How To Party, Hearty!

One of the benefits of part-time dieting is that you can enjoy non-fasting periods, cheat meals, and your favourite foods. But with just a few genius tweaks to your choices, you can socialise even smarter. When a social occasion calls, reach for these clever girl tips:

• Bring Your Own: if you’re heading into a situation where you know there will be very few healthy options, bring a dish of your own to share. Super success story Shelly Horton loves to make up heavenly yet healthy desserts for dinner parties. Some of her faves include fresh fruit with mascarpone, dark chocolate drizzled strawberries, and dates stuffed with ricotta and topped with orange rind. You might be surprised at how many people are grateful for a healthier, but just as delish option.
• Portion Control: choose a smaller size. Your fave foods (and drinks) don’t need to be enormous to be enjoyable, and you may find you get just as much pleasure out of a slightly smaller serving.
• Commit the Calories: rather than just mindlessly snacking on whatever is available, mentally assess what is available and decide where you want to spend those feast day calories. If you choose things you know you’ll enjoy, rather than just grabbing whatever is around, you’ll find your feast days and social events much more enjoyable.
• Enjoy the Indulgence: if you have decided to dedicate calories to a favourite indulgence, then take your time and ENJOY it. Some of our Super Squad have taken to freezing their favourite treats (like chocolate and peanut butter) in smaller portion sizes to make them last longer. Learning a few mindful eating techniques will also ensure you get the most out of each and every indulgence.

Brilliant Bevvies

We love a wine just as much as the next girl, and we’ll happily allocate calories to a tipple on a feast day. But over the years, we’ve learned that your body processes alcohol differently and so we’ve developed a few clever hacks for qualm-free quaffing.

• Read Up: alcohol packs a surprisingly calorific punch at seven calories per gram. To put this in perspective, let’s compare it to food groups we know. Carbohydrates and proteins provide four calories per gram, and fat around nine calories per gram. What makes this worse is that because alcohol is technically a toxin, the body will process it first, before anything else. While your body is processing the alcohol, it can do nothing about processing the calories consumed from other food and drinks. This means that any other calories, including those consumed in the form of mixers, juice, or nibbles, will likely be stored as fat while your liver processes the alcohol.
• Plan It Out: Alcohol affects the pre-frontal cortex region of the brain. This is where all your organisation and planning happens. So, with a few drinks on board, you may find your good intentions crumbling. However, if you plan it out in advance, you’ll be more likely to stick to those decisions.
• Limit Your Intake: Try not to get caught up in the moment and order what everyone else is ordering. Space your drinks out by having a glass of still or sparkling water in between. Add ice cubes to drinks to keep you hydrated and make them last longer, and limit your intake to one or two drinks to make sure you don’t suffer from low blood sugar the next day, which can increase cravings.
• Sip Smart: Choose wine or champagne, which have the lowest residual sugar content, or straight spirits mixed with ice cubes, soda, muddled or steeped fresh fruit or a fruit teabag to add flavour. Steer clear of creamy cocktails, as these can add more than triple the calories. Some of our fave drinkies and their associated calorie counts are listed below:
  • Vodka, fresh lime & soda – 70 calories
  • Gin, fresh lime, rose water & cucumber – 75 calories
  • Spiced rum, diet ginger beer, fresh ginger & lime juice – 81 calories
  • Champagne & dry white wine – 100 calories
  • Low carb & low alcohol beer – between 55 and 100 calories, depending on the brand
  • 1 part Moscato with 1 part soda sparkling water – 65 calories per 150mls

Maximise Those Munchies

Just because you’re socialising, doesn’t mean you can’t still be smart about your choices. With our tips you’ll be able to maximise what you can eat on a feast day without going nuts!

• Low Cal, High Taste: opt for lower calorie, yet still delish, options like lean protein. Grilled and smoked seafood, turkey, BBQ meats and veggies are just as tasty as some of the more calorific options, and will barely make a dent in your feast day calorie allowance.
• Circumvent Carbs: high GI quick-burn carbohydrates can end up making you hungrier, not just on the day, but on subsequent days too. So, opting for protein and veggies is a smart choice.
• Fresh Over Fried: oil is crazy-high in calories, so by choosing a fresh option instead of a fried one, you’ll still get to savour all the flavour, without the hidden kilojoules.
• Satiety Over Frequency: Research suggests that enjoying fewer, larger meals can satisfy your hunger more than frequent, smaller snacks. You’ll also be more likely to control your portions if you have one larger meal, as opposed to loads of bite-sized bits.

Snack Smart

There are plenty of delish, low calorie options for when the nibbles hit. It’s just a matter of knowing which choices are best. These are some of our primo picks for munching like a Master Faster:

• Air popped popcorn – 30 calories per cup
• Berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries – between 33 – 57 calories per 100g
• Olives – between 52 – 72 calories per 50g
• Edamame beans – 122 calories per 100g
• Seaweed rice crackers – 70 calories for 10
• Kale chips – 56 calories per 100g
• Sweet potato chips – 86 calories per half cup
• Greek yoghurt – 11 calories per tablespoon
• Pickled cucumbers – 7 calories per medium pickle
• Grilled zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms & capsicum – between 15 – 30 calories per cup
• Cauliflower pizzas – 50 – 75 calories per slice, instead of the usual 190 – 250!
• And add herbs, spices, salt & pepper to your heart’s content – zero calories!

And that’s how to party hearty Super Squad. Share your favourite socialising, snacking and quaffing secrets the members’ Facebook group for more tips.