Ways to Eat Right at the Big Game Party

When you set up a party for a big game, expectations run high for a great day of unmitigated fun. Part of the fun, of course, comes from all the food that you'll set out. As pleasant as the spread can be, however, it isn't likely to be nice to your waistline. What you need to do is find a way to enjoy some fun food, but with a sense of responsibility. Here are tips on how to make that happen depending on what phase of the HCG Diet you are on.

Phase 2, the Low-calorie Phase

If you're going to be at the party for 3-4 hours, choose elements of one of your meals that can be cut up so it looks and feels like you're eating more than you actually are. For example, grill 100 grams of chicken and cut it in strips. Choose cucumber for your vegetable and cut it in lots of thin slices OR celery and make lots of sticks. For your fruit, an apple can be cut into many slices, then top your plate off with a crunchy breadstick. Normally, we encourage people to eat a meal all at once and not to graze, but a big game party is an exception, and, if timing is the only thing you don't do perfectly, it's ok and much better than ditching the diet completely!

Phase 3, the Maintenance Phase

You're not nearly as restricted if you're on Phase 3. Basically, you'll want to stick to high protein items and avoid carbs (sugars and starches) altogether. Choose cheeses and meats but be careful of sauces that have sugar in them . If you want to have some creamy dips, dip celery sticks or cucumber slices instead of chips. Someone usually brings a raw veggie tray, so help yourself to some cauliflower, broccoli, and grape tomatoes. If there's a fruit tray, choose strawberries and/or apple slices but skip the pineapple and grapes for now. As for beverages, you're allowed one glass of wine in the first three weeks of maintenance but be sure not to stretch that. If you prefer to drink hard liquor, add one shot of hard liquor to a diet soda or other sugar free drink. Plan out what you're going to allow yourself to have BEFORE you go rather than decide it on the fly.

Rest-of-Your-Life Phase

Think about your priorities

Game day snacks can all look good, but you can ignore the unhealthy ones in favor of low-fat, high-fiber, snacks. One way to avoid temptation is to pick lean protein snacks. These are likely to fill you up quickly so that you don't feel like reaching for the high-calorie junk food too often. You can still have them if you want, but you need to ration those indulgences.

There are plenty of ideas for how to get the right snacks on the table. In place of potato chips, for example, you can always turn to carrot sticks. In place of the regular, creamy, high-calorie dip, you can turn to salsa, a dip that is only four calories per spoonful. That's a tenth of the calorie content of dips made of mayonnaise or cream cheese.

Drink enough water

Snacks are often high in salt content. For this reason, you will probably feel thirsty after a bit of snacking. It's important to quench the thirst, because the mind often confuses thirst with hunger. Drink some water every once in a while. Not only will your mind not have a chance to think it's hungry, your stomach will be too full with water to want any more food.

Eat just the bottom half of the subs

Bread is a high-calorie food, and many weight loss plans ban it altogether. It makes sense: the bread in a 6-inch sub alone packs 200 calories, which isn't very different from what you would get from a bottle of light beer. If you're getting subs for your game day, try making them lean by just taking off the bread on top. It cuts down half the bread calories in your sub right away.

Set yourself a portion (In my opinion, this is the MOST IMPORTANT tip!)

If all the snacks set out are for everyone in general, everyone ends up mindlessly overeating. What you can do, instead, is think how much you can allow yourself to eat, and make a platter for yourself. You must only allow yourself to reach for the food that's on the platter. It's a great way to ration your snacking. If you don't do this, before you know it, you may eat a couple of pieces of chicken, three handfuls of chips and a doughnut.

Game day is all about fun, and food does contribute to it. You can enjoy the game and have all the fun, however, without high-calorie snacks. Whether you're watching the game at home or at a friend's place, all you need to do is to make a platter of low-calorie, high crunch snacks. Then, you are set to make a great day of it.