How to make your 4th of July weekend fun and healthy

I love the 4th of July! It’s one of my favorite holidays. But after being a health and nutrition coach for nearly a decade, I see and understand the stress that it brings to mamas who are trying to live a healthy life. So I’ve come up with some simple tips to help you make the 4th of July fun and healthy!

If you’ve been dieting or watching your weight for a few years now, then you’ve probably thought of holidays like Independence Day as a time to have a cheat day. You can finally let go of the stress of dieting and eat and drink until the fireworks close out the day.

And if you’ve taken this approach you’ve also probably been hit the next day with a huge spike in your weight. Which might have led you to quit your diet since you undid all your hard work in one day anyway.

Am I right?

Mama, I’ve been down that road and I’ve seen hundreds of women go through that too. But it’s time to put an end to that spiral!

Instead of looking at a holiday as a day to cheat on your diet, I want to teach you how to have a fun and healthy holiday weekend! And it’s totally possible to let a little loose, enjoy foods you usually avoid, have a few drinks and stick to your goals. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

Here are the four tips I use and teach my clients to use to stick to their goals over a holiday weekend.

Make a meal plan and stick to it

Holidays are a lot of fun because we get to enjoy treats that we don’t normally make. I love a good 4th of July-themed dish or dessert, but if I overindulge in treats I know I’m going to regret it. Which is why I always go into a holiday weekend with a plan.

The best way to make sure you make healthy choices is to make them ahead of time! If there are certain foods you want to have over the weekend, put them in your plan! Then fill in the rest of your meals with more nutritious choices. 

One of the biggest objections I hear about having a meal plan over a holiday is that you’re going to feel like you can’t really eat what you want. But when you approach meal planning like this it doesn’t feel restrictive! 

You’re not going to have to turn down that star-shaped sugar cookie and then crave it for the next few days. No! You’re going to eat that cookie at the 4th of July BBQ. And to make space for it, you’re going to have a low-fat, low-carb, protein-packed breakfast!

I don’t want you to feel restricted by a meal plan. I just want you to look at your day and find a way to balance out the fun food with the nutritious food!

If you need help with meal planning, check out my backward meal planning system! I offer it for free inside my Facebook group, Busy Mom Simple Nutrition.

Prepare fun, healthy dishes

One of my top tips for holidays is to prepare a dish that you love! That way no matter if you’re just hanging out at home or going to a potluck you have something to eat that you’re excited about!

The key to this isn’t just to bring a healthy dish, but to bring something you love to eat. If you bring a plate of veggies to a party and then are so tempted by the red, white, and blue potato salad that your neighbor brought that you don’t touch your veggies, it’s useless!

You want your dish to be the focus of your plate and then you can add all the other goodies as small sides!

Another big obstacle my clients run into with holidays is that they don’t always feel in control of their food, especially if they’re not hosting. I know you don’t want to come off as rude or demanding, but it’s OK to ask your host what they’ll be serving so you can plan for it.

If your host is planning food that’s going to blow your nutrition up, offer to bring something that you can eat! For example, if the host is planning to prepare brisket and you know that’s going to be too much fat for you, ask if you can bring grilled chicken. Or if they won’t notice, just bring your own protein so you can indulge in the food you want instead of what they planned.

Healthy people make their health a priority, which means it’s ok to eat something different than everyone else if it makes you feel your best.

If just the idea of asking someone to make an exception for you makes you uncomfortable, that’s OK too! You’re new to making healthy choices - especially on a holiday. But at the end of the day, you’re the one who has to live with the food you put in your mouth. It’s OK to be a little extra to preserve your health!

Think about alcohol consumption

A lot of people believe that they have to completely give up drinking to be healthy, but the truth is that you can enjoy a drink every once in a while and still lose weight!

We all know that alcohol is processed in the liver. What you might not know, is that fat is also metabolized in the liver. Our bodies react to alcohol as a toxin, which is why you get intoxicated when you drink. 

Because of this, the body will prioritize flushing out that toxin over any other function. In order to process out the alcohol, the liver will stop metabolizing fat and metabolize the alcohol instead. 

A few drinks on the 4th of July aren’t going to seriously mess up your weight loss, but planning how much alcohol you want to have and making it a part of your plan for the day is going to help you stay on track with your goals. 

I have clients who choose to go alcohol-free while they work with me because they learn how big of an impact alcohol makes on their goals. If you’re working really hard toward your goals, it’s ok to skip the booze this year. 

There are so many great mocktails out there that will help you feel a part of the crowd without having to announce that you’re not drinking. I love to bring seltzer water to BBQs and parties, and I drink it out of a cup like everyone else and no one is the wiser! Throw a lime wedge in and no one will suspect a thing! 

It’s OK to enjoy your holiday, food and all.

For far too long, we’ve been told that if we eat one off-meal, or indulge in dessert, we’ve completely ruined all of our weight loss and healthy living progress. This simply isn’t true!!

One off meal will not ruin all your hard work, just like one salad won’t make you drop 50 lbs! (But wouldn’t that be nice!)

You do not need to pile on guilt or shame if you get off your plan and overindulge on the 4th of July! That will only push you further back and make it harder to get back on track. 

If you do go a little overboard this Fourth of July weekend, the best thing you can do is to get back on track as soon as possible. I call this my “Never Two Rule.” This rule says that you won’t have back-to-back meals or days of bad eating. 

If I indulge at a 4th of July BBQ dinner, then I make sure my breakfast is on point the next day. I don’t sit around beating myself up for “messing up” the night before. I move forward and get right back on track.

If you indulge for the whole weekend, don’t beat yourself up! Monday morning you get right back on track (or sooner, if you realize it!) The Never-Two Rule helps you change your mindset from, “I did something bad” to “I can make good choices starting now.”

For the past decade, I've helped busy mamas shed 40-65 lbs without resorting to shakes, pills, shots, or sacrificing their love for food - even over holidays. If you’re ready to let go of guilt, shame and regret and learn how to eat healthy and enjoy holidays, then schedule a Healthy Mama Blueprint Call. I want to coach you through the process so that you can move forward with a healthy lifestyle and leave dieting behind.