how to have a healthy weekend

Ahhh…the weekend! Time to relax and spend time with friends and family. Unfortunately weekends can be a disaster when it comes to healthy eating. All that delicious, tempting food all around you. The drinks are flowing, the appetizers look heavenly and my goodness, those desserts! What’s a clean eater to do?

Not to worry – you can still have fun and stick with your clean eating plan. And it doesn’t mean depriving yourself and saying no to everything. Life is meant to be enjoyed! So here are a few tips to keep you sane and happy this weekend:

  1. Eat before you go to that party: This tip has saved me many, many times. If you go to the cookout and you’re starving you will eat EVERYTHING, healthy or not. Have a healthy snack before you go to minimize temptation.
  2. Decide to eat dessert: Yes, you read that correctly. I used to always make dessert the enemy, which just made me want that darn dessert even MORE. If you’re a clean eater, you’ve probably eaten healthy all week. Today decide to have dessert and enjoy it.
  3. Do not hang out near the food: This is a diet killer. There you are, talking to Aunt Mildred, and you’re chatting and perusing the appetizer table and you start eating a little of this and a little of that and then all of a sudden you’ve racked up 800 calories. Instead, steer that nice Aunt Mildred away from the food table and then engage her in conversation.
  4. Drink water in between those grown up drinks: Okay, I’m going to be real with you. I’m not going to tell you not to drink if you enjoy an occasional alcoholic beverage. But how about this – for every alcoholic drink you have, drink a glass of water also. It will fill you up and cut down on the amount of liquid calories you’re consuming.
  5. Load up on veggies: If you’re going to eat a lot of something, then let it be vegetables! Fill half your plate with veggies. This will help you to stick with your clean eating plan.