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Yesterday I mentioned some of my anxieties toward being healthy while still enjoying certain
weekend festivities. Well another one surfaced as my Saturday progressed– impromptu picnic on the Blue Ridge Parkway! I LOVE going out to the park in the mountains here in Boone. I honestly haven’t been in a while and when I got Crazy Train 625’s comment about letting nature motivate me to be healthy, I figured this may be a great way to work in some exercise that doesn’t even seem like exercise.
The hardest part was surviving the cookout of Bratwursts. I love Bratwurst. They also had chocolate donuts. I LOVE chocolate donuts. As you can see… this was going to be a challenge.
So, I decided to be proactive about my diet plan and prepare some defenses. Instead of just throwing myself into a whole realm of temptations, I prepared by looking into tips from SELF magazine’s Jump Start Diet and making sure I wouldn’t be hungry. Not only did I have a very delicious lunch of turkey burger with avocado, but I brought my own snacks to the picnic as well. I even brought extra fruit in case it started to seep into dinnertime and the smell of grilled meat got to me. I packed some hummus
, pitas and carrots and no lie—it was enough and just what I needed. Sure, the donuts looked good, but I didn’t need them. My lunch and snack were enough to rid the rumblies from me so I wouldn’t even be tempted.
Okay…I was tempted. I won’t lie. But hey, at least I didn’t succumb! For that, I am proud of myself.
We even played bocce ball, which is one of my all time favorite games. Overall, this time at the park was incredible and dare I say—healthy?
As for the 80s dance party I mentioned yesterday, we only stayed a couple of hours but it was totally awesome. My friend DeDee and I put together some crazy costumes. I went for the bad girl, red head Madonna look. We
built the look around $5 leggings I found at a store…and yes…those are metal studs on the sides. Totally crazy. Some people struggling with their weight may think twice about wearing leggings to a party without something covering their bum or middle, but this girl totally rocked it. Instead of weird fat girl glances, I got loads of compliments. Only serves as extra proof that confidence at any stage of your weight loss is key.
I also brought my own late night snack in case I got the midnight munchies after dancing for hours and didn’t want to eat the typical party scene food. Pop Chips were PERFECT and the best part? Tons of people were like, “Whoa? What are those?” so I gave out some tastes. The verdict? I’ve made some new Pop Chips fans. Turns out it can be kind of cool to be the kid who brings her own bag of chips to a party. And because alcohol can actually pack on the pounds, I decided to abstain for the night. A handful of people did the same so it was actually a pretty cool dance party. Resisting temptation today made me realize that having fun while sticking to a plan really isn’t as hard as it seems.
How’s your weekend going? Email me at NikkiRoberti@HerCampus.com or Tweet me @Nikki_Roberti anytime!