I am yet to meet a person that tells me that food is NOT a big part of their culture! I am also yet to meet a unhealthy person who doesn’t fancy sugar or savoury treats or both. Then how do people manage to stay healthy and loose weight or keep the weight off without being a social outcast??
Right Mindset – People convince themselves that life in general and social events in particular will not be as much fun without excessive drinking or over the top eating. They refuse to even try and attend events for the sake of the events without getting all excited about the foods being served there. Up until this year, I REFUSED to share my popcorn at the movies with anyone. It was my thing. A movie (regardless of the quality of the movie or the company I went with) became all about the large popcorn, choc top and coke zero. Then I decided to try something…I went to the movies with my usual gang of girls and actually decided to share the popcorn (with the other three), not order a choc top and have a coke zero. And guess what??? I still loved the movie and the company just as much. And I left the cinemas feeling proud of myself for doing so 🙂
Be Mindful – Its so hard to keep a track of the number of spring rolls we shove into our mouths or the number of crackers and dips we swallow when we are busy having interesting conversations! Walk around with a glass of water in your hand, so you can keep hydrating yourself and you are physically occupied with one hand and therefore cannot fill up one hand with chips to eat with the other! Maybe ask a friend that you trust your or partner to pull you up when they see you hovering over the buffet table for a little too long?
Choices: Yes, most parties have all the sweet and savoury stuff that we love so much! But most of them do serve fruits or veggie sticks with dips too. Trust me when I say, you will enjoy the party just as much if you make healthier choices and will leave feeling proud of yourself 🙂
Plan ‘cheat days’: Again, I cannot stress the importance of planning enough. Most of the times, social events and other outings are planned at least a week in advance. If that one meal is going to be a carb and/or sugar loaded meal for you, be extra good on the other days!! You can’t have it all, so plan well around it. Eat lesser calories and workout harder on the days before and after!