Health and Fitness
Are You Ready for Wedding Season?
The recent Royal Wedding certainly kicked off the wedding season with a BANG! Love them or loathe them, weddings can definitely shake-up to your routine. A healthy eating plan can absolutely cope with the occasional deviation from routine but unfortunately weddings can come thick and fast and this can play havoc with your wellness goals.
Below are some tools that should help navigate you through the party season.
Do something active in the morning before you leave. Get to your local gym, attend an early class or go for a brisk walk. Burning calories that morning will help contend with the excess food but it sets you off on the right path and gives you the right mindset to influence your choices later on in the day. If you traveled to the wedding ensure you pack your sneakers and/or a swimsuit. Most hotels will have a pool and a swim will set you up mind, body and soul for the day ahead. Even if your hotel doesn’t have a pool or a gym pack a band or a small ball and download a couple of workout apps before you leave. The hotel concierge could also point you in the right direction to nearby parks, trails, gyms, yoga studios or bike rentals.
Don’t skip meals. Just because you know you will be eating a heavier meal than usual later and adding more drinks than you would normally consume in a regular day, don’t skip an earlier meal trying to conserve calories. Your blood sugars can drop, leaving you tired and light headed and arriving at a wedding “hangry” will encourage you to pounce on the first tray of food that passes you by which will no doubt be high calorie and high fat. Also that first cocktail will definitely go straight to your head and then it is all downhill thereafter!
Choose wisely. There is absolutely no rule at a wedding that says you MUST try everything on offer. Stick to vegetable based dippers as opposed to chips and bread. Keep away from the creamy, cheesy or deep fried hors d’ouevres, there are always high protein and vegetarian options. Deserts are always a huge temptation, so decide on the ones you just have to try, then take only a small portion of each and maybe share with someone so you just get a small taster. Better still, stick to fresh berries.
Practice portion control. Unfortunately a buffet brings out the inner beast inside of us, we just can’t help pile our plate with absolutely everything on offer. Find the pile of dessert plates and use one of those to visit the buffet with.
Beware the Afterparty. The afterparty is where it can all go sadly wrong! This is the time to swap those drinks for water and give yourself time to rehydrate. If you are hungry a combo of protein and complex carbs will help your blood sugar stabilize.
Of course you need to have fun, so don’t let your good intentions turn you into a party pooper, just be smart. Also wearing something that you look absolutely fabulous in and that might be a little figure hugging can help your mind stay focused on the overall prize.