If you’ve been following me, you know I’ve committed to taking my health back into my own hands. Doctors had no answers. I chose to take back my health. All the poking, prodding, testing, and scanning had to end. Doctors were ready to label me as Chronic Fatigue and load me up with meds for my chronic pain and headaches.

I chose to take control of my health and started finding a way to nourish my body with all the RIGHT nutrition.

Accurate nutritional information when eating out

However, I needed to know I could go out to dinner, and not have my health pay the price afterwards. I needed to find places I could eat HEALTHY meals, while out to dinner, or lunch, or even breakfast, with my friends and family! Thankfully, I stumbled across a website for those of us in the real world wanting to eat healthier when we left the comforts of our homes, with our homemade foods.

The site: HealthyDiningFinder.com .

HealthyDiningFinder.com

HealthyDiningFinder.com works with top restaurants all over the United States to bring all of us ACCURATE nutrition information on great-tasting dietitian-approved healthy menu choices. Pretty cool, right? I can’t tell you how excited I was to find this site.

Restaurants pay a fee to participate on the website. After paying, they supply their menu to dietitians, who then verify each of these menu items to make sure it fits into the set criteria Healthy Dining has for a healthy meal.

Criteria for healthy meals per HealthyDiningFinder.com

The criteria? Glad you want to know, because that’s what I asked about first when I spoke with Erica Bohm, VP and Director of Strategic Partnerships. She explained the entire system is based on the following:

Entrees/full meals, must have at least 2 of the following:

• lean proteins and/or fruits/vegetables and/or whole grains
• 750 calories or less
• 25 grams of fat or less
• 8 grams of saturated fat or less
• cannot contain more than 2,000 mg. sodium

Side dishes, appetizers and desserts, criteria:

• must be 250 calories or less
• have 8 grams of fat or less
• must have 3 grams of saturated fat or less
• They also cannot contain more than 750 mg. sodium

I highly recommend checking the website out, because it’s impressive. All of the menu items listed on the HealthyDiningFinder.com site have been verified by a team of dietitians!

Sodium Savvy

One of my favorite parts of Health Dining Finder’s website: the Sodium Savvy section. If a restaurant wants to have their meals on here, their entrees must have 750 mg of sodium or less. Sodium Savvy appetizers, side dishes and desserts, MUST contain 250 mg of sodium or less. I love this, because people all over are battling with heart issues and The American Heart Association is always educating people on the dangers of sodium!

Kids LiveWell

My absolute favorite part of this site: Kids LiveWell.

Parents have such a battle these days. We’re feeding our kids between rushing to events, and getting homework done. Many times we’re stuck at the drive thru. Trust me, I totally understand. However, with this site, I get a real answer as to what is just “a little better” for the kids at these types of places. The section to head to for this is Kids LiveWell. Each restaurant listed shows the best items for kids to eat.

The Kids LiveWell area has a special set of criteria for nutrition. Love this. It breaks it all down for you with the calories, and more. Insanely helpful for parents, grandparents and anyone feeding kids!

Searching for healthy meals in your area

Search HealthyDiningfinder.com by:

• zip code
• town and state

Once you enter your town and state a page comes up with a list of restaurants in your area. You can enter more detailed information:

• your exact address
• price range
• cuisine
• a specialty (Sodium Savvy, or Kids LiveWell)

OR click on the restaurant you’re interested in, such as Boston Market, IHOP, Denny’s, Blimpie, Friendly’s, Chili’s and more.

I’m extremely impressed with this site and can’t wait for them to start adding Gluten Free items onto the site. I was told it would be within the year. Keep checking back to find your favorite Gluten Free items! They also add new restaurants all the time!

New additions coming:

• Outback Steakhouse
• BJ’s Noodles
• Tony Roma’s

You can also access the HealthyDiningFinder.com information on any Smart Phone. The app is available for FREE on the iPhone app store under the name yumPower.

It’s always important to treat yourself, so now you can do it without hurting your healthy lifestyle with HealthyDiningFinder.com.