As San Jose just embraced an extremely hot summer day at 90F, and July 4th in the corner, I smelled lots of BBQ and Pool party in the air. It also meant lots of chips, beer, alcohol, soda, and cakes are on the way. Facing with all these temptations, and all the peer pressure from friends’ great appetite, it will be so hard to just resort to salad every time for the get-together. After all, we spent all these time in gym and hills not only for the look, but for a great lifestyle. And lifestyle should not limit our happy hours to salads only. So, how to keep the look (yup, it is still important! LOL) we like, and still enjoy (to some extent) the party food?

For myself, the key is to plan the meals ahead. Usually, party doesn’t happen in the last minute. With the date of party in knowledge, we can ‘save’ the calories ahead of time. (Saving calories afterwards is usually harder…) The easiest exercise is to skip breakfast on the party day. And a usual practice for me is to skip carbs (and fat if possible) on the lunch as well. If I went too crazy (or the party food is too good to resist), I will practice the same for the next day. I definitely would not take snacks around the days of party. Snacks usually have a serving of around 100 calories to 200, which translates to 10-20 minutes of cardio. So, every small bites counts and can go a long way. Saving the quota ahead of time definitely helps with the damage from the party. And that is how I enjoyed the food at the same time trying to stay lean.

 

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