The Problem with Eating Out

I had a very busy day yesterday, with several meetings in the centre of London. The meant I had to get my workout in early and eat out for both lunch and supper. I learned long ago that the key to finding good gluten free food on the go is to plan ahead, so I had already arranged to have lunch with my husband at Leon’s and knew of a Carluccio’s near my last meeting where I could have dinner if things ran late. Both of these chains have a great selection of gluten free food, right down to several choices of gluten free desserts (not just a fruit salad or ice cream).

The most common problem for me when eating out is the lack of nutritional information, which makes it difficult to keep a food diary. Most chains now have the nutritional information for their dishes on the website, but there is a complete lack of any nutritional information on the Carluccio’s website. I guessed that the gluten free pasta would have the same nutritional profile as the stuff in my cupboard, and I guessed about how much I ate. But I could be wrong on both counts so today’s calorie count is more of a ballpark estimate. Ironically I had the opposite problem with Leon’s. I made the rookie mistake of assuming that “healthy” food meant low calorie and low fat. According to the Leon’s website the Magic Mackerel salad has 617 calories and 50 g of fat! I think that’s a new record for me. Worse yet, despite having a side of corn, I was hungry again an hour later!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Fibre:
2485.76	79.46g	334.26g	97.17g	22.35g
	13%	54%	35%
Calories burned through exercise:		379

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:15	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	with Flora Light	10g
	and St Dalfour Raspberry jam	24g
	Sainsburys pressed apple juice	200mL
08:00	Black tea	500mL
08:45	Workout - resistance training
	Tri-Berry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	500mL
09:45	For Goodness Shakes SuperBerry recovery drink	80g sachet
13:30	Leon's Magic Mackerel Salad	1 portion
	Leon's Corn off the Cob	1 portion
	Leon's Raspberry lemonade	1 portion
15:15	Green Tea	500mL
16:15	Sainsbury's fruit and seed mix	40g
	Apple	about 100g
17:15	Black tea	200mL
20:00	Carluccio's Gluten Free Pasta	about 75g
	with Wild Boar Ragu	very little
	Carluccio's Courgettes	about 1/2 of one
	in Butter	about 10g
21:00	Sainsburys Freefrom iced rich fruit cake slice	1 slice
	Twinings Camomile, honey and vanilla tea	200 mL