Navigating The Summer BBQ
Navigating the summer barbeque can be tough work, with so many choices and options available. Below are a few tips to ensure you can enjoy your time whilst keeping your progress on track.
- Choose lean protein
- Avoid the saturated fat-laden sausages and processed burgers and head for lean steak, grilled chicken breast, grilled prawns, or lean burgers.
- Include vegetables
- Watch out for the potato salads and coleslaws that are coated in creamy high-kilojoule dressing. Stick with green leafy salads with minimal dressing, grilled vegetable skewers, and fresh veg on the side. Being a big healthy share bowl of salad with you to ensure you(and others!) can have a healthy option.
- Skip the chips
- Snacking on potato chips or cheese, salami meats and crackers whilst waiting for your food to cook might seem like a good idea, but a lot of these choices are high energy dense and high in saturated fat. Avoid mindlessly eating these if they aren’t your favourite foods, have a drink and save yourself for the main course. If you really do enjoy them, stick to only a couple, savour and enjoy the taste.
- Watch the drinks
- Although it is completely fine to enjoy an alcoholic beverage on occasion, please remember that during the festive season and summer months these social occasions can become quite frequent. Limit your alcohol to only certain occasions, stick to non-carbonated drinks, and watch out if alcohol consumption affects your food choices.
- Keep dessert healthy
- Again, live your life! If there are some delicious looking treats, have a bite, savour it, and enjoy every second of it! Otherwise, seasonal fruit salad is always a good option.
- Don’t forget it all adds up
- Indulging in some of your favourite foods is completely fine, but at the end of the day a bit of cheese and kabana, and a bit of cheesecake, and then a sausage, and a few glasses of alcohol all add up. Pick and choose your favourites, but don’t forget the 8/10rule (80% healthy choices, 20% treats).
