By Charlene Giannetti

Nutritionist Elyse Sosin will be checking her e-mail frequently this weekend and she already knows what she will read:

“I’m going to a barbeque. What is the best thing for me to eat?”
“I’ve just overeaten! How do I manage the rest of the weekend?”

July Fourth recognizes the birth of our nation. For many people, however, the holiday represents the death of their dieting. This holiday celebration involves barbeques (red meat slathered with high-calorie sauces), layovers at airports (where it’s hard to resist those fragrant Cinnabons), and car trips (where hours of driving with kids means doling out cookies, goldfish, and candy). Avoiding fat-laden, heavily salted, and sugary snacks becomes almost impossible. Want to see a movie without enjoying a jumbo popcorn? Or take in a ballgame and pass on the hot dogs, pizza, Coke, and beer?

On April 21, 2008, New York City restaurants with 15 or more outlets were required to post the calorie count for the foods on their menus. And the totals have been nothing short of shocking. Dining at the Hard Rock Café at the new Yankee Stadium, we found the citrus chicken salad, a seemingly healthy choice, actually tipped the scales at nearly 1,5000 calories, an entire day’s allowance. “We have fooled ourselves for a long time,” said Sosin. “If you have avocado, bacon, bleu cheese and dressing, the salad can’t be 300 calories. It’s not even a salad. It’s avocado, bacon, and bleu cheese with a little lettuce on top.”

If knowledge is power, then seeing the calorie count for foods should help us make better choices. That’s the theme behind David Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. “Managing our eating behavior depends on our ability to alter automatic responses to food cues and gain conscious control over them,” Kessler writes. He uses himself as an example. Being unable to resist a dumpling stand at the airport, he changed his route so that he would no longer pass the area and be tempted to stop.

Sosin herself has employed the same technique. “William Greenberg Jr. Desserts on Madison Avenue used to leave their door open,” said Sosin, saying she had a hard time resisting the intoxicating smell of fresh baked cakes and cookies. “I had to walk on the other side of the street.”

Here are some other strategies Sosin employs with her clients:

Remember that calories are calories no matter the food. “A hundred calories is a hundred calories,” said Sosin. “Whether from carbohydrates, protein, or fat, you store it as fat if it’s more than you need.”

Watch portions. Sosin recommends limiting yourself to three to four ounces of meat. “Some of the steak places list ounces,” she said. Oftentimes the smallest steak served is ten ounces. Ask to be served half and have the restaurant pack up the rest to go home before you see it.

So-called smoothies pack a wallop. Starbucks has three summer smoothies that may contain up to 500 calories—one-third of your daily intake. Similar offerings at Dunkin’ Donuts and Jamba Juice also rate high in calorie count.

Check menu pages online before dining out. Most restaurants now post their menus online. Check beforehand so you can go in with a game plan for eating sensibly.

Call the restaurant beforehand. “I’ve called up restaurants and asked them what the portion sizes are and the ingredients,” said Sosin. “They’ve been great.” She has even asked about making substitutions, sautéed vegetables for onion rings, for example.

Order first. Before you can hear what others choose, get your healthy order in. “Then you won’t hear someone order chicken parm and think, `That sounds good,’” Sosin said.

Ask to have your plate taken away. Most professional servers will wait until everyone is finished before removing plates. But if you have eaten all you want, ask to have your plate removed so you won’t be tempted to finish everything on your plate.

Order coffee or tea for dessert. Make sure to have something in your hand while others are eating high-calorie desserts. If you must have dessert, opt for seasonal fruit.

Cheap food is no bargain. Fast food may be plentiful but not necessarily healthy. “The last thing someone with money issues needs to do is to jeopardize health,” said Sosin. If money is an issue, she recommends some of the offerings at Subway that can be inexpensive with reasonable calorie counts.

Avoid buffets. While you may save money, you will pay with extra pounds. If you have a child with a weight problem, buffets are a recipe for disaster. “Don’t bring a kid to a buffet,” Sosin said. “It’s not fair.”

Limit alcohol. No matter whether you drink hard liquor, wine, or beer, the calories from alcohol add up, Sosin said. And many times after drinking, inhibitions drop and overeating is the result.

Every holiday brings with it celebrations and temptations to overeat. “If you look at any month of the year, there’s always something—a birthday, wedding, soccer game, camp visiting day, funerals,” Sosin said. “Food is all over.” While she advises caution as the July Fourth holiday begins, she tells dieters not to despair if they have one day when they occasionally indulge. “One meal a week is not going to blow your diet,” she said.