How to keep social eating and drinking reined in so you stay on track

I've been asked a question both on reddit and from a friend of mine, on the topic of "social eating and drinking" and how you might keep it reigned in when you are trying to get fit or stay fit.

I live in Portland, Maine, a big foodie town, and I know this problem quite well. It's really hard to pass up on all the delicious food and drink.

I've got three ideas for this. Check out the video if you'd like (although I'm extra worn out in this one...) or keep reading below it.

A realignment on your goals.

The first thing I'd say is that you should make sure you are dialed in on your goals. You have to really want this for yourself more than you want the short term pleasure of restaurant foods and cocktails.

This is hard, I know. Did you see my binge eating video? Even I have trouble resisting.

You've got to want to succeed so much so that it is EASY to pass up. You don't have to say no to the entire outing though. That leads into my second thought which is to...

Work on socializing without alcohol.

This is something I've been exploring for 5 or 6 years now. I still drink from time to time but it doesn't affect my diet like it used it. It used to make me ravenous for Burger King!

This can seem a bit out there, but I encourage you to explore ways of getting into a social state without alcohol. For me, it's talking to people. The more I push myself to say hello to people, the looser I get. If you are a software developer like me, your brain is actually in a logical mode that is not good at conversation so you have to take action to move it into a conversational mode.

Get silly, chat people up, laugh. Try it. I'll probably do more posts about this.

And if you must eat and drink...

The last thing I'll say, if you've decided you're going to go out to eat and drink, just push your fasting window out further so you "save up" those calories for the social time. You are doing intermittent fasting, aren't you?

Oh and if you'd like more tips like this or have further questions, be sure to sign up for my list below. You'll get this stuff before it's published and can reply to me personally.