Choose Your Splurges, Then Make a Plan

If you find your December calendar is booked every week with parties, events and gatherings of some description, it can seem rather daunting to imagine keeping Paleo with all the food and drink typically found during the seasonal festivities.

You needn’t think of it as a measure of extreme will power and discipline if you approach it in a manner which will allow you to select certain occasions during which you’ll have that special glass of wine or dark chocolate.

List the events you’re going to and consider which are most likely to have food or drink that would fit within the Paleo guidelines for the occasional something special and make those the ones you plan for.

For example, the holiday party at your favorite upscale restaurant might be the perfect place to enjoy their signature flourless ‘torte’ (sometimes made with the simplest of ingredients such as eggs, chocolate and a bit of honey, rendering it paleo-Ok) or choose from their well known wine cellar, compared to gobbling up brownies from a mix at the kids’ school’s holiday open house.

On those special days when you’re going to have that treat, simply balance out the rest of the day accordingly by upping the veggies, protein and good fat and reducing the amount of natural sugar you may have eaten from fruit.  Get in your workout that day as well to create a net overall caloric balance and then when the time comes to raise that glass of Cab, enjoy it as you’d planned and ditch the guilt that may have come up if you’d simply began drinking on a whim.  This makes it far easier to keep on that healthy Paleo track straight away.

Once you realize that likely more than half the events you’re going to aren’t even going to be offering things you really want to eat or drink, it makes those that are more special and the end result is a feeling of partaking of the one or two offerings of the season you’ve thoughtfully planned on and not one ounce of deprivation.