DAY 4: The Weekend is NEAR

Congrats!  You have made it through the toughest part of the challenge, the first 3days.  You are going through the usual cravings, fighting the urge and noticing a flucuating of energy and performance in the gym.  This is all NORMAL.  Don't worry...your body is adjusting and inherently detoxing itself over all the sugars and grains you have been feeding your body for your entire life!  Hopefully you will be turning the corner soon....but wait now we have the weekend!  What do you do?  Well, I am confident that all of you can make arrangements so that you can follow your nutritional guidelines this weekend. Be creative!  If you go out to a resturant or a social funtion....I am certain you can find something that is paleo friendly....below is a checklist created by Mark Sisson from Mark's Daily Apple, for healthy dining out.

1. Avoid eating out. I’m kinda kidding, but it goes without saying that eating out at chain restaurants on a regular basis probably isn’t a good idea.
2. Lobby for restaurant-picking powers. If you’re deigning to eat out, the least your companions can do is let you pick the place. Pro-tip: don’t use the word “deign” when trying to pick the restaurant.
3. Don’t eat. Treat this as an Intermittent Fasting day. If you need visualization, imagine Grok happening across a rotting, stinking carcass. Doesn’t sound so different from most restaurant fare to me.  (We will discuss IF in a later blog....)
4. Be a super modern forager. Scan the menu for anything that might work. If you’re eating Mexican, get the fajitas and lose the rice, beans, and tortillas while upping the veggies, meat, and guacamole.
5. Make special requests. Yep, you’re gonna have to “be that guy” who customizes his order so much that the final product is completely unrecognizable from the original. Expect eye rolls and audible sighs, but those are a small price to pay for eating right. You can always claim gluten-intolerance or various food allergies if you want to avoid the hassle; they can’t ignore you then.
6. Make substitutions. All restaurants have vegetables. Most of them will be happy to swap out the starchy foods like rice, bread, or potatoes for steamed or grilled veggies.
7. Get stuff on the side. For sauces and dressings of indeterminate origin, ask for them on the side. That way you can control their distribution rather than letting the cook slather your food with it.

TGI Friday’s/Applebee’s/Chili’s/etc.

Is there really any difference between these restaurants? They all serve burgers, ribs, salads, sandwiches, and pasta, along with lots of deep-fried and heavily-battered appetizers, and it’s all pretty bland, forgettable stuff. Still, they do have a good happy hour, and they’re pretty popular, so you may find yourself stuck at one with friends or coworkers with your stomach rumbling. Bun-less burgers are an option, of course, as are the salads. If you get a salad, hold the croutons and get the dressing on the side. Unfortunately, chain restaurant salad dressings are usually rife with sugar and industrial vegetable oils (high in Omega 6s), so there aren’t any fantastic options. If you’re lucky, they’ll have olive oil and vinegar on the premises and you can simply make your own. I usually opt for whatever cut of steak they have on the menu. Sure, it ain’t grass-fed or organic, but it is meat, and you can usually request they cook it in butter (rather than corn oil). Skip the mashed potatoes or fries for mixed veggies, and you’re good to go. I couldn’t find any specific data for steak from any of these restaurants, but FitDay says a 10 oz lean sirloin steak looks something like this:
Fat: 31g
SFA: 11g
PUFA: 4g
MUFA: 13g
Carbs: 0g
Protein: 92g
Add some more fat if they honor your request to cook it in butter, along with a few more carbs from the veggies, and you’re looking at a decent meal.

Olive Garden

A carb-lovers paradise, Olive Garden is actually a decent pick for Primal eaters. You obviously won’t be ordering the pasta, but the smattering of grilled items, plus the endless salad bowl, make eating here definitely doable. They even have a low-carb menu, which was a complete surprise. There’s the 14 oz Steak Toscano, cooked in olive oil and served with broccoli and mixed veggies; the Mixed Grill, which consists of skewers of chicken and steak with zucchini and broccoli; the Herb-Grilled Salmon, brushed with olive oil and served with broccoli; the mussels served with a wine, garlic, and onion sauce; and the Pork Filletino, marinated in olive oil and rosemary and served with mixed vegetables. Those all sound pretty delicious and, with the net carbs all under 20g (and none of them coming from starch), very reasonable for Primal eaters.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz1wZ4vRH4a