How to stay healthy over the last Summer bank holiday of the year
The long weekend is upon us and the barbeque is ready to heat up. It can be easy to overindulge when there’s juicy burgers, cheese, skewers and crisps on offer. With these 7 tips you can still enjoy yourself AND stay healthy this bank holiday.
1. Pick and Choose
Let’s face it, we want everything on offer. We want the burger, the bun and the cheese. But to have ‘everything’ means the calories pile up. Instead, it is important to compromise on some things. If you want another burger then don’t have a bun with it.
2. Cut out the Crisps
Crisps such as Pringles and Doritos are high in fat, salt and calories so it’s important to avoid them or to reduce how much you have. A good way of doing this is to swap crisps with raw vegetable batons such as carrots, cucumbers and peppers and dip them in tomato-based and yoghurt-based dips such as Salsa and Tzatziki to keep the calories down. Having reduced fat houmous is also another way of having your favourite with reduced calories.
3. Watch the Portions
Another way you can keep the calories off is to go up once and have ‘one course’ or to have 2 to 3 smaller plates. Also, ask yourself do you really need to have a hot dog AND a burger or if you can just have one of the two.
4. Watch your Drink
Another good way of staying healthy at a barbeque is to go for low calorie drinks. Full sugar soft drinks have lots of calories and can quickly pile up. A 330ml can of coke has 139 calories and just over 35g of sugar. Sugar free drinks and flavoured water are healthier options but make sure that flavoured water is low in sugar. If you’re going to consume alcohol, ensure that you’re opting for the lower calorie drinks. By having a glass of Champagne as oppose to a glass of red, you can cut the calorie consumption down by half. Be careful – some drinks such as a Pina Collada can contain around 500 calories per serving! So opt for a vodka, lime and soda and you can save 400 calories.
5. Keep it Lean
A barbeque is not a barbeque without grilled chicken, beef and pork. To reduce the calories, go for leaner cuts of meat. Choose chicken breasts over wings or thighs. You should also choose chicken and turkey sausages over high fat pork and beef. Vegetarian options are a good alternative. Quorn sausages are a high protein and low fat option. A single sausage has a mere 70 calories.
6. Remove the skin to reduce the fat
Half the fat in a chicken breast and in a thigh is found in the skin. Also, if you cook the chicken with the skin on, you’ll lose all the flavour from your sauce or seasoning. So make sure you remove the skin before you grill to retain the flavour.
7. Desert the Dessert
By the end of the Barbeque it is easy to want a sweet option after having savoury food. There are healthy desserts out there such as fruit salads which can be made in no time. Avoid having ice cream with it though as this will add on unnecessary calories.