Summer is a lot like the holiday season when it comes to food. People get lackadaisical as the summer months hit and they lose sight of their goals. It’s tough to have a good year of weight loss if you take the summer off and 6-8 weeks around the holidays. So today we are going to give you some strategies to overcome the main summer obstacles our clients run into.
BBQs
Alcohol
- Mix our electrolyte mix with vodka, this will keep your calories low and help replenish some electrolytes lost from sun and alcohol
- Drink 2 drinks maximum and move onto some type of water. Most people will understand this as it will most likely be hot.
Meal
- One great thing about BBQ’s is you can find great food at these. Stick to meat as much as possible. Steaks, burgers and nitrate free hot dogs and brauts. Go nuts and eat much of these until you are full.
- No eating buns with burgers and dogs though, use only sugar free ketchup and mustard’s to keep calories low.
- Fruit is usually on full display at BBQ’s so dive in. Eat a few big slices of watermelon or a bowl of fresh fruit.
Dessert
- Fruit is your dessert. If you get done with your meal and you still want a sweet have some more fruit.
- Another option if you prepare it is homemade popsicles. Take GCP BCAA’s mix with water, freeze with a stick and you’ll have a tasty healthy treat.
VACATIONS
Alcohol
- This is by far the hardest thing for most people on vacation. So putting rules to drinking is the number one thing to help out..
- Rule #1: No drinking until after 4p
- Rule #2: Two max drink limit
- You are going to be drinking many days in a row so let your body recover and keep your alcohol level down
- Rule #3: Be active on your vacation with walking throughout the day
Meals
- Usually eating out is the main thing people do when traveling. So stick to mainly a meat based diet when traveling. Our normal restaurant rules are in affect during vacation. No bread on the table, drink only water no soda’s, no chips and salsa, and no carbs as the main part of the meal.
- Save the carbs for things you never get at home. Such as a specialty to the area and indulge on those things instead of the treats you can always have like fries and candy.
Dessert
- With dessert you have to make a decision before the day starts. It’s either dessert or alcohol. Not both. So pick your poison when it comes to these two. Pun intended.
- Keep your desserts small and order to share between multiple people. No full desserts while traveling.
GRADUATIONS
Alcohol
- Many graduations you can get away with not drinking. It’s a young person’s event so it’s actually more appropriate to not get sloshed on their big day. So this is an event where alcohol should not be a part of your plan.
Meal
- Stick to meat only. Most graduation food is super carby so it’s also a good idea to eat before you go. This way you can control how much you eat and graduation is so busy no one will really even notice if you ate or not.
Cake
- This is usually the best thing at a graduation. It’s time you can indulge but if you have multiple graduations over a course of a few weeks be strategic about how many times you are going to have it. Try to get the smallest piece you can have and DON’T take the corner piece with all the frosting. You are having cake not frosting.
OUTDOOR EVENTS
(When we say outdoor events we are talking about things like concerts, festivals or sporting events.)
Alcohol
- Bring your own alcohol. Try to go low calorie if you can, vodka and electrolyte is a good option here. Do whatever you can do have as little sugar as possible. This also normally a pretty easy time to not drink because the event is what you are doing and more people are focused on that then what’s in your hand.
Snacks
- This is a great time to pack your own bag. Stack up on beef jerky, beef sticks, pork rinds, carnivore crisps and RX bars.
- If you brought a cooler fill it with baby carrots, grapes, berries and other easy to eat finger fruit. Meat and cheese a great option if you have a cooler as well.
Sweets
- Depending on if it’s a festival there might be a ton of great treat places such as ice cream, funnel cakes, donuts, etc. If you know you are going to a place like this, keep your carbs to zero all day long. You know what is coming up so plan for it if you really want something.
- Try to keep your quantity lower, so maybe splitting treats with others if you want to try different things.
- Make sure to drink cold water when eating treats. This will quench thirsts and help you eat less. Alcohol is a bad mixture as it’ll have you eat more. So possibly eat treats before drinking for the day so you don’t over indulge.
BOATING
Alcohol
- Going out on the boat is big in the summer and most people drink a lot. First thing, if you’re the captain, you should be alcohol free so choose to be the driver of the boat if you can.
- Mix drinks for everyone before you go out and make a cocktail of vodka and BCAA’s or electrolytes.
- Keep beer to low calorie as much as possible and don’t do any sugary drinks.
Snacks
- Make sure you are snacking on meats and protein on the boat. This will get you to drink less because you won’t be so hungry. Meat and cheeses are great for going on the boat.
- No chips or salty things. This is a bad mixture with alcohol because you over indulge because of the dehydration of the sun and alcohol. Instead, fruit is a much better choice for replenishing fluid.
- Drinking an electrolyte or two while on the boat is great for your skin, recovery and keeping you hydrated so take some packets with you.
ICE CREAM TRIPS WITH THE FAM
- I know this is the time of year people love to indulge in ice cream. Trust us, we all struggle with this.
- Strategy #1: smallest bowl possibly and don’t have a cone
- Strategy #2: get something else on the menu then ice cream and just enjoy the experience of being with family. Such as maybe an iced drink that has no sugar in it.
- Strategy #3: don’t get ice cream at the place with the family but promise yourself a treat when you get home like a BCAA popsicle or Yasso bar
- Strategy #4: Get snow cones instead of ice cream. Try to get the sugar free flavor if they have it.
Action Spets
- Take a moment to think about your goals. Write them down again if you haven’t done that in a while. Think about how much time is left in the year and see what you’d like to achieve by years end. Also, think about what you would like to accomplish over the next 12 weeks.
- All the tips I gave above for the most part can be used for each situation. So take that list and don’t make summer excuses. Pick a few strategies that seem really easy for you to do and act now.
- You have to BEHAVE during the summer if you want to accomplish big changes in your physique. But you don’t have to stop having great experience. All the experiences we talked about are great, food and alcohol don’t make the experience, it the time with great people. Try to disconnect food and alcohol from having a great time and your body will thank you.
