Healthy Holiday Eating - Memorial Day

There are so many things I wanted to talk about this week.  I chose this topic because A LOT of people struggle with staying healthy when distracted by a holiday and seeing friends and family.  The best way to have the most success is to have a PLAN for the weekend.  Once you know what your plans are, you can make decisions ahead of time instead of at that very moment.  Here are some tips and tricks that I use:

• If you are going to a potluck, bring a healthy dish to pass.  I always like doing veggies with hummus instead of dip.  The hummus has more nutritional value and less sugar than vegetable dip.  Some other more exciting options are salsa and guacamole.

• Be mindful of what you add to your food.  A lot of condiments have added sugars that are not good for us.  Probably to most used for this weekend is Ketchup.  Mustard is actually better than Ketchup so try Mustard instead of Ketchup.  Now, I am going to Brat Fest Saturday and yes I will be eating Brats and yes I will be putting condiments on those brats.  This is leading me to my next tip.

• Eat some veggies before you go out.  I will be doing this on Saturday with probably some celery or cucumbers or carrots or maybe all of them.  This way I will get fuller faster and this will also help to prevent my blood sugar from spiking like it normally would if I had an empty stomach (more on this topic to come).

• Drink A LOT of water!  It is pretty easy to get caught up in the festivities and drink soda, sugary drinks and even beer.  One easy way to drink more water is to always bring water with you.  Now, if you get sick of water easily here is a fun way to jazz it up....Add slices of pineapple(or any fruit) to it!  This will not only make it sweeter and tastier, it will also add nutrients to it.  I will definitely be trying that this summer.

• The last tip I have is to keep your mass moving.  Make sure not to get lazy this weekend.  Go for a walk or bike ride, do some lawn work; whatever it is just don't be sitting around all weekend.  The more you move your mass the better metabolism you will have.  The best time for a short walk is right after eating because this will aid in your food digesting better.

An important thing to remember for this whole weekend is that you are living a lifestyle; you're not on a diet.  So don't over-think or stress yourself out about what you are eating this weekend.  You need to enjoy it!  Try this: Eat 2 healthy meals per day and you can eat 1 less healthy meal.  If you do this you are sure to stay on track.  Lastly, remember our troops this weekend!

Which tip do you like the best?  What do you do to stay healthy during the weekend?