How to avoid holiday/party fat during the summer season

Don’t be that person who turns up on holiday with your weighing scales or bring your best friend ‘MYFITNESS’ pal to your mates summer BBQ hoping to track all meat and alcohol consumed.  It’s not cool.  Seriously, don’t do it!

There are many ways to ensure you stay on point (or as close to) with your diet during the summer party season.

For some of us, counting calories and macros is easy.  If you have been tracking your intake for a good period of time, you will probably find it simple to estimate your portions and have a good rough idea of the calories you are taking in.  This is why I find myfitness pal such a great tool.  Its not a foreseeable future tool but a great starting point to get an understanding of food and nutritional values.

For the vast majority of us, calorie counting isn’t an everyday activity.

What should you do if you’re not a counter or a Tuppaware king?!

Simply employ a few simple, healthy eating habits that ANYONE can stay on track with, without adding an uncool amount of inches around the waist.

1. EAT LEAN MEATS AT VEG DURING / LEADING UP TO THE PARTY BBQ

The two choices that fill you up nicely are lean protein and fibrous veggies.

For breakfast and lunch on the day of the party, keep your protein choices lean and make sure you get plenty of fibre into your system.  This way you will be saving calories for the alcohol fuelled and meat overload event, limiting potential damage caused (obviously depending on how hard you party).

TIP- Leave your last meal before going to the party as close to departure as possible.  This should minimise the chances of getting to the BBQ feeling hungry and going down on the buffet.

2. CHOOSE ALCOHOL WISELY

However nice PIMMS and summer cocktails are, they will add up empty calories dramatically which will only lead to two things.  One, getting hungry again FAST.  Two, increase the chances of you feeling more ‘BUZZED’ and busting the robot dance out at 2pm and of course lead you to drink more and more.

Heavy holiday beers and ciders will have 2-3 times the calories and sugars.

Best alcohol option would be non-flavoured liquors and zero calorie mixers.  These are lower in calories and I’d imagine you wouldn’t need to drink many before the BBQ escalates FAST. 

3. HYDRATE YOURSELF

The ‘Drunk munchies’ are generally a sign of being very, very dehydrated, not being hungry.  Being sure to stay as hydrated as possible is one of the first steps in order to keep yourself away from the BBQ and buffet as much as possible.

Tip:-  For every alcohol beverage, drink a glass of water.  This will hopefully limit the ‘drunk munchies’ and hangover the next day.

4. THE NEXT DAY

Don’t lie around feeling sorry for yourself.  Get up and do something active.  This doesn’t mean you have to go smash the gym for a few hours, it simply means ‘get up and go’.  Take the kids out, go on a walk, cycle, go shopping.  Just get out the house.  This will avoid and limit that hangover craving and ensure you are burning calories.

5. DRAW THE LINE ONCE THE PARTY IS OVER

Party/ holiday weight isn’t caused by attending social events.  It’s usually caused by all the crap in between the holiday / parties.

When your party has finished, get to supermarket and buy plenty of items that you can cook for home-cooked, nutritious meals.  No eating out / takeaways.

Make healthy delicious tasty meals for you and your family to enjoy together that contain a lot of veggies, protein and whole carbohydrates.  

It’s easy to just want to eat ‘crappy’ deep fried food the day after but unfortunately this is what leads to continuous poor days and over eating!

Have a restart button that you set off when the party finishes.

Conclusion

Instead of constantly worrying about what’s going to happen to your body shape when you go on holiday / start attending BBQ’s, start planning on how you can assure yourself that you will stay on track.  Turn every negative into a positive and enjoy the summer season with friends and family guilt-free!

For help creating a pre holiday / summer body plan, apply at

haydenrolfe@hotmail.com or call reception on 01435 408607.

Hayden Rolfe