We’ll Make it Easy to Make Good Decisions
Baked Goods and Pastries
At many restaurants, servers will practically trip over themselves to get a basket of muffins, scones or croissants onto your table as soon as you sit down. Don’t feel like you have to resist entirely, but if possible look for whole grain options or small bite-size portions. If portions are large, simply offer to slice a muffin down the middle and split it with your brunch date.
Alcohol
A cool mimosa is a refreshing complement to brunch, but if you’re watching calories you may want to opt to have a bloody mary instead. There may be as much as 40 calories lurking in the orange juice’s sugar content alone. The trade-off: depending upon the mix, your bloody mary may be heavy on the sodium.
Fruit
Order a side of fresh fruit or a fruit salad as soon as you’re seated. Enjoying a few bites of fruit will tamp down your hunger and help you avoid the temptation of overeating once your main course is presented.
Bacon
If you’re in charge of the menu, prepare turkey bacon or opt for center cut bacon, which is as much as 20% leaner than regular bacon. If you’re out for brunch, it never hurts to ask your server if they have turkey bacon!
Salad
Leaning more toward lunch than breakfast, salads are a obvious and fine choice, but avoid the cobb salad if you’re trying to avoid salt. Typical recipes include high-sodium ingredients like bleu cheese and ham.
Wraps
If possible, choose a wrap or flatbread options instead of a sandwich to save one to two hundred calories.
Go ahead, enjoy brunch. We promise, you can do it without blowing your commitment to lose.