One of my business clients wanted to meet for lunch.  That is a completely normal request, but when I am trying to stay ketovore, a lunch meeting can become a test before I ever sit down at the table.  The client could have suggested almost anything. Mexican food, Italian food, sandwiches, burgers or one of those restaurants where the complimentary bread arrives before I have had time to remember that I am supposedly avoiding bread.

This time, I decided to get ahead of the decision.  I steered the meeting toward Wingstop.  Was it a flawless, scientifically engineered ketovore meal? Probably not. But it gave me an opportunity to build lunch around chicken instead of bread, pasta, chips or a giant plate of something covered in gravy.  More importantly, I made that choice before hunger and convenience made it for me.

Sometimes the Best Choice Is Where You Eat

I have been thinking a lot about the individual food decisions I make.  Do I order the fries?  Do I eat the bread?  Do I get seconds?  Do I eat because I am hungry or simply because food is sitting in front of me?  Those choices matter, but today reminded me that an important decision often happens earlier:  Which restaurant am I going to?

Once I am sitting inside a restaurant, looking at a menu and smelling everything being prepared, discipline becomes more difficult. I am asking myself to make a good decision while hungry and surrounded by temptation.  Choosing the restaurant ahead of time changes the situation.  At Wingstop, I knew chicken would be the main event. I would not have to order a salad and spend the entire meeting staring longingly at someone else’s cheeseburger. I could eat something satisfying while keeping the meal reasonably aligned with what I am trying to accomplish.  That may not sound revolutionary, but it is exactly the kind of small decision that makes this lifestyle more realistic.

Better Does Not Have to Mean Perfect

I want to be honest about the meal shown in the photograph.  Some restaurant wings, seasonings and sauces may contain breading, sugar or other ingredients that would not belong in a strict carnivore meal. Restaurant food may also be prepared differently from the food I make at home.  This was not a plate of plain steak cooked in my own kitchen.

But I am not trying to create the illusion that every meal is perfect. I am documenting what it looks like to make better choices while operating a business, meeting clients and living an ordinary life.  For me, Wingstop was a better choice than many of the restaurants I could have selected.  The meal was centered on chicken. I did not need a sandwich bun or a basket of chips to feel like I had eaten lunch. I could participate in the meeting without announcing that I was on a diet or making the client rearrange his entire day around my eating plan.  That matters because any way of eating that only works when life is perfectly controlled probably will not last very long.

Planning Ahead Beats Willpower

I have learned that I should not depend entirely on willpower.  Willpower is impressive at 9:00 in the morning after coffee. It becomes considerably less reliable at lunchtime when I am hungry and somebody places a menu in front of me.  Planning is easier.  If I know I have a business lunch, I can recommend a restaurant where meat is readily available. I can look at the menu before arriving. I can decide what I am likely to order before I am hungry.

Then I am not making fifteen decisions at the restaurant. I am mostly following one decision I already made.  That is what happened today.  My client wanted to meet for lunch, and instead of allowing the restaurant choice to become an excuse, I helped choose a place where I knew I could find something workable.  The decision was not dramatic. There was no inspirational music playing as I pulled into the parking lot.  It was simply a better choice.

Business Lunches Are Part of My Real Life

Eating ketovore at home is easier because I control the refrigerator, the menu and what goes on my plate.  Business lunches are different.  I own a website company. Meeting clients is part of my life, and food is often part of those meetings. I cannot reasonably expect every client to understand my eating plan or want to discuss carbohydrates for the first twenty minutes of lunch.

I need a strategy that lets me take care of business and take care of myself.  Today showed me that I have more control than I sometimes pretend.  I may not control when a client asks to meet. I may not control every ingredient used by a restaurant. But I can suggest where we go, choose the best available meal and decide how much I eat.  Those choices belong to me.

The Real Victory Was Being Intentional

I recently reached 186 pounds after beginning this restart at 197.0. I am proud of that progress, but the scale is only reporting what has already happened.  Today’s lunch was about what happens next.  The real victory was not that Wingstop suddenly became a health retreat. It was that I thought about my goal before lunch and made a deliberate decision.  That is the habit I want to develop.

When I have a football game, a client meeting, a school-board event or dinner at a restaurant, I want to stop treating the situation as something that simply happens to me.  I can participate in real life and still influence the outcome.  I can recommend the restaurant.  I can make meat the center of the meal.  I can skip the sides that do not fit my plan.  I can eat one reasonable serving.  I can enjoy the conversation without allowing lunch to become the beginning of an entire day of overeating.  Today’s meal may not have been perfect, but it was planned. It was intentional. It kept me moving in the right direction.  Sometimes that is what progress looks like: not avoiding lunch, but choosing where lunch happens.