Your wedding is #1 on your mind - but what about all of the other weddings you are attending this year? We have to stay healthy and not go overboard at those, too! Especially if you’re looking to avoid weight gain in the lead up to your own wedding.

How To Not Overeat at Friends’ Wedding

Here are some of my top tips to stay healthy & on track with your health goals at a friend’s or family member’s wedding! No complicated medical advice, just easy tips to help you succeed!

Begin the Day With Breakfast

One “trick” I hear people use during wedding season is when they know they have an event coming up, they’ll skip breakfast thinking that they’ll save up their daily calories for the event. But this approach rarely works! By skipping a meal and waiting too long to eat, you’ll end up hungry and often this will affect what you choose to eat. It can also lead to poor eating habits like overeating!

Instead, by eating breakfast, you can fill up on healthy food and you’ll feel full when you’re at the wedding. This will help you skip the snacks offered, make good decisions, and enjoy the wedding fully.

It’s also a good idea to pack yourself a healthy snack for this reason as well. Rather than being tempted into eating high-calorie snacks, you can eat something that you know is nutritious and will fill you up. My go-to would be some single-serve nut butters.

Choose to Have a Starchy Food During the Appetizers OR the Main Course

If you’re following my “Rules of Thumb”, you know that I recommend sticking with 1 starchy food per day.

Starchy foods include grains like bread, rice, pasta, and quinoa, but also starchy vegetables like potatoes, beans, peas, corn, hummus, French fries, etc.

Sticking with 1 serving of starchy foods is ideal - so 1 piece of bread, or 1/2 cup of cooked rice or starch veg like peas.

So this means, at a wedding, let’s stick with either 2-3 small apps with starch (like pigs in a blanket, mini hamburger sliders, etc.) OR the starch you’ll typically get with the entree - so the potatoes, the pasta, etc.

A good thing to do when you’re at home is to measure out 1/2 cup of cooked rice, pasta, peas, etc., put it on a plate and really LOOK at what that looks like. This way, when you’re out, you’ll know what 1 portion is.

Survey the Appetizer “Scene” to Pick the BEST App

I always want my clients and those taking my course to eat the foods they love, and not waste time on "mediocre” foods.

Therefore, a good thing to do is to really survey the scene of appetizers - look around and see all that is available, and then make the best choice - or choose the appetizer that looks THE BEST and TASTIEST to you.

Eat Mindfully

One of the biggest reasons we overeat at weddings is because we’re not paying attention to what we’re consuming. If you eat slowly, you’ll not only feel good while enjoying the food you’re eating, you’ll also realise when you’re full and stop eating. Mindful eating doesn’t have to be challenging but it’s a good idea to practice it before showing up at the wedding. Controlling your food intake in this way does take some practice.

Go Slow

If the food is being served buffet-style it can be tempting to pile your plate up with all sorts of food. But you can guarantee there’ll be more than enough food to go around. So instead, I would suggest serving yourself small portions of the plates that look the most appealing. Once you’ve finished, wait 20 minutes to let your food go down and for the full signals to reach your brain. Then you can decide if you really do want another serving.

Alternate Alcoholic Drinks with Seltzer

A good way to…

slow down the amount of alcohol you’re drinking, and
stay hydrated (to avoid hangovers and “munchies” food later that night and the next day)

is to alternate the alcoholic drinks you’re consuming with seltzer. That means, after every alcoholic drink, get one or two glasses of seltzer or water in between the next alcoholic drink.

Another good thing to do is to add a wedge or two of lemon or lime to your seltzer (or water if you don’t like the bubbles) - this way, it still can appear that you’re drinking (to ward off those people pushing you to drink too much!) and can make the in-between drinks more enjoyable!

If there is a water bottle on your table, set yourself a goal to empty it. Several times!

Stick with Alcohol That Doesn’t Have Sugary Mixers

I do generally recommend an overall diet low in sugar which I believe is better for one’s health.

Here are some good examples to choose from:

Wine
Prosecco or champagne
Light beer
Hard alcohol + seltzer/ water/ or a low-calorie beverage like a diet soda

Ask for the Bartender to Make you “Weak” Drinks

This way, you can drink for a longer period of time without getting tooooo tipsy and then, let’s be honest, spiraling into “munchies” and fried food types of eating late at night and the next day.

Ask the bartender to make you drinks that have 1/2 the amount of alcohol they usually do.

So, for example, ask for a half-shot in a vodka soda, or a half-shot in a rum & diet coke.

OR, Ask for the Bartender to Pour You “Half” Drinks

Similar to above, ask the bartender to pour you half a glass of wine, or half a glass of prosecco.

Take a Dessert with You When You Leave

This is a tip I got from a friend in high school that I never forgot, which REALLY helps me.

Survey the scene (like we did with the appetizers) and find the BEST looking dessert - whether that’s the cake, a cupcake, a donut, etc. and pick it up and take it WITH YOU when you leave.

This way, you’re still having dessert, but there’s not a chance for seconds, thirds, or fourths!