3 Simple tips to help mamas make healthy choices with food and alcohol on Memorial Day

Summer’s kickoff is just around the corner and while I know celebrating Memorial Day can be a lot of fun, I also know it can take a lot of people away from their health goals. Backyard BBQs are typically full of foods that don’t fit into a “diet.” But that’s why I don’t teach busy mamas how to diet! I teach busy mamas how to make healthy choices so that they can stick to their goals and enjoy all that summer has to offer!

I want to share an experience I had a few months ago that has really stuck with me because I remember when I used to think that I couldn’t eat certain foods or enjoy social situations, like Memorial Day BBQs, if I was trying to lose weight.

A few months ago I was at Costco and I was standing in line to have my receipt checked so I could leave. When it was my turn, the lady who was checking receipts complimented me on how strong and healthy I looked. Then, she said, “I just need to stop eating cookies so that I can look like you!”

Immediately after she said that she looked down into my cart, and saw I had a package of cookies in there. She said, “Wait! You eat cookies?” I was so excited to respond to her because I had been in her position. I had believed the lies that you had to cut out “bad foods” if you wanted to hit your goals.

I respond, “Yep! I eat cookies and pumpkin pie and pecan pie (both of which were also in my cart. Bahaha!) And I eat grilled chicken and veggies. And I’ve healed my relationship with myself and with food. And that’s how I look like this.”

It was such a full-circle moment for me. I used to think I couldn’t eat fun food and look the way I wanted to look. I thought I had to be the girl at the BBQ eating plain chicken and veggies to achieve my health goals But that’s not what healthy living looks like!

Healthy living is enjoying your food and balancing those fun foods with healthy foods that your body needs to feel good and perform like you want it to. Mama, you have to get away from this all-or-nothing mindset! If you want to enjoy food and alcohol any day, but especially around a holiday, then you have to learn what healthy eating really looks like.

I’m going to share my best tips on making healthy choices when you’re at parties or BBQs with you so that you have the tools you need to go into a holiday weekend and come out without gaining weight.

You can eat anything any day but you can’t eat everything every day

The first lesson I want you to learn about leading a healthy life is that you can have a hamburger, beer, or whatever it is you want over the holiday weekend. I always tell my clients, one off-meal or off-day won’t make you gain a ton of weight. Just like one healthy meal or one day of healthy eating won’t make you hit your goal weight.

You absolutely can have your favorite BBQ food on Memorial Day, but you can’t have everything all at once. You have to spread it out and make it fit into your nutritional goals. I like to think of eating like a budget because people can easily understand what it’s like to budget their money, but not a lot of people budget their nutrition.

For example, if you’re anything like me, you could walk into Target and easily drain your bank account because you want to buy everything! But, you know that that’s not a good thing to do. Yes, you might be happy for a few minutes, but when you woke up the next day and didn’t have any money to buy anything else, you’d probably regret spending all your money in one day.

However, if you went into Target with a budget and had enough money to buy what you needed plus something fun. When you woke up the next day you would still be able to take care of your needs and I would feel happy that you had some fun and were still responsible.

That’s exactly how your nutrition works - even on a holiday. You eat what you need to do to have the energy and to feel good, but then you get to have a little fun too. 

Fun for you might mean a burger and fries. It might mean having a drink or two. It might mean enjoying some red, white and blue cookies. The big thing is that you come to a holiday with an “or” mindset.

I can have a beer OR fries. I can have a burger with a bun OR dessert. When you start looking at what you can fit into your nutritional budget and start thinking about what foods will make you the happiest to eat, it makes choosing healthier foods much easier. 

How to make healthy food choices during Memorial Day weekend

Let’s dive a little deeper into making healthy choices with your food over a holiday weekend like Memorial Day.

There are two suggestions I swear by if you want to eat healthy over any holiday: make a plan and make healthy food easily available. 

Like we already talked about knowing your nutritional budget will help you choose which foods you want to enjoy over a holiday. If you know what you want to eat over the weekend, make your plans around those foods!

If you’re going to be celebrating the whole weekend, this is a must! Choose which food or meal you’re going to be having a little more fun with, and then plan more nutritious foods for the rest of the day. 

For example, if you’re going to be having a big BBQ dinner, then start with that meal and know exactly what you want to eat and drink. Most likely that meal is going to be higher in fat and carbs, so then you want to make sure you have high-protein and lower-carb and fat meals for the rest of the day. 

Quick note, this doesn’t mean you can’t eat fat or carbs earlier in the day, it just means a little lower. If you try to save all your fat or carbs for a meal later in the day you will feel horrible! You won’t have any energy and you’ll be miserable. So don’t cut them out completely, just try to go a little less than normal so that you can enjoy more at dinner. 

I call this strategy backward planning and I teach it to all of the mamas in my Macros Made Easy program because it’s probably the most helpful tool you’ll have on a healthy eating journey! Even if you don’t learn how to understand and track macros, backward planning is so valuable to living a healthier life!

Once you have your plan, I want to give you the best chance at sticking to it! And making healthy food easy and available is the best way to do that! If you decide you’re going to eat Greek yogurt with fruit for breakfast, then have it prepped so that when you get up and someone brings donuts over, or your kids ask for pancakes, you’re not tempted to give in. You already have your favorite yogurt in the fridge and your fruit is washed and diced so you’re ready and excited to eat it!

Another time it can feel hard to stick to your plan is when you’re at a party or BBQ and there’s a lot of good, but not-so-nutritious food around. This is when you need to know what you’re going to eat and to have something delicious and nutritious ready!

I always recommend that my clients take food to a BBQ or party that 1. Fits into their plan and 2. Is so good they’re excited to eat it. If you bring the veggie tray to a party and there are bags of chips sitting right next to your bland and boring veggie tray, do you think you’re going to munch on carrots and cucumbers or are you going to accidentally eat half a bag of chips? 

I’d be elbows deep in a bag of chips! So instead of bringing something boring, bring something delicious that fits into your nutritional plan!

To make it easier for you, I’ve put together a macro-friendly guide of BBQ foods and drinks that are delicious and easy to fit into your day! You can grab it for free inside my Facebook group, Busy Mom Simple Nutrition.

How to drink alcohol and still hit your goals

One of the biggest lies in the weight loss industry is that you have to give up certain foods to lose weight or eat healthy. And a lot of people think that alcohol is a big no-no if you want to be a healthy person. But really, alcohol is just like anything, it can be enjoyed with some accountability!

Alcohol doesn’t impede weight loss when you’re having it occasionally. It starts hurting your goals when you’re having a lot of it a lot of the time - just like other foods! But, when you learn what alcohol costs in your nutritional budget and how to fit it into your budget you can enjoy a drink!

The thing is that you can’t be accountable for your alcohol consumption until you understand it! And to do that, a quick nutrition lesson is required to understand how alcohol relates to calories and macronutrients. 

Each macronutrient (protein, fat, carbohydrates) has a calorie equivalent. 

1 g of fat = 9 calories

1 g of carb = 4 calories

1 g of protein = 4 calories

When you add up the total calories for each of the macronutrients it gives you the total calories per serving for each food or drink.

Although alcohol isn’t a macro or micronutrient, it still has calories, which means you need to fit it into your caloric intake for the day. The tricky thing about alcohol is that the nutritional label doesn’t always give you the truth. 

Alcohol isn’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) like food; it’s regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. And because it’s not regulated by the FDA, it doesn’t have to tell you the same kind of nutritional information. Luckily, most companies are good about giving you the correct calories, but they sometimes fudge the rest of the information.

That’s why you see a 100-calorie beer claiming to only have 4 grams of carbohydrates. If we do a little math we can see that doesn’t add up

Start by taking 4 (the number of carbs supposedly in the 100-calorie beer) and multiply that by 4 (the calories per gram of carbs) and you would get 16 calories. And that doesn’t quite add up to 100, so we know that the company isn’t giving us the right carb count.

To figure out the correct carb count, we’re going to take the calories because we know that’s the most correct information, and divide it by 4 (because that’s how many calories are in one gram of carbs) and that will give us the correct carbohydrate count.

For our example it would look like this: 100 calories / 4 calories = 25 grams of carbs

That’s a pretty big difference! And it’s sneaky things like this that make alcohol throw off your nutritional goals! However, once you understand what your drink is actually costing you nutritionally, it’s easier to fit it into your budget and enjoy a drink!

One little caveat I want you to think about. Because alcohol isn’t a macronutrient or a micronutrient, it’s not going to help you feel fuller or satisfied, even though it’s costing you calories. So, make sure you fill up with fibrous carbs and plenty of protein when you drink so that you’re not starving!

If you’re feeling really hungry and you drink you’re more likely to eat more and to eat foods that aren’t going to help you reach your goals. Long story short, drink responsibly!

One last note for you, mama. Holidays and celebrations are going to happen in your life and you should learn how to enjoy them without giving up all of your health goals. That being said, it’s ok if you don’t lose weight over a holiday. It’s ok if you put on 2-3  pounds over a holiday. Even better, it’s amazing if you maintain your weight over a holiday!

Your weight isn’t the most important thing in life. I don’t want you looking back in 20, or 30 years and saying, I wish I’d cared more about spending time with my people instead of my weight. 

We work on your health and nutrition to help you have more time with your people, not just to see a number on the scale.

Mama, use these tips to feel good this Memorial Day. Use them to set yourself up for success in the future! And use them to create healthy habits that serve you year-round!
You can learn more about how to create healthy habits and feel good in your skin inside my Macros Made Easy program. Schedule a free discovery call today to get the tools and knowledge to reach your health goals!