Help!!! Need lunch advice!!

I am taking my boss out for Boss's Day to a local Mexican Restaurant.  Carmalitas...yum!  They have the best..well, best everything!  Chips, salsa, queso, tacos, enchiladas!  I was thinking I would get a grilled chicken taco salad...that would be okay on calories, right?  Maybe salsa and a little guac for dressing. 

It's so hard to control snacking on chips and salsa before the meals come out especially when everyone else is...how do I stay strong???  :)

will power. what else is there? just think how hard you'll have to work out to burn off excess calories.

try not to worry to much. just don't over do it. oh and drink lots of water! or diet pop.

Stay away from tortillas. Tortillas have got to have about the worst calorie and carb to volume ratio of just about any food out there. One big tortilla will have 300 calories in it.

So that's my first rule of eating Mexican food. No tortillas.

Second one is probably avoid the chips and queso. Third for me is white rice.

All the meat, veggies, and frijoles I can eat though. With all the salsa I want. Planning carefully, I can usually get myself pretty full on Mexican food for about 700 calories.

That's not something I want to do every day (especially given the amount of salt that is in most of it) but it isn't a deal breaker for me either to have it once in awhile.

Okay...who am I kidding? I eat Mexican probably once a week. :)

How many calories do you think a Taco Salad would have in it:

Shredded iceburg

Grilled chicken breast (not sure how much...need to find out)

about 1/4 cup tomatoes

couple slices of black olive

1/4 cup of fresh salsa

1/4 cup fresh guac

I went to the nutrition calculator at chipotlefan.com and put in those ingredients.  With 4 oz. of chicken, you're looking at 434 calories.

Obviously, your mileage will vary some depending on how it's prepared, how much of a difference there is between serving sizes, etc.   But you can see, that's not too bad for a whole meal. 

count out 8 chips and only eat a little salsa on each.  (limit, don't deny)

since mexican is a treat for me anyway, i would use up my rare beef allowance and get carne asada or tacos al carbon or fajitas (don't eat the tortillas).  ask for vegetables on the side instead of rice or beans (usually too much fat/salt in both).  choose rice over beans if nothing else is available.  if you get fajitas, eat the onions and green peppers with the meat and that's it.  you could do shrimp or chicken, both of which would be better than beef since usually it's skirt or flank in mexican food.

no guacamole for me since i don't know what the restaurant puts into it (unless it's my birthday and all caution goes to the wind).  no queso.

walk back to work if you can or make an excuse to go shopping so that you're walking/standing for an extra hour.  you need a card or gift for the boss anyway, right?

Beans are pretty much the only thing you're going to find at a Mexican Restaurant that have any fiber in them to help you fill up.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/item/16015.h tml

They have more nutrition than white rice

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/item/20045.h tml

 or worse, Spanish-style rice

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/item/101752. html

 Just try to get black or pinto beans instead of refried beans if you can.  However you cut it, you're better off with beans than rice.