As you're getting ready for football season, you must also have in mind all the great festivities that come along with it. Sunday morning spent hanging out with your fantasy league, drinking beer and eating lots of good food (and by good food I mean junk food). Super bowl parties that have been planned for who knows how long, with the grill fired up, cooler full of beverages, and a buffet with a great spread of game-day bites. Whether you're a wing/burger/hot dog guy, or it's all about the chips and dip, football season usually ends up turning into weight gain season. All of the work you do at the gym throughout your week goes to waste in a 4 hour window on Sunday. So how do you eat healthier without resorting to the same boring carrot sticks and broccoli with ranch? Simply switch up the methods by which you prepare your food. Check out these tips that will change your game-day meals forever.
Forget Frozen Food:
First and foremost for preparing successful game day meals, forget about walking down the frozen aisle of your grocery store. The fake, processed, and heavily preserved foods are all high in sodium, sugars, and well, preservatives. Instead, buy fresh ingredients and learn how to make your favorite foods yourself. It may be daunting initially but once you look at the recipes you'll find that it's really easy to make many of these dishes, without all the excess salt, sugars, and preservatives. The most important thing to keep in mind is how you prepare these foods...
Preparation is key:
Instead of busting out the deep fat fryer, try baking your food! Virtually every game day food you can think of can be saved from the depths of the hot oil bath you're thinking about throwing them into. Wings, french fries, nachos, and even potato chips can all be baked without using all the excess grease. Additionally, there are great recipes for fresh-prepared food that will skip the grease, fats, and salts. There are plenty of healthier recipe alternatives that you can look up online. Check them out and try your favorite this weekend!
Moderation and substitution:
As with many other things in life, moderation is key. When you're with your friends for 4 hours sipping on beer after beer and eating copious amounts of food, the calories can add up really quickly . Limit the amount of chip bowls you put out, and try to find healthier potato chip alternatives. Try baking your own potato wedges and go easy on the salt and seasonings. Substitute mayo out for sour cream or cream cheese for your favorite chip dips. Try making turkey burgers, or use a lower fat percentage ground beef. All in all, there are many ways in which you can tweak the recipe to make your food healthier without compromising the taste. Before long, your friends will start coming to your house for game day, simply because the food is much better than the generic spread you see at every football party.
As cool as it looks, the idea is to avoid something like this...
Being healthy does not mean you have to compromise your enjoyment in what you like to do. Instead, find ways to incorporate the healthy lifestyle into the things you already love; you may find it to be easier than you initially thought.