It’s officially SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!! 

Whether or not you’re a football fan, days like today are often filled with parties, processed snack foods and even alcohol. None of which are helping you toward your healthy living goals. So how do you stay on track with your diet or weight loss and still enjoy these moments in life? Let’s take a look.

Focus On The Event, Not The Food

If you ask anyone about what they are most looking forward to when it comes to barbecues, parties, holidays, etc., some part of their answer is likely going to include food.

It’s natural! We live for it! And if you’re following a healthy lifestyle 90% of the time, these may be your opportunities to cheat a little, so it makes sense that we would be looking forward to such an event.

But our culture has become WAY too engrained in our focus on food. So much so, that we no longer enjoy spending time with our relatives over grandma’s pumpkin pie that we will eat way to much of…twice.

However, if you learn to focus on the event and celebrating with your loved ones, you can avoid the food trap and learn to enjoy it without letting it be the focus.

I remember when I first really started my healthy living journey and I was afraid of events that were surrounded by yummy food. To be frank, I really didn’t even want to tempt myself. I wanted to have tunnel vision and see my weight loss journey to the end.

But life really doesn’t work like that and while you can do that for a short amount of time, you can’t go through life avoiding get togethers because there will be some unhealthy food involved. In order to truly create a healthy lifestyle, you really need to learn how to handle food and develop your willpower enough to be able to deal with it.

If you focus on family, friends and having fun, then you’ll get the best of both worlds and be able to enjoy yourself without going crazy.

Be Prepared

Another reason that people fail so easily is that they go to a party or gathering unprepared. How can you stick to a healthy eating plan when you don’t have any healthy food to eat?

A lot of times these parties include pizza and wings as your main course, coupled with chips, heavy dips, soda and sweets. A meal like that is sure to completely derail your diet.

However, if you come prepared and bring a few dishes yourself, at least you’ll know that you have healthy options. Volunteer to bring these side dishes to help yourself stay on track:

• Vegetable Tray
• Fruit Tray
• Mixed Nuts
• Meat and Cheese Tray
• Bottled Water
• Healthier Dips
• Healthy Cookies/Brownies

The idea is to give yourself options that look like their unhealthier counterparts, but actually give you a boost of nutrition that you’ll need. If worse comes to worse, and you really know you won’t be able provide healthier options for yourself, eat before you go! By all means, if it will allow you to control yourself instead of binging on goodies, eat your meal before you go so that you aren’t hungry and you can take or leave the snack table without starving.

Learn How To Control The Buffet

This tip works really well if you have already eaten before you go to a party, but with strong willpower, it can be used even if you don’t eat beforehand. Learning to control the buffet (or the slew of unhealthy options) basically means that you are allowing yourself to indulge a little without going out of control.

This is probably the hardest part for me because I often have an “all-or-nothing” mentality. It’s just part of my personality. So if I’m following a healthy eating regimen and want to cheat, I am going all out. Because I’ve already broken the plan, why not just go crazy and I’ll start over again tomorrow?

THAT’S THE WORSE MENTALITY EVER!!!!!

Absolutely do not follow my example on this one ever! Although, it’s really hard for a lot of people to break this mentality, it’s so important to do so. In the long run, you’re going to be so much more prepared and better equipped to handle unhealthy foods appropriately if you can avoid thinking this way.

If you must indulge, then be healthy about it. Definitely fill up on the healthiest options available and maybe even walk away from the food for a little bit. Give your brain time to catch up and realize whether or not your are actually hungry.

If you absolutely must indulge in everything, keep your portions small. You can still take advantage of trying all of the yummy food and avoid feeling like you’re missing out, but it’s not so hard on your waistline.

Know Yourself

At the end of the day, you know yourself and you know whether or not you’ll be able to control yourself around unhealthy food. So take the appropriate steps to offset the calorie increase and get a good workout in ahead of time.

I use this trick a lot when it comes to the holidays or picnics where I know there will be a lot of delicious food and probably not a ton of healthy options. This is also a good way to enjoy your life while still staying in control.

Going for a run, or walk before you go or getting a good weight lifting session or HIIT session in ahead of time can help offset your bad eating decisions later and help you bounce back more easily. And you never know, may be after a good sweat session, you’ll be less tempted to splurge in the first place.

Summary

So in short, you can have it all and enjoy your parties without completely derailing your healthy eating lifestyle.

• Focus on the event, not the food.
• Be prepared.
• Learn how to control the buffet.
• Know yourself.

Try these healthy dips and you’ll feel like you’re indulging without the garbage.