Learning how to eat healthy with friends and family is as simple as coming up with practical strategies beforehand and committing to your game plan!

Hey guys and gals, let’s take a minute to talk about our sweet friends that support our weight loss journey. These amazing, supportive friends who will eat an entire pepperoni pizza in front of your face and then ask you how your salad taste. Sound about right?

Unfortunately, no matter how much our friends and family love our will to do better in our lives, they have their own nutrition habits which we must not become negatively influenced by. It’s okay to eat with others and place yourself in normal social situations to avoid isolation. We need to keep everyone in the loop on what’s going on in your life. Social engagement is essential no doubt.

But it is important to have a strategy when eating out with others who do not have the same beliefs on health or are in good shape but don’t understand how tempting it is to see them eating unhealthy foods around you. It can be a true test of will when its come to making the morally right decision with your nutrition. It helps with a game plan to avoid the pitfalls of succumbing to the pressure.

Here are my top 5 personal strategies when eating out with friends:

1. When invited to dinner parties, offer to bring a healthy dish. Not only will you have a guaranteed healthy option to go to, but you can also introduce your friends and family to new recipes and healthier ways of eating.
2. Always ask for small servings when being served by others. Don’t fall into the pressure of “you look too skinny, you need to eat more”. This exact line was what caused me to gain 100 pounds in the first place! Stay strong my friend and eat in moderation.
3. If you are at a house gathering with refreshments, stay away from the snack table. When it comes to temptation, out of sight, out of mind. Keep yourself restrained from over-eating by engaging with the other guests and find a common interest with one another. Social interaction is crucial to reducing anxiety and impulses to over-eat.
4. Limit your alcohol consumption. I’m Buzz Killington, I know, but there’s a reason why. Alcohol has been shown to cloud our judgment and lowers our inhibition, meaning that we’re making riskier decisions when we’re tipsy.
5. Politely say “NO thank you” when somebody is offering unhealthy foods that aren’t good for your body. You’re not sacrificing your tastebuds by eating wholesome foods instead of junk food. You’re treating your body great by minding what you put into it. Never make your friends or family feel uncomfortable with your healthy preferences. Instead, look for ways to empathize with their perspective and kindly ask them to respect your perspective in return.

Now that you have the best strategies out there to stay on track, apply them! Don’t sit back and allow yourself to become passive while your body suffers from poor nutritional choices that will come back to haunt you later in life. You’ve worked so hard in your health journey and you don’t want to set yourself back by constant temptation, so let your determination to become healthier be the intrinsic factor that you need to stay Mission Fit!