Happy Hour can still be happy

So, fitnessing can be easy if you stay home on the weeknights and cook your own dinner, and also, the weekends too, and also avoid alcohol, and stick to baked chicken and vegetables. Fitnessing can be SO easy.

But, this isn’t a blog for those people. It’s a blog for FUN people. Aren’t we so FUN? And fun people, sometimes (often), go to meet friends for happy hour, to have fun. Which can make fitnessing a little tricky. But it doesn’t mean you can’t still Have It All. So let’s talk about how to make your happy hour completely free of shame hangovers.

There are two main aspects of happy hour. The drinks and the food. You don’t meet for food, you meet for drinks, and then after two of them, both of you are like, “are you hungry? I’m like, sort of HUNGRY, maybe” and then you agree on calamari and nachos “just to pick on something” and now you’ve gone and done it. Everything is ruined.

Here are some simple ways to avoid such a catastrophe.

1. Research the place you’re going. Read the menu. Make sure there are healthy options. If there aren’t, suggest a new place. Don’t make it harder on yourself to make good choices by showing up and discovering that it’s one of those artisanal whiskey / french fry boutiques.
2. Choose which items you would get if you got hungry (refer to above scenario), before you go. Then stick to that. Opt for a hummus plate, grilled veggies, edamame, or a big salad. Even chips and guac is a healthier option than most of that happy hour bar food.
3. Drink. Wine. It is WAY SAFER than any cocktail, and most of the happy hour deals are on sugary, froufy drinks, or carb-y (also sugary) draft beer, which are terrible for your fitnessing. Plus, wine is super classy. If you love love love cocktails, try only having one a week, maybe choosing one day that your cocktail will be your first drink, and then switch to wine.
4. Drink. Water. I’ve already talked about how it helps to keep your beverage calorie in check when half of your beverage consumption is water, and about how not getting drunk too fast helps you make good choices. BUT, another upside is that you avoid any morning hangover that might make you feel like “maybe I just won’t workout today” and then all of a sudden your happy hour has TWO-DAY consequences. If you keep drinking water, you’ll wake up fresh as a daisy and ready to kick some fitnessing ass. Drink at least one glass of water for every alcoholic beverage.
5. Have a healthy dinner waiting at home. By the time you get home, you’re eating dinner at around…9? Which is already bad for fitnessing, but don’t make things worse by “just stopping for a quick burrito on the way home.” Make a little extra of your dinner earlier in the week so you have healthy leftovers to come home to. Or make sure you have easy salad ingredients.

See? It’s not so hard. It’s totally possible to pursue fitnessing while enjoying your god-given right to go to happy hour with your friends, because OMG, it has been so LONG, there is so much to TALK about.