Here’s Your Memorial Day Weekend BBQ Guide!
How do you approach summer holidays like Memorial Day? Obviously, grilling is involved, but how will your food choices be? Do you throw in the towel, eat whatever’s in the spread, and say ‘Screw it!’ to your nutrition? Do you become a victim to your circumstances, and give in to what everyone else is doing/eating?
If that’s been your approach thus far in your life, then you’re definitely going to want to read this, and then reevaluate that line of thinking upon finishing…
It’s a beautiful, sunny day here on Long Island, and I write this to you from my parents’ home. Every Tuesday and Friday, I visit my hometown of Port Washington, and work with my grandmother on rehab from hip replacement surgery last summer, and my dad on improving his strength, tone and overall cardiovascular health.
Now then, I had a fun experience this morning. I went to a client of mine at 8 AM, and he showed me a spread of some of the most unhealthy foods you can possibly imagine that were delivered to him through his grocery store yesterday. Take a look for yourself:
Of course, being a Permanent Weight Loss Specialist, and knowing that he rarely falls off the rails, I was both concerned and disgusted. He actually told me a funny story about how this all wound up there…
Yesterday, his weekly grocery delivery arrived, with half a dozen other bags on top of what he’d ordered. This was an error made by the delivery man, as these extra bags were obviously for another household looking to celebrate the holiday weekend. He tried calling the store to tell them they’d made a mistake, but they wouldn’t take the food back! Fortunately, he has no intention of eating any of the food, but thought it would be comical to mess with me with the food out there when I arrived…
He then asked if I had a sort of Summer BBQ Guide for folks looking to make healthier choices while still enjoying the summer holidays coming up. I admitted that I didn’t, so boy are you in for a treat today :-)
Armed with the above photo, I’m going to give you some healthy substitutions you can make so that you can grill without doing any harm to your health or to your weight loss efforts…
Meats: Any organic meat is fine!
Chips: You can bake your own parsnip chips by sautéing some cut-up parsnip in a bit of olive oil, and sprinkling some sea salt on top before throwing it in the oven. To get the recipe, check out my Healthy Recipe Book here: www.weightlossbypete.com/foodguiderecipes
Dip: There are several healthy recipes for dips that are simple, and take literally two seconds to make! You can also find recipes for those in my Healthy Recipe Book here: www.weightlossbypete.com/foodguiderecipes. Should you decide to find a recipe on your own, may I suggest one that does not contain wheat, sugar or vegetable oil!
Hot Dog and Hamburger Buns: This is tricky! Obviously, we know full well the negative effects of grains on both our health and our weight loss efforts. A grain-based bun is not the best bet, but a gluten-free bun may not be any better!
Many gluten-free brands of products contain corn or potato starch in place of wheat, and while these may not be as inflammatory, they will have the same effects on your blood sugar, triggering the Insulin Resistance Cycle, and leading to fat storage, brain fog, and low energy in the short-term. Long-term, Type-2 Diabetes, heart disease and a myriad of other less reversible health conditions may occur should this cycle be triggered often enough.
There are a couple of options you can turn to if you feel the need for a bun…
1) Lettuce — Throw on a slab of organic lettuce on either side of the meat you’ve grilled, and enjoy!
2) Paleo Wraps — NUCO Certified Organic makes a great brand of wraps called Paleo Wraps, which contain only organic ingredients that won’t do any harm to your health or to your weight. You can order a box by going here: http://astore.amazon.com/fitneretri-20/detail/B01LWRS6R8
Dessert: Once again, I’m going to refer you to my Healthy Recipe Book for ideas, but here are some simple tweaks you can make in preparation if you’re baking or preparing a dessert this weekend…
- Sugar -> Use Organic Stevia Leaf Extract (liquid or powder) instead! Here’s a link to a brand I recommend: http://astore.amazon.com/fitneretri-20/detail/B01B2SFS0A
- Wheat-Based Flour — Use Almond Flour instead! Here’s a link to a brand I recommend: http://astore.amazon.com/fitneretri-20/detail/B01LB7XCZK
Booze: While it’s not uncommon to crack open a few cold ones, or to have a glass of cool, white wine during summer holidays, neither is a good option. While I don’t recommend you drink booze on your weight loss journey, here are the three best options:
- Tequila
- Gin
- Dry Red Wine
If you’re going with one of the above forms of liquor, please do NOT dilute them with sugary fruit juices or mixers! No matter which alcohol you select, alcohol lowers your metabolism, which obviously isn’t ideal when looking to lose weight. Throw in a copious amount of sugar, and forget it — A great amount of damage would have been done!
Instead, dilute your liquor with some seltzer, and throw in a lemon or a lime. It’s not the tastiest, but like I said, you shouldn’t be drinking at all, so if you decide to and it doesn’t please your palate — SUCK IT UP!!!
I hope this has helped to prepare you for the festivities this weekend. Please stay safe, be good, and we’ll chat tomorrow ;-)
Sincerely,
Pete Weintraub
pete@weightlossbypete.com
P.S. Oh yeah, in case you needed that link to my Healthy Recipe Book again, you can get that here: www.weightlossbypete.com/foodguiderecipes.
It contains 72 recipes spanning breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, appetizers and desserts. You can literally have your cake and eat it, too — Just by preparing it using healthy ingredients :-)
I’ve also thrown my Food Guide in there for good measure. This will help you to better understand basic human nutrition, and how you should be eating — Both for optimal health, and to lose weight FOR GOOD!
Last time for the link: www.weightlossbypete.com/foodguiderecipes
Enjoy the holiday weekend!
