Surviving St. Patty’s Day When You Want To Lose Weight
Corned beef hash and Irish beers galore, St Patrick’s Day is just around the corner!
This means parades, parties, and a whole lot of crazy green outfits and accessories. While this traditional day celebrating Irishness and Irish culture can be a hoot and holler it can also wreak havoc on your diet, particularly in respects to the bar room.
While it’d be great if not feasting and drinking on this day was socially acceptable and somewhat exciting, but this only comes around once a year and well, girls just wanna have fun, right? Right. Rather than giving up one or the other, make good choices when deciding what to eat and drink on this all holy Irish day.
What to Eat on St Patrick’s Day
Start the day out right with a GREEN salad! Yes, that’s right.. it’s not crazy to eat a salad for breakfast. Try to go as dark green as you can, feel free to make it a fruit salad if that’s the kick you need but just know that no matter what you will be hydrated, nourished, and ready to embark on this day of celebrating. For lunch, eat a well-balanced mix of proteins and carbs so that you’ll feel full for as long as possible and also so that you won’t be drinking on an empty stomach. The less damage you do in the beginning of the day, the better off you will be come Monday morning.
For your Irish dinner, try something authentic like Irish Soda Bread, Corned Beef Hash, or anything with bacon, cabbage, or potatoes in it. Just remember to stop when you are no longer hungry! Holidays are like glorified weekends: our willpower has gone right out the door. Try to stay strong when it comes to choices and portion sizes but don’t be so hard on yourself that you miss out on the traditions and fun! Hey, if worse comes to worst, hit up a boot camp class first thing the next morning.. err, afternoon.
What to Drink on St Patrick’s Day
Ahh Yes, the Drinks! Well, you’ve got two choices: Guinness and Irish Whiskey. Just kidding, celebrators of St. Patrick’s Day are free to choose whichever drink they fancy but keep in mind how taxing alcoholic beverages can be on a diet.
Some general guidelines fro drinking alcohol on a diet:
1) Darker drinks tend to have more calories. This is not always true but just think – a long island iced tea is going to be a lot more dangerous than a vodka tonic, for than just one reason!
2) Just because your drink only has two ingredients does not necessarily make it healthy. Mixers such as orange juice, cranberry juice, and any kind of soda or soda water add up just the same after you’ve pounded down three or four.
3) Craft beers may be delicious but they come with a price – nutritionally and financially speaking! If you’re planning on going more than one or two deep, suck it up and stick to light beers. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot has a taxing 330 calories per beer while Beck’s Premier Light rings in at only 64 calories – do the math!
4) Can’t stand the taste of “watered down” beer? Try a low calorie cocktail such as a Gin and Tonic, a Mojito without the simple syrup (add some fresh fruit like blueberries or mango for a twist!), or whiskey on the rocks if you can handle it!
5) Feel like classin’ it up? A glass of wine is typically safe, calorically speaking, and tends to fall between 100-130 calories. Bubbly tends to fall in the same range – who knew?
Just to give all you traditional folks an idea, Guiness Draught has 128 calories per bottle and Jameson Irish Whiskey has 69 calories per ounce.
More low calorie alcoholic drinks
Overall, some of the lowest calorie beers are Beck’s Premier Light, Amstel Light, Michelob Ultra, Budweiser Select, and Coors Light, Miller Genuine Draft 64, and Miller Light. Wine and champagne fall safely in the middle with light mixed drinks closely following. It’s the high ingredient mixed drinks like Margaritas, Mai Tais, Pina Coladas, Mudslides, and Long Islands as well as craft beers that will get you in trouble if you consume too many. A Long Island Iced Tea has just about the same number of calories as a McDonald’s Big Mac – and that’s just ONE DRINK!
How many calories are in that drink?
Check out the Get Drunk, Not Fat website to see if your beer or drink of choice is listed so you can get an idea of what you will be consuming and how hard you need to work the next day to burn it off! Remember to be safe and HAVE FUN! Cheers!
