eating out on a diet
can be beneficial in lowering cholesterol 

Founders Brewing Company
at
Gerald R. Ford International Airport in 
Grand Rapids Michigan

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There is no better place to eat and remain on your diet than "Souper Salad"
For a delicious healthy meal, this is the place!

We had a yummy lunch a few days ago at Souper Salad in Fort Worth. There is probably a Souper Salad close to you.

Eating out on a diet
at Roy's Beach House at Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu

     we had a table on the lanai. The service was excellent. I had chicken with asparagus. It was well seasoned and cooked--very tasty. It definitely would not hurt my diet. So, if you are in Oahu, it is a good place to go. We had a nice view.
      Remember when you are eating out, you can always order lean cuts of meat with vegetables. This meal came with potatoes and bread, but I opted out. 

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Eating out on a diet at the Lava Lava Beach Club Restaurant
in Kona, Hawaii (big Island)

We flew from Oahu to Hawaii yesterday and took a helicopter to see volcanic activity and beautiful waterfalls. Afterward we had dinner in Kona at the Lava Lava Restaurant. 

I ordered from the sides menu and it was so good and it was filling. With water to drink, I was not too full to enjoy the flight back to Oahu. Remember that you can always choose food from the appetizer menu or from the sides. You do not have to eat a heavy meal. The atmosphere here would have made anything taste good.

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Tilapia avocado wrap from the Blackeyed Pea in Hillsboro, TX

As you can see by day three on my website, sometimes people have to eat out.  When you are traveling or shopping or just can't get home to eat for any reason, you can still find  food that will help you keep low cholesterol so that all of your dieting has not been in vain.

I will keep posting new pictures and comments when I  eat out.  

Wraps like the one above can be fairly healthy. The one pictured above is from The Black-eyed Pea. It has fish, avocados and greens. There are many restaurants serving healthy wraps. You can request certain items be left out if they are not what you want. Even Mcdonald's wraps have healthy items on them. Get grilled chicken instead of crispy. The Mcwraps have many vegetables in them which usually are quite crispy and fresh. You will get healthier wraps if you ask for the cheese to be left off.

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Rules for eating out on a diet

1. Read the menu carefully.
2. You can order from just the appetizer menu or order sides only
3. Ask the waiter/waitress if you are not sure about the ingredients
4. Often heart healthy on the menu is cholesterol healthy for your body
5. Avoid heavy sauces and dressings
6. Stick to foods that look natural
7. Choose fish over red meat
8. Bring your own salad dressing in a small container
9. Do not choose sugar which means no dessert.  By dessert time you should feel full. Fruit is healthier if you do not eat it with other foods so it does not make a good dessert.
10. If you feel full stop eating and get a doggy bag. One meal might become two.
11. Share with a friend. Sometimes my husband and I order one meal and share it. The waitress is always happy to bring an extra plate.
12. Remember that everything on the salad bar isn't healthy to eat.Heavy dressings or fried toppings can make the salad not so good for you. Stay as natural as possible.

Where I have found good healthy food:

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My daughter ate this dinner at the Founding Father's Restaurant while visiting Washington, DC. She claims it is delicious. I know that Washington DC is a long trip for many of you, but it sounds like it is worth it.  So for your next vacation, see our nation's capital an eat at the Founding Fathers. I looked online at their menu and there are many healthy choices. I would not order potatoes with this meal, but would order another vegetable side. The potatoes do look good though.

Portions are good. Before she took the picture she ate the breast and some of the green beans and potatoes. This would probably feed two people.

The food is all ordered from family farms in the United States. All drinks on the premises. 

I went to their website and watched a video that made me want to get in my car and drive straight to Washington DC. I am putting the link here for you to watch also.

http://www.wearefoundingfarmers.com/menus/ You will find menus and locations on their website.

I found three locations:
1. DC
2. Tyson
    The Tyson location has  the farm health juice cleanse - sounds good to me.
3. MoCo's Founding Farmers

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 Chili's
 in Bedford, TX
but lots of other Chili's out there too

At Chili's, I ordered some very nice order fish tacos for lunch. The order was for three tacos with a bowl of black beans and some rice.  I didn't eat the rice. I ate one taco and the delicious black beans. I took the other two tacos in a food container and will eat them in the evening. It was very tasty and filling. I had a big glass of ice water with lemon to drink. It was not too fattening (more so if you eat them all) but it did have a good bit of fiber. For an occasional meal out, I think I might do this again, but I will ask them to hold the rice.

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Breakfast on an American Airlines Plane

I was served a delightful breakfast while traveling from Dallas to Los Angeles.

Who would have thought that there would be such a delicious breakfast served on a plane. If you wanted to make a healthier choice, you could not get the bread or you could just get the fruit. It was all fresh and sweet. There is honeydew, cantalope, pineapples and berries. The oatmeal was very tasty though and was steel cut (yum) so it is a hard decision.

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Sam's 
If you are traveling on Hwy 45 between
Dallas and Houston, you will find Sam's
It is in Fairfield, TX

Sam's has a wonderful salad bar and fruit bar. They also have entrees and desserts for those in your party who don't want to diet. You can choose to only eat from the fruit and vegetable bars and save money and temptations.

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Pei Wei

Chinese food is so good and generally not so healthy. Pei Wei has some interesting things on their menu which make the food healthier.

One is that instead of noodles or rice, you can order your food on a bed of shredded lettuce. This cuts calories and adds a wholesome vegetable. You can also order steamed vegetables which are so tasty. Choose from the lighten up category on the menu.

Instead of a regular wrap, you can order lettuce to wrap your food in.

Be careful of they soy sauce. Ask for lower calorie and lower sodium soy sauce or skip it alogether.

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Red Robin
Ensenada Chicken

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El Fenix
Chicken Street Tacos

Look at all those healthy vegetables. It is good. Onions are good for bones. I was totally grown before I started tasting all foods and found out that I really didn't dislike onions. They are quite tasty.  I would not eat all three tortillas. I eat one and just eat the filling out of the others. Notice that there is no cheese. Pico de gallo is also good--a little spicy. It is so much healthier without cheese. The salsa seems fresh and a healthy food to eat when dieting if it has no sugar in it. The rice may not be as good for you as the rest, but a little of it will not hurt.

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Cotton Patch
Lake Worth TX

This is seriously good. The turkey club sandwich is delicious.To make it healthier, I might ask them to hold the bacon. The potato soup is pretty fattening, I would not order that. This is my daughter's plate though and it makes a nice picture. If you get this to go, you can take it home and change to sprouted grain bread for a healthier sandwich. Maybe we should all start asking restaurants if they have sprouted grain bread. I would pay a little more for healthy bread.

The chicken and rice is also delicious. To make it healthier, you could trade the rice for different steamed vegetables or even a side salad.

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Red Robin
Hulen Mall in Fort Worth Tx 

Order a banzai salad from Red Robin at the Hulen Mall in Fort Worth Texas. You can order with chicken or without. I would have the chicken without the teriyaki sauce or the salad alone. Dressing on the side is always a good idea so that you can monitor the amount. You could also bring your own dressing with you. You can also have them leave off the canned fruit for an even healthier salad.

Red Robin Restaurant has many locations in Texas and other states. Google for a location near you. You can also look at their menu online.

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Panera's
Lake Worth, Texas

The Panera Bread Cafe has so many healthy choices if you are on a diet. A salad by itself is a filling meal and within guidelines. If you get the dressing on the side, you can choose the amount you want to eat. I do not eat a sandwich with my salad unless I am on a "cheat meal" and then I only eat a half. Their bread is delicious. My beverage of choice is water.

Takeout from Panera Bread
Panera has promised customers that they will only serve clean food by 2017.

Take home a salad and a half sandwich. The salad doesn't look like much in the box but it will fill your salad bowl. It is full of healthy vegetables such as kale and tomatoes. The dressing is separate. The sandwich has avocados, chicken, tomatoes and lettuce. Since you have it at home, it is easy to switch the bread to Ezekiel bread and switch to  your favorite healthy dressing such as one of the Bragg dressings. There are so many takeout choices.

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Applebees 

This crispy salad is from Applebees. Order the dressing on the side. Just ask for the Oriental Chicken Salad.  They have other healthy salads and meals at Applebees. Their spinach salads are also delicious.

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La Madeleine Country French Cafe
 Dallas, Tx.

A colorful roasted vegetable sandwich with pesto roasted zucchini, red bell peppers, red bell peppers and button mushrooms with Swiss and a goat cheese spread baked on a sourdough roll. Check out their menu online before you go for more healthy choices.

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Lone Star Cafe on the river walk
San Antonio, TX

The Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX has such a lovely atmosphere. At the Lone Star cafe you can get a healthy salad. With a glass of water with a lemon wedge, this makes a healthy meal and tastes good too.

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The Grille
Teague Texas

At a small restaurant in called The Grille, in Teague, Texas, I have eaten "Summer Salad" which is tasty and mostly in guidelines.  It is a dressed with a nice house poppy seed dressing. It's best to ask for dressing on the side and to use it sparingly.  Some of the fruit is fresh and some canned.  I don't eat the canned pineapple, but I eat the rest. The chicken is nicely grilled.  There are pecans and fresh blueberries which you don't really see in my picture.  The greens are crispy and fresh.   

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The Cotton Patch

This is from the heart health menu.  It was delicious.  Just salmon and steamed vegetables.  There were other things on the menu which would also have been in keeping with a cholesterol lowering diet.  Notice the drink, water with lemon-always refreshing.

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Texas Land and Cattle
Dallas TX

I found a lovely lump crab avocado salad.  It was so good.  There was a crispy lettuce salad surrounded by avocados.  It was topped with crab meat and crispy chips which I didn't eat although they would have been tasty I am sure.  The salad was totally supported by my cholesterol lowering diet. I did eat a small amount of the dressing. This meal was served with bread and I succumbed to temptation and took a couple bites. I rarely eat bread unless it is sprouted grain bread which restaurants do not seem to have. It was a delicious, filling meal.

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Shinola's Texas Cafe
Springtown, TX

This is a grilled vegetable salad from Shinola's Texas cafe. It is in Springtown, TX. There is a bed of lettuce covered with freshly grilled vegetables including zucchini, yellow squash, onions, carrots, and a few others.  You are given a generous portion. I had enough to take home half in a container to eat later in the day. To stay within the confines of my diet, I did not eat the croutons.  There is a small amount of cheese sprinkled on top. When I order this again, I will ask for the croutons and cheese to be left off. As you can see I ordered the dressing on the side. It is quite a tasty salad even without dressing so I would just eat it as it is to be healthier. The salad was nicely seasoned.

Where do you go out to eat that has healthy food? Tell us in the comments section below. You can add pictures if you like, or just tell us about the restaurant and what you ate. I might visit if it is not too far away and take some pictures. Add your comments below. I would love to hear from you.