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For this nutrition edition of the Community Conversation, Prototype Nutrition Coach Jon Collette and Prototype Nutrition’s Registered Dietitian, Sam Russo will be discussing The Top 7 Tips for Better Summertime Nutrition. If you’re looking to learn more about nutrition for yourself or pick up some good eating habit tips, you will want to check this out!
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Jon 0:00
Right. Thank you for tuning into the community conversation brought to you by a prototype training system home of CrossFit prototype seminar back with another nutrition episode to help provide you with some education and strategies to better your nutrition while still having a social life. There’s a lot of misinformation on nutrition, and we aim to provide you with some clarity. This week, we’re going to give you seven tips for better nutrition during your summer barbecue.
Sam 0:25
Yes, so um, before we start, we definitely want to touch on the things we’re going to talk about today are meant to help really anyone eat better in general, but we definitely have more of a focus on like maintaining weight or weight loss as you enter into summertime parties and barbecues and lots and lots of social events. So with that said, john, do you want to take it off on tip number one?
Jon 0:55
Yeah, we’ll dive right in. So tip number one is to go in to your summer event with some what have a plan. So having somewhat of a plan can be towards the event itself. But it should also be for the day as a whole. So Sam, what are some common things that maybe your clients have expressed to you, or maybe you’ve heard that when a social event comes up, other things change, and
Sam 1:26
I know exactly where you go with this job. So yeah, I think I’ve heard quite a bit that, oh, I have this big event tonight, I’m just going to not eat until I show up at four in the afternoon. Which as we know is not great if you listen to last week’s we talked about under nourishing your body, and that would be doing so. So you want to make sure that you’re still tackling your day with a plan in mind of eating probably normal breakfast and lunch, if you have an afternoon party, and then planning for a dinner that may or may not, you know be a typical dinner for you. But you don’t want to just like not eat all day, because you’re not gonna feel great when you go into it. So that’s definitely step number one another plan. And another thing I’ve had clients do in the past is if someone’s tracking macros, to plan for it to say like, Okay, I know that I’m bringing this dish, so like, I can put that in my My Fitness Pal. And I plan on eating this anyway. So I might as well like, see where it fits into my macros.
Jon 2:32
Right, I actually thought you’re going a different direction. With that I thought you were gonna say that they just save all their macros for just and then they just have like 2000 calories of alcohol. Um, yeah, going over the plan and we, you guys can probably have a pretty good idea of what types of foods are typically going to be at a barbecue, or, I don’t know, some special event, you’re going to usually you’re gonna have some general idea of what type of food is going to be available. So you can plan ahead by having some of those food choices in mind and having a rough idea of how much food you in, tend to eat in the evening. So that way, we’re also not like being overly restrictive earlier in the day, because you, you know you want you don’t want to go into that summer event or that barbecue just being like, starving, because right away, you’re probably going to right away, like have a hard time with managing the other six strategies that we’re going to give you guys. So step number two is slow down and enjoy yourself. So why is it important, Sam to like not eat really fast.
Sam 3:46
So it takes a while when we’re eating for our stomach to signal the brain that like we are full anyway, that’s like a long connection to make. So on a regular day to day basis, either like, slow down and eat your meals like bite by bite, I tell people all the time, put your fork down between bites, like set a timer if you need to, and make sure that it takes you longer than 10 minutes to eat a meal. Because we’re so used to this like super fast paced life that we live in that we’re just like shoving food in our mouths whenever we get a chance. And if you actually like slow down and eat in a much slower pace, then you can better figure out like when it’s time to stop eating. Because your hormones have signaled your body that you’re done. So slowing down in general is a good thing. But it’s also really a great thing to do when you’re in a social situations. Like one it’s not great to talk with food in your mouth. That’s like not polite. So make sure that you’re slowing down having conversations anyway. But like you said, if you’re not eating all day long and then you go to the cookout and you just like gorge yourself on food right off the bat and like you’re probably not gonna be feeling that great anyway.
Jon 4:54
Right? And that goes like hand in hand with like, beverages desserts like things that are just like easily, like, not overly feeling in general, which kind of brings us to number three, which is be more mindful. So what’s the difference between slowing down and being mindful?
Sam 5:14
Mindful is almost like how you make the choices. So it’s like when you decide like what you’re going to eat or drink, like, what are you putting on your plate, like making the choice to slow down, being mindful, just kind of thinking about things as they’re happening. From the moment you decide that you’re hungry, to the moment you decide that you’re done, john, you want to talk about like, ways we can be more mindful.
Jon 5:37
Yeah, just being like intentional, I guess, um, if we go with some of these other strategies that were that we’ve already mentioned, with, like kind of going in with a plan and slowing down, those are two things right there that are already setting you guys up for being more mindful, in general, as you’re already thinking about the situations you’re going to be in, you know, what’s going to happen if we kind of ignore some of those, those hunger signals by you know, consuming really quickly and kind of not really paying attention to what we’re doing while we’re doing it. This is why it’s a good strategy to not like sit in front of a TV and eat because it’s really hard to be like mindful and do that. And so when you’re at a summer barbecue, and you’re socializing, just be like mindful about, you know, what you’re doing in general, it could be, you know, it could be if you’re very been there for an hour, and you’re already on your third drink, that’s probably a sign right there that maybe we’re not being really mindful about the rate of how quickly we’re consuming some things. So we just pay attention to some of those small little things. As we mentioned, those can go a long way. Number four, is kind of what’s going to help you guys feel better in general. And it’s definitely a lot easier to be mindful and slow down. And things like this as if we have some of these foods present on our plate, which Tip number four is, have some protein, have some vegetables, have some fruits, how some of those things that we know are going to be hard to eat relatively quickly, and are going to be more satiating. So they’re going to keep you feeling a little bit more satisfied, they’re probably going to provide you better energy. And it’s hard to eat those things really quickly, because they all require you to chew your food, you know, thoroughly before taking another bite. So if we’re to decorate our plate, Sam, you know, what’s like a general idea of like, maybe what that should look like to have some balance where we can still enjoy some of those things like the potato salad and some of those things, but we still are making sure that we’re nourishing ourselves.
Sam 8:00
Yeah, so let’s talk through this. Um, so let’s like, base it off real cookout foods, like hotdogs, hamburgers, maybe some grilled chicken, like probably a fruit salad, maybe some grilled vegetables, you got a potato salad in the mix. So if you’re making your plate, like having a hamburger would probably be your protein or like a piece of grilled chicken over something like a hotdog, which where you have like a hamburger and especially if he’s a chicken would be leaner meats, then a hotdog and John’s laughing because I’d literally told him that I had hotdogs for lunch today. It doesn’t you can’t have hot dogs. It’s saying like if you’re doing this and being mindful and going in with goals in mind, choosing a leaner protein, like a piece of chicken or like a hamburger even. And like maybe only one and not threewould be good ways to like start building your plate, get some protein in there because like john said, it is more satiating, it’s gonna digest a little bit slower and it’ll keep you fuller for longer. Then from there to add in, like I said, a fruit salad would be awesome. And then some vegetables. Potato Salad is definitely going to have more fat content than like maybe some grilled asparagus. I’m not really sure what kind of vegetables people normally make at a cookout. But you know, like filling it up with things like that and choosing foods that are going to be high volume, low density. I’m sure in some other capacity. JOHN, we’ve touched on that, like proteins and carbs have four calories per gram versus of fat that has nine calories per gram. So something like a potato salad. Well delicious is like made I think with mayonnaise, right?
Jon 9:43
Yeah, most of the time.
Sam 9:44
Yeah. So like, that’s something that’s going to have a higher fat content and so like gram per gram is already going to be higher in calories than something like a fruit salad.
Jon 9:55
So even being able to like identify some of the foods that are on your plate, as to Is this a protein? Or is this a mystery like, you know dish that maybe has like quite a few different ingredients in it that might be hard to have an idea if it is going to be like you know, something that’s going to be filling you out or something that might be something that you might want to be more mindful with the portion size. Yeah, now my good rule would probably be just making sure your plates colorful, right, just having like some color on your plate, if it’s just like all just like red and yellow, then maybe, maybe add like, a good chunk of veggies to add some more food volume, so you don’t have all chips.
Sam 10:36
Its a game you play with their kids, I don’t know someone has probably played once or twice the stoplight game where you got to have three colors to make it a complete meal. Same thing applies to adults, we should also be eating fruits and vegetables. Ketchup is not a vegetable. Nor are potato chips.
Jon 10:53
It is a color though. So. Um, alright, so tip number five guys is going to be know your environment. So we have a general idea of what the environment is going to be like at a barbecue, right? We know that there’s probably going to be you know, some appetizers is going to be some stuff on the grill. There’s usually going to be alcohol, there’s usually going to be what like snacks, snack dishes, like usually a table that has like chips and dip, like maybe chex mix, like those types of things. So what’s in what’s like a strategy for how can we utilize knowing what that environments going to look like? And you know, some situations you might we might get into Sam.
Sam 11:39
Yeah, so if you know you’re a grazer, maybe don’t stand right next to the chip bowl. A good idea is like to fill your plate and walk away. And like actually sit down and eat. If you know that you’re going to be socializing, and you like to have a drink in hand while you’re talking to people. Like maybe you do something where you’re going to like, fill up a cup, and then like, no, you’re not going to refill later. Basically like it this kind of goes along with going with the plan, like you know yourself as a person, you know, what you’re going to do in these situations, and you know what the situation is gonna be like, so it’s like making a choice to remove yourself from maybe like a stimulus that’s going to cause you to either overeat or kind of stray from your goals. JOHN, do you have any, like specific tips on this one?
Jon 12:29
Yeah, so Lisa zandu eggs always brings pretzels that have like melted chocolate on it. For me, personally, I can’t stand next to that, because they’re so good that I’ll eat like 15 of them while I’m like talking to someone about whatever it is. So just kind of have like an idea, like Sam mentioned is like, I wouldn’t say they’re trigger foods, they’re just foods that taste really good. And if we’re are talking and socializing, it’s kind of like watching TV or maybe not being overly mindful about how much we’ve had, or how quickly we’re consuming those little, those little bites. So if you are like posted up like right, next appetizer table, maybe you just want to kind of relocate yourself, like at least out of arm’s reach. So then you’re not, you know, being tempted to kind of just pick at some of that stuff. But um, that’s definitely one that I struggle with sometimes is one year, like around some that really good food is like not, you know, not kind of going up there like multiple times, just kind of, again, it all comes back to being mindful, you know, knowing like kind of what you’re what you’re doing, but I’m definitely not standing next to the table.
Sam 13:48
So number six, and I accidentally almost spoiled this one for everyone. Number six, john, tell us about step number. Tip number six.
Jon 14:00
Number six is what we’re all going to do and no one’s telling you not to do this. Okay? Number six is limit your calories from alcohol. Okay, so what does that even mean? That means exactly what it is, is having a pretty good idea of how many calories are in the alcohol that you are drinking. So if someone brought my ties to the barbecue, maybe you want to have one of those in that’s it. Maybe you want to yell to have it. Gail to know How good was it, but that’s probably something we want to be mindful of is like, Okay, if we were to look at a muy Thai So Sam muy Thai is like, is it rum? Is it another alcohol and then it’s like some fillers and juice primarily going to be like any cocktail in general is primarily going to be some form of soda, some form of juice and then it’s going to have some alcohol in it. So if we can limit the amount of those fillers that are making that drink tastes really good and also maybe making us not realize how much alcohol is in it when we drink too much too It’s also hard to be super mindful. I mean, we’re, we’re, we’re like, a goal of drinking is to not be mindful. I’m not really trying to get obliterated let’s get Um, but yeah, so what are some what are some popular drinks now that you know might be something if you are going to be having more than one drink? What might be some better alternatives?
Sam 15:36
Okay, yeah, so I’m the worst person to ask about this question. Because you guys know I would rather eat a cupcake than drink an alcoholic beverage so I will do so. But so if you’re like deciding on an alcohol like if you are mix it like just simple like jack and coke, right? Like, you can drink Diet Coke, and have that as like a no calorie mixer for your mixed drink whatever it is, like a vodka soda if you’re a mixed drink person gin and tonic, or like gin and diatonic, or something like that. But we’re like a diet cranberry juice if you’re doing like vodka and cranberry juice. Yeah, or even just a splash or like mixing it with like a no calorie drink and some like Mio or whatever those like crystal like drink powders are just finding like a lower calorie mixer would be a good day
Jon 16:26
right now there’s seltzers like the white claw the truly there’s like so many different ones now, but they’re all roughly like the equivalent of a Bud Light. So if you are like a beer drinker if you already have three or four bud lights it’s probably going to be the equivalent of having like one tree house Sam doesn’t know a tree houses because I like tree house. I really okay. I was like Sam was under a rock if she doesn’t know the the IPAs, Cade those 16 ounce beers, those are typically going to be a little bit heavier. So if we, if we know that, you know in that environment that that beer of choice is something that you don’t want to limit to just one. I probably wouldn’t have it. Know yourself though. Like Me personally, I love those beers, so I’ll have one and then I won’t drink anymore. I wouldn’t like have like, five bud lights cuz I don’t really like bud lights. But nowadays, if you’ve never had a Natur day those are like, like Natty ice, but it’s like, it’s like pink lemonade beer. It’s like, it’s like really good like summer beer. But it’s like it’s like 100 calorie like Bud Light, but it actually tastes good. Like fruit. Tastes like tastes like lemonade. Oh, what is beer?
Sam 17:47
Like a sour?
Jon 17:48
Yeah, I guess kind of like a sour? It’s not like a it’s like a lighter. Yeah. It’s like refreshing things guys drink that. Yeah.
Sam 17:58
Yeah, I mean, we can also like alternate. So have you know you like IPAs, or treehouse, or any of those craft beers like having one and then like having one or two or three glasses of water before going on to the next drink is a nice way to like, write calories.
Jon 18:13
Yeah, you’re right, you’re going to be somewhere for like, five or six hours, probably unreasonable to say, Okay, I only have one drink. But yeah, that’s, that’s probably more of like, you know, being mindful of spacing out how quickly Are you consuming some of those things. If you’re a big beer drinker, and you know that you can put them back pretty quick, but you’re like, yeah, I want to lose some way, then those are definitely calories that aren’t going to be filling. And they’re also not going to help you in the gym, feel your best. So if we don’t overdo it on the weekends with that type of stuff, then it’s going to be a little bit easier to you know, get to your goal. Um, the last tip, final tip, probably most important tip is don’t beat yourself up all the time. Like if someone has a bad day, Friday wasn’t the best nutrition day, maybe overeat or over drink. It’s all start on Monday. But what is the point of waiting until two more days of poor eating to go ahead and try to get back on track. The best thing to do is just try to get back into your normal like routines. What would you say? Like if you did have a day, Sam, where you? You know, I don’t know. Maybe you just over ate like maybe you stayed up till like one in the morning like you were just tearing it up. What would you do yourself to feel better as soon as possible, like what would be the best thing you could do the next day?
Sam 19:42
Honestly, next day, like start the day with a ton of water. Yep. And then just go back to normal. Have a breakfast that like you can tolerate depending on how you feel when you wake up. So like maybe it’s some fresh fruit, maybe it’s some eggs maybe it’s just like a piece of toast because that’s what your your Feeling for when you wake up the next day and then just kind of get back in routine. Like if you’re feeling good enough to go out for like a walk or maybe do a full workout. Go for it. Like just because Saturday wasn’t like the day that you expected it to be the time. JOHN, was it you that gave me the toothbrush analogy? Or is this something that I heard somewhere else?
Jon 20:20
What’s the toothbrush analogy,
Sam 20:21
like if like, after the party, you don’t brush your teeth, because you pass out on the couch, like you don’t not brush your teeth. The next morning, like you just wake up and you brush your teeth. Like, it’s just like, if you miss, if you miss it, you do it again the next day. It’s not like, oh, man, I didn’t brush my teeth last night. Now I can’t ever brush my teeth again. Or like now I’m gonna have to wait till Monday to brush my teeth.
Jon 20:43
I haven’t heard that one, I would I use the stub the toe. So if you like stub one tell you the stub. Like just because like you had one, you know, one off step. It’s not gonna there’s no reason to go ahead and just destroy your whole body for another few days. Or, you know, one day though, is off. But um, yeah, I mean, it’s probably going to happen at some point this summer that it’s not going to be led, there’s no reason to aim for perfection. consistency. And this is like a really good one too, that I think a lot of people hear, but they don’t know what it means what is be consistent mean?
Sam 21:22
Just means that like, you got to find a way that you can make choices over and over and over again. And they are easy for you to make and feel good for you to make and that you’re not worried about perfection. Where john and i like we have talked about this multiple times, like I have candy every single day, because there is not a chance in the world that I’m not going to have these candy in my day. And so if I worried too much about like being perfect and eating like, quote, unquote, clean, like I would not be able to have that. And I wouldn’t be able to do that for a long period of time. Like there would be no consistency. Because one day I’d be like I’m missing out on this piece of candy. Like I’m, I’m gonna go crazy. And so for me, consistency is like eating well, for the most part, but also making sure that I can fit candy in my day. And john, I know you’re kind of the same way with your cereal like you have that every day because like that’s the thing that helps you stay consistent and like eat well, day after day after day. And do it for a long period of time.
Jon 22:26
Yeah, I’m not absolutely I think some people think consistent as like, I have to eat bland, I have to eat the same types of foods every single day, when in reality, it’s just just have some form of an eating schedule that you stick to and have some portion control with what you would normally have, I don’t think most people have like a different recipe every day, right. So you’re probably just not over complicating things too much just to just to simplify things like be consistent when you’re at your barbecue, you’re not going to be doing the same thing as you did when you weren’t at the barbecue. But be consistent with how you behave. And what you would normally do. If you normally on a Friday or Saturday would have one or two drinks, then have one or two drinks. And if you have three, it’s don’t beat yourself up. It’s not the end of the world. And it’s really in hindsight, not that big of a deal. It’s more how you respond to the off day, if you had a day that you didn’t see as being the most consistent as of days. How do you respond to that is how you’re going to actually long term be able to be consistent over time. Sam and I are big proponents of enjoying your life and not doing anything that you can’t see yourself doing forever. So unless you plan on avoiding barbecues and plan, avoid social events, you have to learn how to be able to handle those situations. And a lot of it is mindset, right? Like just how you think about, you know, if I eat this food that I don’t have the best relationship with, that means I’m doing something wrong. And that’s kind of what we want to get out. You know, work on not having that relationship with food that we have something that is not the best of quality, like, I don’t know, someone brought cheesecake to the barbecue and you ate that, that doesn’t mean you did anything wrong, because there’s no moral value to that food. It’s just something that may not be the most nourishing. So we, you know, we have it and we enjoy it. And then you know, we probably don’t do that every single day of our life, having, you know, multiple different things that we wouldn’t typically have in our day, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not being consistent. It’s more how you respond. It’s kind of a cycle right Tim like, you know, Monday through Thursday, just being overly restricted in the weekend kind of beating yourself up because you have like Friday where if you’re an invited mean that you don’t you’re not able to have your normal that it’s like, out of control. It’s more okay we want to break that cycle. We don’t want to have to, you know, the weekends just be hands up in the air don’t know what to do.
Sam 25:12
You just posted a graphic on that. For anyone listening if you don’t follow john on Instagram do it he posts a lot of great content. Like all the time a lot of scientific articles broken down into very easy pictures for you to comprehend
Jon 25:25
A lot of stuff from people that are much smarter than
Sam 25:28
people with better graphic design skills.
Jon 25:30
Yes, graphic design skills for sure. So guys, that was that was the seven tips to help you guys this summer. So just to recap seven tips guys, go into the day with a plan. Okay, let’s try to be let’s try to slow down and enjoy yourself. Be more mindful, have some protein fruits and vegetables on your plate. kind of understand your environment and some of the situations you might put yourself into limit liquid calories. And don’t beat yourself up if you if it wasn’t, you know, in your standards of normal nutritional day. Yeah, guys. That’s all I have Sam anything.
Sam 26:16
No, that’s it. Closing as always with. Thanks for getting this far. And if you have any questions or want help with your nutrition, reach out to us or schedule a free nutrition consultation. You’re here to answer your questions. And also if you have any topics that you want us to cover on this podcast, please let us know. The more the merrier. We want to actually directly address all the questions and concerns that you might have. So yeah, reach out to us. We’re more than happy to talk nutrition with you. And we’ll see you guys soon.