We all enjoy picnics, and in the age of Corona Virus, a socially distant picnic feels like a fun summer activity. How can you eat smart, and still enjoy some of your favorite foods at a picnic?.
Let’s start by naming some classic, typical picnic foods that make your mouth water, thinking about them.
How about barbecued chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers, cole slaw, potato salad, maybe a pasta salad?
All sounds tempting, right? Well I think we can come up with a few ways of keeping it healthy so you can enjoy some of your favorites .
Let’s start with barbecued Chicken, we know that is healthy, one way to make it weight loss friendly is to use a low calorie but (very tasty barbecue sauce) I like Stubbs, or Dinosaur BBQ Sauce, You would never know they were low calorie and low sugar, 2 Tbs is only 28 calories and has only 5 gms of sugar. 4-5 Tbs per serving of Chicken should suffice,
Hot dogs and hamburgers, ( assuming you’re having high quality beef) is fine, and instead of ketchup, which is loaded with corn syrup and sugar, try using mustard, or 1 tbs of BBQ sauce. ( there is a low carb ketchup but you might have to sacrifice flavor).
Pasta Salad- a popular favorite can either tip the scale in the wrong direction, or can be a healthy accompaniment. The operative word here is quantity, you want to have a scoop of pasta salad your main meal is going to be the protein. Have 1 scoop of pasta salad, fill up on the protein, and if there’s a raw vegetable salad, that’s great to fill up on as well.
Coleslaw- the good news about coleslaw is that it qualifies as a raw vegetable salad, ie; raw carrots, raw cabbage, raw broccoli, etc. there are many low carb dressings to add to coleslaw to make it tasty look for a low carb recipe and enjoy.
If these are your primary foods and you consume 95% of your calories from these foods, you will never gain weight.
Ahh!, I almost forgot dessert. What would be the most weight loss friendly dessert? Fresh fruit in small quantities.
So 1 Slice of watermelon, or 1 cup of fresh fruit salad, would be advisable if you don’t want to pack on the pounds. You want to avoid all starches, since they have little value in helping to keep away those unwanted pounds.
I hope this gives you a better idea of how to picnic and not gain weight.