7 Tips to avoid overindulging during Happy hour get togethers

Ok, so you’ve been invited to share sun downers at happy hour. As is typically expected at these get-togethers, everyone brings a dish to share and you sit around eating and drinking and sharing stories as you watch the sun set. More often than not it’s a great time but frequently you return to your boat (or house) feeling as if you have devoured way too much food and alcohol. Although you may then end up skipping dinner, the food (and drink) you filled up on was probably not the most healthy. So, how do you avoid overindulging? Try these tips so that you don’t have to avoid social get-togethers to keep off the weight:

1. Bring a nutritional dish to share. By doing so you can be sure that there will be at least one item on the table that is healthy to eat. Does this mean that you shouldn’t try any of the other dishes? No, just limit the amount of non-healthy stuff and fill up on the nutritional foods.
2. Ration. Use a plate or napkin and put just a small amount of food on it. Then, when you’re done, don’t go back for 2nds or 3rds unless you are going for the healthy foods.
3. Bring a bottle of water. No, this does not mean that you have to ONLY drink water (unless you want to). Sip water between alcoholic or cola drinks so you are not filling yourself up with high calorie liquids.
4. Eat something healthy before you go. How many times have you heard people say that they haven’t eaten anything all day because they were saving room for…
   This is absolutely the WRONG thing to do. Starving yourself before heading to a happy hour get-together will more than likely have you shoveling food in your mouth during the entire event and you will end up feeling more bloated than if you had eaten something beforehand.
5. Drink lots of water before you go. This will not only ensure that you are well hydrated, it will also fill you up some so that you don’t feel the need to eat as much.
6. Eat and drink slowly. Take your time savoring the foods and sip your drinks so that they last longer.
7. Move away from the food. Sit somewhere where it is less convenient and tempting to pick at the food.

Good luck!

Since I don’t have a physio ball on board, I simply use a large fender ball (or tubular fender) in its place. The above video shows a bit of fender ball fun that I had incorporating 2 exercises in a combination.