggle to finish their homework. Eating out sometimes is the only option.

While at a restaurant, eating healthy can seem hard to do – because it is. There are growing temptations of appetizers, meals big enough for giants and desserts. The secret weapon in eating out healthily is portion control. It is so important to not feel the need to clean the whole plate.

“When I go eat out, I rarely get a meal to myself,” math teacher Cheryl Gold said. “I always split a plate with whoever I’m with because it helps me not eat after I’m full.”

Taking portions into account, it is even more important to pick the right choice for a meal. For someone who loves salad, that seems like the best option. Sometimes, though a salad can have large amounts of calories and sodium. This is because of the dressings used. So, even when choosing a salad, ask for the dressing on the side, if any at all. A smart choice would be to replace a potentially unhealthy dressing with squeezing fresh lemons over the salad for some type of flavor.

Having to eat out is no excuse to let hard work go to waste, or put a damper in a clean diet. Having dietary discipline by knowing and understanding what should and should not go into the body are important qualities to have when faced with the menu’s question.