Did you make a New Year’s resolution? If so, did it include losing weight? Or eating healthier?  I made no such resolution. I instead made a vision board where I do see myself being healthier overall by the end of 2018. That is a ways to go. However, considering how life just gets faster and faster as you get older, no time like the present to start working on the “me” of December 2018.  And I want to share a healthful or helpful tip because I am all about giving to others. Well, sure.

Anyway.

What I have discovered is that if you want to eat healthier but also wish to eat out at a restaurant there is a healthy way of doing it.  I don’t mean that you cut back on what you order or that you share your entrees with others. Sure, those are good tactics. So, would not eating a lot. But that is not my helpful tip.

What I have discovered is that if you want to eat out more healthily you should do so at the restaurant bar. Yes, eat at the bar.  Here is my thinking. First off, whenever I eat the bar (especially at lunch time) almost everyone is eating a salad. Go figure.  I may be wrong about this, but I believe that people on average spend less time eating at the bar. But I can be entirely wrong on that. It’s not like you can slide into those stools and be comfortable for very long.  Also, you have less space at the bar. You have less counter space. And you have less space to sit and spread out as well. Who wants to eat a lot when you have little space in which to do so.  I certainly don’t. And if you are thirsty, you can get your drinks way faster.   Thus, you fill up more on liquids.

I will admit that I love eating at the bar. Not only when I am alone eating out on a business trip but also if I am eating out with one other person. Besides eating healthier, it is just more fun to eat at the bar. The bartender always has a story to share. You can banter and get better drinks. You have a good chance of meeting some other people. That may not always be a good thing but can make for a fun story down the line. I mean, in most movies the murder for hire plots are concocted at a bar while eating next to a stranger. And, we all know Hollywood mirrors reality.   Or is it that it shapes reality? Hmm. Nevermind. Anyway, back to why eating at the bar is better.  If you are with someone, you can hear them better when you are side by side. You can even draw on the same napkin.

But now there is also my unscientifically founded belief that you eat more healthily at the bar. Last time I ate at a bar, of the seven people eating there, all but one had a salad. And everyone’s salad looked good. That’s more than an anecdote, right? I jest.   But convince me otherwise.