SUMMERTIME, and the living’s easy…well sort of.
Summer is full of delicious grilled food, cold adult beverages, and other temptations that can threaten to throw you off course of your goals. You’ve already made it through the biggest BBQ day of the year, but there’s lots more summer fun to be had!
Summer is full of delicious grilled food, cold adult beverages, and other temptations that can threaten to throw you off course. You’ve already made it through the biggest BBQ day of the year, but there’s lots more summer fun to be had! It’s very common for people with firm goals in mind to be stressed about fun events because they might overindulge and get off track. If this is you, you’re not alone! Rely on your self credibility and visualizing your success! In order to really make a difference in your progress, you would need to consume a lot of food and/or high-calorie, high-sugar beverages. The rule of thumb has always been that approximately 3,500 calories = 1 pound of fat. While that number has caused a stir among nutrition professionals, it is still safe to say that you would need to eat a very, very large amount of food in one day to derail you.
Here are some tips to help you enjoy the rest of summer without concern that your hard earned progress will be diminished!
- Manage your routine.
Try your best to keep your routine as close to regular as you can. Just because you have a party to get to doesn’t mean that you can’t get some kind of exercise in the morning. You may not be able to make it to the gym or Manduu, but you can certainly find ways to move around! - Maintain your water intake.
Throughout the day (before, during, and after the party), stay hydrated. That means water and other unsweetened beverages (like a nice iced herbal tea). Electrolyte packets, coconut water, watermelon juice, Celtic sea salt, and cucumber are all great additions to up the hydration. You can also double down on water-packed fruits and veggies! - Prepare a dish.
Ask the host (or don’t) if you can bring a delicious, nutrient-dense dish. There are plenty of great options that are appropriate for a BBQ or a summer party – a pasta salad, a grilled chicken dish, a loaded green salad, kebabs (chicken, steak, shrimp), or a fun sandwich wrap. The point of this is simply to have another option that will pack a nutritious punch. You can still enjoy the other goodies, but you will have a choice to fill up on the “better-for-you” stuff, rather than having to depend on the other food that you don’t really want to eat. - Sneak out for a walk.
Maybe it’s because I’m your classic extroverted introvert, but there are few things that serve me like a break from the crowd does, both mentally and physically. There’s usually enough going on, or enough alcohol flowing, that no one will even notice you’ve disappeared for a bit. Not only will a walk aid in digestion, but it will also count as some exercise. You’re not leaving the BBQ, so I believe it’s totally okay to slip out without telling anyone, but if you feel like getting more people involved, go for it! - Be mindful.
I know everything is super tempting – I truly believe I have just about zero willpower around some good BBQ food, especially if I’m indulging in an adult beverage or two – but paying attention to how you actually feel is imperative. We can probably all remember a couple of times when we just kind of let go and ate until we couldn’t breathe, and we don’t want to make that a habit every time we find ourselves in situations outside of the norm. It’s important to work on practicing awareness around hunger and fullness, at parties and all the time! Piggybacking off of this… - Practice portion control.
It’s normal to want a little of everything – the operative word being “little.” As referenced earlier in the example about eating until we can’t breathe, it’s not something that’s going to benefit us in the long run. Start with smaller portions of all of the foods you want. Enjoy them, give yourself a little time to digest (cue the “sneaky escape walk”) and if you still want more of something, go for it. We are accustomed to eating everything on our plates, so if we start with less, we will naturally eat less without feeling pressure to have more than we can handle. - Keep the alcohol and sweetened beverages to a minimum.
As we all know, alcohol and sweetened beverages are high in sugar and don’t do anything for us nutritionally. Of course, there is a time and a place where they are appropriate (maybe even necessary, like at a BBQ!) but it’s important to be smart about it. Make sure to eat, and even more importantly, break up the flow of alcohol with a glass of water between each fun drink. Alcohol, sodas, and fruit juices are really easy ways to take in a lot of sugar and calories without even realizing it, so be cautious to not overdo it.
Most importantly, don’t deprive yourself and enjoy the valuable time with friends and family! Keep a positive mindset and don’t punish yourself with a “well I already blew it…” attitude. You know how to achieve your goals by making little changes throughout your day. Once the party or vacation is over, get back to your routine and find new and fun ways to push yourself!
If you feel as though you are missing out on food, get-togethers, and special events, it’s going to be really hard to stick to your routine. You’ve heard it before, “moderation is key.” It’s imperative to experience life while you’re on a fitness/wellness/fat loss journey just as you would if you weren’t. Have fun, be smart, listen to your body… and tell us all about it at your next Manduu workout! Going a little overboard once in a while is part of life. It happens. As I said before, it takes a lot of calories to gain even 1lb of fat, so you’re probably not going to manage this in one day. But if you go really hard, just get right back to it, whether that be later in the day, or the next morning. In other words, just because you ate some “not-so-good-for-you” stuff, you’re not going to starve yourself to make up for it. You’re not going to sit on the couch and sulk for two days because you feel bloated and you’re disappointed in yourself for “ruining” all your progress. You’re going to resume your life – that means eating normally, enjoying coffee as you normally would, and getting your exercise in. You can’t erase all your hard work in one day unless you allow that one day to dictate the next 30.
Nicole Astone, M.S. Research & Development Coordinator