The Quick ‘n Dirty Non-Competitor’s Guide to Camping, Glamping, Social Events, Weddings, and More

These events happen all the time, although as summer comes to a close, I find it funny I’m writing about this now, instead of in April or May 🙂

If you are either (a) not a competitor, or (b) you are a competitor, but you don’t have a show in the foreseeable future, then here are some things I’ve recommended to my clients that have helped with great success.

1. Pick your battles. If Tina is always asking you to join her to have a glass of wine on Friday, and that glass always seems to turn into a bottle, maybe ask Tina if it’s okay if you do something else.
2. Choose the action, choose the consequences. If you choose to have a night out/weekend of camping, and go way off plan, do not be shocked when the scale, how you look, and how you physically feel is way off. BONUS TIP: If this is you, REALLY get your mindframe back, get over it asap – you feeling guilty about it will only cascade you into more poor decisions. 
3. Try to set pre-determined amounts. Let’s say Tina has had enough of her husband leaving her alone on Friday nights with wine, she’s moving! So, she’s having a going away party. Say “okay, I’m going to have 2 glasses of wine, and a piece of cake!” And stick to it. You’ll feel a great since of “I did it!” When you do, and then you didn’t go so far off you now loathe Tina not only for moving, because she totally made you drink that full bottle of wine and eat all the nachos and someone else’s piece of cake.
4. Pick the “big” ones. I train many campers, some that go as often as every 2 weeks. Camping can be as long as a couple days, or a couple of weeks. If you are in fact keeping your fitness/nutrition goals in mind – maybe the entire 2 weeks of eating whatever is on the fire isn’t going to be part of these goals. So, keep most of the camping “on plan”, so that when Tina gets married, you can have a night out off plan without getting that guilt because you haven’t been having 15 s’mores every time you camp. I’m not going to give you a set number of times per month that you can get away with this, because I don’t need the “well Lord Mega said X times per months is still okay and I’ll be shredded!” No ma’am, no he most certainly did not. 
5. If you are going to pick some times to overindulge and/or drink some alcohol, make the rest of the week, and even earlier that day of the event, be on plan. Not only will this make things easier on your mind, but it will set you up so the off plan items are going to have less of an effect than an all out, full day binge.
6. Do NOT attempt insane amounts of cardio after your night/day off. -This is a wonderful way to get into a body-image disorder, and to hate cardio more than you already do. 

Okay, so that wasn’t as quick as I thought it would be, but there are some actionable steps you can try right away.

What things have you done for social events that you’ve found work for you?

Oh! Also, if you see Tina? Tell her she’s a strong, independent woman that can get any man she wants….and that it definitely wasn’t me that ate the last of her cake. 🙂