It’s Friday! Many people have had a long and stressful week and have being on countdown for today since Tuesday morning!
Even the bit of rain can’t dampen that Friday feeling!
The weekend is a time to chill out, catch up with friends and family and maybe even enjoy a quiet drink.
That well earned drink on a Friday or Saturday night can help wash away all the crap from earlier in the week.
But is alcohol Paleo?
Being honest, no its not!
But the good news?
I’m a big fan of the 90:10 rule. Good Paleo choices 90% of the time leaves us a little leeway to choose less than ideal options 10% of the time, this is where we can enjoy a little drink.
If you have eaten well, trained well, slept well and worked on your stress during the week and Saturday night comes around and you want a social drink, enjoy it!
Sitting around having a drink with friends or family at the weekend can be a huge part of someone’s social connection and chill out time.
Time to catch up with friends, laugh, tell stories and forgot our worries can have a huge positive effect on our wellbeing. It’s one of the things that separate us as humans.
Coming into the summer we all have weddings, parties and BBQs to attend. Some of these that we have to attend definitely require a drink or two just to get through!!! So it’s all about trying to pick the best options, enjoy the occasion and not stress over it.
Below I have listed some tips to help with being practical and keeping alcohol in a Paleo lifestyle
- Are one or two glasses of wine on a Friday the worst thing in the world? Probably not. Is 3 to 4 bottles over the weekend a good idea? Probably not. Enjoy your drink but just don’t pull the piss.
- If you know you’re heading out for a few one of the nights, and it’s with a crew who probably aren’t going for a quiet one, focus on eating plenty of protein and veg that day before you go out. Even the week leading up to a big night out maybe focus on your food a bit more that week. If you’re going to go all out on a night just make sure you have earned it that week.
- Best to avoid beers. Apart from the attractive beer gut and moobs, the gluten in most beers probably won’t suit you.
- Stick with less sugary options like tequila, vodka or gin or a lower sugar cider.
- Be careful with your mixers for the spirits. Don’t undo the better choice of vodka by throwing in red bull! Try club or soda water and maybe some lemon or lime.
- Be careful with the snacks that go with it. We often tend to pick a lot more when having a drink so just be aware of this. The vodka and soda water can be undone by the tube of Pringles that go with it!
- Plan your meals for the day after. Nothing worse than dying at home the day after with nothing in the house to eat. That’s where Supermacs, Chinese and a tub of Ben and Jerrys can easily be polished off (maybe even in one meal!). Just have better food choices in the house for that day. Don’t let the Friday night session turn into 2 days of eating crap
Hopefully that will help now for the weekend and enjoy your social drink!
BBQ and tequila, a perfect Paleo weekend!