2 Simple ways to have fun without wasting macros on alcohol this holiday season

The holiday season is a time for socializing, enjoying good food and celebrating with family. But if you’re on a health or weight loss journey it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the holiday season. There’s always an event you need to go to where you won’t have control of your food and people are constantly pushing drinks on you. Sometimes it feels like prioritizing you health can take the fun out of the holidays. But, that doesn’t have to be true! Today, I want to show you how easy it is to enjoy holiday parties without wasting macros or calories on alcohol!

Before we dive too much deeper into how to have a fun, sober holiday season, I want to say, that you don’t have to cut alcohol out to live a healthy life or to lose weight. I will never tell my clients (or you) that you can’t have something in order to lose weight. 

However, alcohol does impact your health and some people decide that not drinking is better for their health. For the most part, I don’t drink. As much as I love a good Moscow mule,  I don’t enjoy the after-effects. When I go to holiday parties, or even just out for a girls night, I usually choose not to drink.

If you want alcohol to be a part of your holiday plans, you can absolutely do that in a healthy way. I’ve talked about it a lot in the past, a great post to check out is The Busy Mama’s Guide to Holiday Drinking.

Today, I want to tell you how you can feel like a part of the party without drinking! 

You don’t need alcohol to enjoy yourself

There is a Christmas party that I go to with my friends every year and we let loose! We play games and have the best time. The only thing is that I don’t drink at it. 

I’m probably outing myself with this blog because my friends don’t realize that I’m not drinking with them. But I can promise you, I have just as much fun playing drinking games and being crazy with my friends whether I’m drinking or not.

There have been a few times when I’ve shown up to this annual Christmas party and my friends have already been drinking for hours. And I hop right in and match their energy without having a single drink. Because having fun with friends has nothing to do with alcohol!

The number one tip I give my clients who want to go to parties without drinking is not to make a big deal of it. The second you announce that you won’t be drinking is the second everyone will start pushing drinks on you.

I don’t know why, but people feel the need to make sure you are drinking if they are. So, I never tell my friend that I’m not drinking, but I do offer to be the bartender so that I can fix my own non-alcoholic drinks!

Enjoy macro-friendly mocktails instead of cocktails

The key to not drinking without letting everyone know you’re not drinking is to have mocktails and other non-alcoholic drinks in your hand!

I always bring a few of my favorite non-alcoholic drinks to parties so that I look like I’m drinking but I’m really just having flavored water or a soda and no one is the wiser!

One of my go-to's is Sparkling Ice drinks. They have tons of fun flavors (I love the berry flavor) most of them are zero calories and you can throw some garnishes in your drink to make it look alcoholic. Because I’m just drinking water, I end up super hydrated! And because I’m running to the bathroom as much as everyone else, no one suspects a thing! BAHAHA!

Another easy mocktail is a flavored soda! You can bring a diet soda and add sugar-free flavoring to it and top it off with a lime wedge! It is still a fun, festive drink but it doesn’t cost you any of your macos.

Another great non-alcoholic option is HOP WTR! HOP WTR is a beer substitute that tastes just like beer but is just flavored water. I have a former client who works in the alcohol industry and she recommended this to me. She had grabbed a few for herself and her husband drank them one night after work. When she got home he told her how much he loved the new beer she had gotten and how he’d had a few to relax after work. When she explained it was just water to him, he was both impressed and disappointed. Bahaha

If you love a fancier drink, then try making up some fun mocktails! I’m sharing a few fun holiday mocktail recipes over in my free group, Busy Mom Simple Nutrition. Head over there to get them for free!

One of my favorite things about staying sober at holiday parties isn’t just that I don’t see the scale go up, but I always feel so good the next day. Last year when I went to my annual girls' Christmas party, I woke up the next day, cleaned the kitchen, went on a hike and grabbed breakfast for everyone while all my friends were too hungover to even get out of bed. I didn’t envy their hangover one bit. And I promise you, I had just as much fun as they did the night before.

You don’t have to let alcohol, or even social expectations, dictate your choices! That’s one of the greatest lessons you can learn from a health journey! You get to decide what foods or drinks work in your life. Sometimes you may choose to drink and sometimes you may choose not to. In the end, it’s up to you and how you want to feel in your body!

If you are ready to learn how to take control of your health so that you can live your best life, then let’s chat! I help busy mamas learn how to make healthy choices all year long so that they can enjoy the holidays and still lose weight.

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