Poll: Do You Eat Out Less?

I hate the idea of other people messing with my food and my husband is a tightwad, so we don't eat out much as it is. I can't imagine how expensive it would be to eat out once a week or more...yikes!

We used to eat every meal out for YEARS AND YEARS, which may partly explain my obesity!

Last year, I decided to learn to cook and I stocked up on pots, pans, two slow cookers, chef knives, professional accessories, and started buying organic produce, meats, and dairy. I'm still not a great cook, and we hardly are saving huge amounts yet (since now I buy organic, it costs more, and we had to lay out for cooking tools and gadgets I didn't have), but we're eating much more healthfully and hubby and I feel better. He's lost 30 lbs, I've lost 27. I do miss having my food cooked and served to me, the whole ambiance, ordering up cappucino's and dessert, considering wine. But you know, I was way behind learning how to cook (in my late forties), and it was about dang time.

If there were more health-oriented restaurants round here, we'd patronize them. As is, I do visit the vegan place about 3 miles away about once week for lunch. And we do take-out when I'm pooped, and pizza is a biweekly splurge (whole wheat crust from a mom and pop place nearby). I would love never to have to cook again, but healthwise, it's just not gonna be a good idea.

The Princess--who likes being served, obviously

Not really but we have talked about it, and if we are doing that it means a lot of others have already taken action.

I wish I could eat out more. It is just too expensive. I am always hungry! I wish I could eat steak every meal everyday.

I blame the Deadlifts and Squats.

I only out 1-2 times per week, generally preferring to eat home: it's cheaper, I LOVE to cook, and London restaurants don't have much going for vegetarians. It also means that when I DO eat out, I can splurge on a nice restaurant where the food is actually worth paying for. I definitely enjoy dining out more now that I do it less.

I eat out an average of once a week on dates and once a week for lunch. I much prefer cooking at home...I find the food is obviously cheaper, significantly more healthful, and typically quite a bit tastier. When I go to a restaurant and drop $15 for 6oz of salmon, it makes paying $15-18 for a pound of wild salmon at the grocery not seem like such a big expenditure.

I can eat 4 pounds of grass-fed beef at home for the price of a moderately priced meal out for just myself. I can cook up 2 lbs of lamb chops for about $15 at home, feeding someone else and leaving enough leftovers for me to have another meal...three meals for $15 (not counting the side dishes and wine).

And for the guys...learn to cook decently. It's better for you, better tasting, and women can't resist a man that has some culinary skills. ;-)

Cheers
Scott Kustes
Modern Forager

I stay out of restaurants because there is too much temptation. I've been doing really well eating healthy and losing weight, and I find a lot of my success has been from eating at home only. It does also save a lot of money too! I would rather save the money and treat myself to some new clothes when I reach my weight goal.

crockpots are just the best things ever for eating well and convenience. I love that they are so effective without any fats - in fact the less fat the better things do in a crockpot. Fat seems to overheat and make things burn around the edges.

I have one of these new ones where you can brown things on the stove right in the crock (just need a little spray of oil first) and then pop it in the crock. Plus it times things and will just turn itself on to "keep warm" to keep things at a safe temp when done. Just love it.

I'm not too big on the eating out just for convenience or the sake of eating out either. (I really learned to dislike eating out when the kids were small and tossed a lot of food around and got restless. Our youngest used to push the plates off the highchair tray when he was done eating - at home we had unbreakable dishes for him but in restaurants it lead to a lot of broken crockery!) On the other hand I hate the last minute crunch of cooking dinner when the kids get home from school and seem to be demanding my attention so combining some healthy ingredients in the crockpot ahead of time seems to be the key for me.

Eating out for our family is still a treat and something to really enjoy, not an everyday occurance. When we do eat out just for the heck of it we often go for Japanese food - I have kids who love the sushi rolls - and it's a pretty guilt-free experience. Husband won't do the sushi thing but he is content with things like chicken or shrimp teriyaki.I'm finding now that even if I'm at a mall or something and need to eat that a tray of little veggie sushi rolls (I don't eat raw fish from a mall!) is just about a perfect meal for me. I love pickled ginger!

I voted yes for health reasons which is definitely part of my reason for trying to cook more at home, but my real reasons is that trying to take out 3kidsunder3 is pretty hard.

Actually, it fluctuates for me. Some weeks when I am particularly busy, I eat out often. I live in a great little town with a few restaurants that focus on local food that is pretty healthy, so I can get away with eating out more a bit if I make good selections.

Then I will go weeks eating at home.

We hardly eat out as I have a culinary degree and dh prefers my cooking at home. He is always disappointed when we go out to eat, as he finds what I make far better then what we get when we eat out. Plus, I have switched over our meals to whole foods/local foods and he just prefers my cooking. Plus, I love to cook/bake so I guess it is all good! Plus, our food dollar goes farther, since I always find that the $40 or so spent on a meal eatten out, could have been better spent on food for home, again since dh prefers eatting at home.

I think what most people who eat out don't realize is that even if you are ordering chicken, broccoli and rice, its still unhealthy. Restaurants in general use butter in absolutely everything and you would totally be surprised at the fat content even in foods like that.

I try to eat out once a week, mostly just for the sake of getting out of my usual routine and getting off to a date with my wife regularly.

It is definitely possible to eat healthfully while eating out, but it's not as easy as one might think to actually find a restaurant that serves semi-healthy food.

Just like when eating at home, it requires planning and foresight as well as a firm decision to choose the best option instead of the most desirable one. The first thing most people think of when they open a menu is "what do I want?"

I think we would all do well to start asking ourselves, "what do I need?" or "what should I eat?"

John Sifferman NSCA-CPT
http://burnthefat.com

I think we go through stages during our lives. When I was younger I ate out every weekend from Friday until Sunday. As I got older this slowed to maybe once a week and now I am older, probably 3 times a week.

I suppose the times do dictate how often we eat out but if we are not lucky enough to stay slim but instead put on too much weight it can be very bad for us.

I hate dining out in restaurants - the excitable hen parties and loud neighbours, mobile phone conversations, useless waiting staff with the phoney bonhomie, overpriced and messed up food, service charges and tipping - I loathe the whole experience and cannot understand why others enjoy it so much. I'm booked in a foursome tonight and am dreading it. If only I could get out of it - any suggestions?