Cue a sea of orange, purple, tiger paws, flags, grills, music,
food, drink, friends, family, spirit, tradition, and fun. Whether you join me in rooting for the
Clemson Tigers or your allegiance lies elsewhere, most of us have a pretty good
time tailgating before and after our favorite team’s game…too good of a time?
With all the fun comes another challenging day for those minding
their healthy habits and watching their waistline, especially when it falls amongst
other food filled celebrations like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Scanning the field of fellow tailgaters, I
saw everything from homemade casseroles and treats to those big yellow boxes…you
guessed it, Bojangles (or “JoBangles” as we like to say). Some go all out and decorate for fall like it’s
a new house, flowers and pumpkins and all, while other simply flip out their
tailgate and decorate with empty bottles and plates. There’s no wrong way to do it, but what DO
you do when you’re looking to maintain control of your intake?
It would be so easy to throw caution to the wind and graze
all day on everything that’s available, but with a few strategies you can still
enjoy your time, while avoiding diet sabotage.
I’ll tell you how I handled it this weekend.
My 3 top strategies this weekend: take a few things to
contribute to the food spread that do fit into my diet plan, be aware of
hunger cues versus wanting to nibble just because it is there, and have more water
than alcohol.
The dishes I brought included a homemade salad (spring mix
greens, grape tomatoes, celery, mandarin oranges, slivered almonds, shredded
parmesan, and balsamic vinaigrette – this was super easy and super tasty), our award winning chili (don’t get too
excited…Sunday School Chili Cook-off winners 2013), and green grapes.
The salad functioned perfectly as a pre-meat dish to offer
some color, freshness, and filling power prior to digging into the protein and
dessert. The grapes served wonderfully
as a snack to nibble on when I felt like something more, but knew I wasn’t
truly hungry. Might as well get some
fruit. The chili was the perfect dish to
fill and warm up with on the cool (cold!) night we had (topped with fat free
sour cream and reduced fat cheddar cheese).I’m proud to say we had some really great mains this trip too. Mom picked boneless, skinless chicken breast simply marinated and a flavored chicken sausage, both grilled fresh right before hitting our plates. We had chicken sandwiches with a little BBQ sauce and homemade slaw. Of course desserts made an appearance…one of my brother’s specialties, a “like-crack” cheesecake and M&M cookies (novel idea ;)). Our cream cheese based dessert was made with the lower fat Neufchatel, go bro! Ultimately though, desserts come down to portion control. I surprisingly was able to stick to 1 cookie and a 2 small slices of cheesecake the whole day (oh how I love baked goods!). I was able to steer clear of more treats by sipping my water and noting my lack of hunger, having already enjoyed either our chicken lunch or chili dinner.
I’m proud to say they worked! I had an awesome time and feel no lingering
regrets of food choices. Did I have more
food/calories than usual? Yes, a little. However, I felt in control the whole day, was
not pre-occupied with my food choices because the healthier options were
available (plan and preparation makes a huge difference), and had a blast with
the family cheering on our Tigers and sharing the Clemson experience with some
Clemson tailgate first-timers.
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