Eating Out...How do you do it?

When I go out to eat I want to have something that I can't have a home. Usually this means chowing down on things like fried seafood, juicy burgers and steaks and all those things that have bacon in them. I only eat what I call "real food"... nothin processed and adulterated. No artificial flavor or colors ever. this applies at home and when I go out. But when I eat out I want "heart attack" food. Fat, Meat, Salt, You know... the good stuff!

So the question is:

How rigorously do you stick to your "ethics" when you go out to eat?
Does this change when you are on long car trips?


I know a lot of people who eat "right" most of the time but it all goes out the window when the closest thing to the highway is a McD's and the like.

Just curious about other people's eating habits outside of the home/farm

From a health standpoint I cannot afford to eat contaminated food whether at a restaurant or at home.

Not only do I very quickly develop skin rashes, and other painful skin conditions – but I also gain weight super fast. If I stick to eating real food I can eat a normal and filling amount of food without gaining weight. Since I am still in the military I am required to maintain a certain weight and I don’t feel like eating like a little bird to do it.
For those reasons there are very few restaurants for me to go to.

Also, since I have become accustomed to eating real food the distributor fake food in most restaurants just tastes chemical to me. I would much rather eat really good food at home. I will make an overnight road trip just to eat at a restaurant that serves real food and it is worth the trip and the money every time.

Last, my own health aside, my personal ethical choices will not allow me to eat a factory farmed animal – so if I am stuck on the road overnight and the only choice is contaminated food then I eat it but I don’t allow any animal products on my plate.

Just for the record, I am a Low Carb Paleo Locavore, so what I consider an appropriate, healthy diet may differ from what you consider healthy.

I do some up front research about the places that I am traveling to. I like to go to restaurants that feature locally sourced foods. I identify a few choices where I think I can find foods that I would enjoy. For example, I was recently in Vancouver, BC. I checked out Cork and Fish, Go Fish, and The Twisted Fork. All of them were excellent. I try to get grass fed or pastured meats. I embrace the fat as long as the animal was raised in a healthy manner. I do the same thing when I go out locally.

If I'm on a road trip, I'll pack an ice chest and eat that before I'll go to a fast food chain. Once I reach my destination, see above. You can even find stuff that's not too terrible in an airport, although I often pack a meal when flying too.

Julie, I'm glad to know that I am not the only one that takes my food with me. I recently spent a few days at a Hilton during a conference. They looked at me like I was from Mars when they found out I had brought my own food.

My job takes me away from home for weeks on end. The work shifts are typically 12 hours, often more. It is impractical to pack lunch and dinner. It is unrealistic to search for a whole foods market. It is impossible to prepare a meal in a hotel room.

Breakfast is coffee and cigarettes on the drive in, maybe a McYuck if there is a fast food joint on the way.
Lunch is another McYuck or a can of spam...something really awful. Taste it, swallow the can, get back to work.
For dinner I dive in head first, eat my fill of whatever looks good on the menu, and order more if the whim washes over me. A 3000 calorie meal is not unreasonable.
I experience no reservations or guilt. It is part of the lifestyle I have chosen that comes with the job.

Now here's the thing...
Every day I go out there to bust up bricks, shovel up toxic waste in a rubber suit, and cough up banana pudding after breathing some of this crap out there serves to motivate me all the more. I hoard my pennies like a miser (except for the dinner part) in order to pay off this place, wipe out my bills, and get stuff in shape to grow good, clean, wholesome food which I can market in order to flush that job. If I have to interact with the ills of the world, I'm willing to do so, but my efforts will set me free.

One more year should do it.

I fully indulge if in a regular eatery and just keep it light and non-greasy if in a fast food place. No need to complicate life by stressing over the little things...I don't eat out often enough to let it cause a ripple in my mind. When on the road, I just try to eat foods that won't upset my digestive system that is used to real food...sometimes I'm successful and sometimes I wind up with irregular bowel patterns from it.

It's just a moment in time and doesn't affect my life in any real way, so I don't give it any house room in my mind.

I haven't been on a long car trip in years
I've got a couple of 'ethic' things I generally keep to: chicken's out; I very rarely believe the 'free range' tag. Pork's out, except a couple of free-range places. We don't have GMOs or feedlots... yet so it's a bit simpler for me than for some.
I don't like the taste of Mickey D-type stuff, so that's easy!

Leila, there are a few countries in the world I would like to visit just for the experience of eating wonderful food with abandon - yours is one of them. Maybe one day!

You better get onto it Jeanine; at the risk of getting political, there's plenty of governmental push towards (insert scary thing you really don't want here)

We're WAP eaters around here. Today after we went to the pool we were hungry so we went to In-N-Out and ordered a burger sans bun and omega-6 laden 'sauce'. Knowing the meat was feedlot beef and full of Ω6 fats, we went into the local Whole Foods and got a big cup of fish roe. The mega dose of Ω3 balances the Ω6 from the burger and then we're Ω3Ω6 neutral. Plus, the burger was amazing! If I can't get the roe, I'll down a tablespoon of cod liver oil for a big hit of Ω3.